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North Mississippi Gardening Tips
May, 2003

May Notes

May in north Mississippi can be glorious with mild, sunny days perfect for the gardener to dig, plant, get dirty and have a big old time! The soil is beginning to warm sufficiently to plant those warm-season vegetables, herbs and bedding plants. It's harvest time for some of the cool-season vegetables such as greens, radishes and others. Iris, thrift, verbena and various spring perennials continue to flower during the early part of this month. Columbine, hollyhocks and foxglove are among the perennial flowers that show-off their blooms later. It's time to seriously troll the aisles at your favorite garden center or nursery to stock up on those showy, colorful bedding plants that will add that all-summer wow-power to your landscape. Grasp your wish list of plants in one fist and your bulging pocketbook in the next as your enter the starting gate! You're off! Remember, no pushing, shoving, eye gouging or biting as you cram your buggy full of eye-popping, lush plant material. Be careful that visions of tour buses lined up around the block to catch a glimpse of your fabulously exquisite landscape don't cause you to put someone in a headlock over that last mandevilla vine!

Annual Flowers and Vines

No other group of flowering plants provides as much color as quickly and economically as annuals. Annual plants sprout from seed, flower, set seed and die within one season. This group of plants comes in a variety of colors, heights and textures making them indispensable in the landscape. Unbeatable in masses of solid color, annuals are also very effective in small groups of mixed colors or used in mass to soften lines and accent borders. Large annuals, like sunflowers, cleome, flowering tobacco, or castor bean may be used as specimen or accent along the back of a flower or shrub border. Some annuals, like the black-eyed-Susan vine, moonflower and morning glory are vines that may be grown on fences, arbors, porch rails or trellises.

Direct sowing of zinnias, marigolds, sunflowers, cleome and castor bean is an easy, economical way to establish these plants. However, all annuals do require soil preparation, fertilization, irrigation, and weeding for optimum growth. Most are native to semiarid regions of the world and require full sunshine to survive. Annual gardens are easily established in the smallest and most restrictive of spaces as well as the harsh conditions of a large suburban garden.

Perennial Flowers and Vines

For the novices, I would like to explain exactly what a perennial is. For you old veterans, bear with me a minute and look at it as a quick review. Botanically speaking, plants that bloom for more than one year are called perennials. That would include trees and shrubs wouldn't it? That's right, they can be termed woody perennials. We, however, more often think of perennials as being herbaceous which would include flowers and grasses, most of which die back to the ground in the winter. They may last for a few years or for generations. That reminds me of a quote from obviously a discouraged, disgusted gardener, "A perennial is a plant that comes back every year from the root---if it had lived." It is through these persistent rootstocks that the plants renew themselves. Herbaceous perennials are commonly propagated by division of these rootstocks. The keys to success with perennials are proper site selection, bed preparation, and most importantly, selection of the right perennials for your environment. The perennials that you plant must be able to survive in your garden, be it hot and cold, dry or soggy wet. Talk to your neighborhood gardening buddies to find out what perennials they have grown successfully. Also talk to your nurseryman or garden center folks to find out what's recommended.

Trees and Shrubs

By this time the spring-blooming trees like redbud, dogwood, Bradford pears, and the fruit trees have all finished. Trees are concentrating on pushing out and expanding those new leaves. Now is the time to lie back in that hammock and enjoy the skyward display of glistening, almost translucent leaves. Ah, yes, better enjoy this time as summer is on its way with the accompanying hoeing, mowing and sweating! While you're laid back resting let me share with you a few points to ponder. 1. Got a little money to spend on the landscape-put it in the purchase of trees. Planting a tree is an investment in the future-your kids and grandkids, which inherit the place, will bless you for it. 2. Don't prune so much. The Creator endowed most plants with a lovely natural shape. Don't think you can improve on His work. 3.Azaleas come in many colors so you can choose JUST ONE! 4. Call before you dig. Call before you dig. Call before you dig. You don't want to spend the weekend without phone or power. Neither does your neighbor. 5. Plant a fragrant shrub (clove currant, osmanthus, mock orange) where you can enjoy the scent-by a walkway, window, doorway or by a garden bench. Then slow down a minute and smell the thing. 6. No matter how hard you try or how many nurseryman you ask there is no such thing as an evergreen, blooming, eternal plant-so don't ask!

Bulbs, Corms, Roots and Rhizomes

You know it is a gardening sin to mow over that spring bulb foliage before it is turning good and yellow! If you don't want to be condemned forever, don't mow down that daffodil foliage. Since we have studied a little basic botany earlier in this report, let's talk a tad about what are bulbs, corms, tuberous roots and rhizomes. Why can't we just collectively call them swollen, knobby, underground, nasty knots as my youngest son does and be done with it? How about just for curiosity's sake let's see what the differences between these classifications of swollen, knobby, underground knots are? Henceforth, in this report these will be referred to as S.K.U. N. K. for short. A S.K.U.N.K. that is a true bulb is an enlarged, modified bud containing a vertical stem surrounded by a dense mass of scale-like leaves. Lilies, narcissus, onions and tulips are true bulbs. A corm is a solid, vertical stem resembling a bulb, with a bud at the top that produces the flowers and leaves, and lateral buds that form small offsets. Crocus, gladiolus and freesia are corms. A S.K.U.N.K. that is a swollen root used for food storage is called a tuberous root. They usually lie just beneath the soil's surface. Dahlia, sweet potato, carrot, turnip and radish are tuberous roots. S.K.U.N.K.s that are swollen horizontal stems at or just below the soil's surface are referred to as rhizomes. Roots grow downward from its underside, while the apex produces stems, leaves, and flowers. Cannas, bearded iris, orchids, lily-of-the-valley are all rhizomes. Now, are you all clear on this? Just remember this-a well-rounded gardener has a variety of S.K.U.N.K.s in his/her yard.

Vegetables and Herbs

Well, as I am sitting here writing this May report on March 23rd, I would hope by the time you are reading this I would have my garden spot tilled and planted with all kinds of early warm-season vegetables. In reality, I bet you that while you are reading this my garden spot lies fallow with nary a seed in the ground. If you think it's a crying shame a so-called horticulture specialist hasn't even gotten one bean or corn seed in the ground, I wholeheartedly agree. Any number of good excuses comes to mind. I'm busy selflessly dispensing good advice to good people like you while my yard and garden goes to rack and ruin. My tiller won't crank, because I have yanked on the pull cord so many times that in a mad fit I have finally yanked the thing plume off. Hard as I work trying to provide good fresh vegetables for the health of my family, I can't get any help-but you won't hear me complain. No, you'll never hear me say I work my little fingers to the bone and nobody in my family, which consists of four fairly good-size males, seems to appreciate it. No, you'll never hear me say that, especially not in print.

If you're in the same boat as I am, don't despair. There is plenty of time to plant those warm-season veggies. The Vegetable Planting Guide (Information Sheet 658) from your county Extension office lists the planting cut-off dates for various warm-season crops.

According to this publication, for north Mississippi you can plant pole snap beans until August 1, pole lima beans until July 5, bush lima beans and okra until July 15, southern peas until July 20. We can set out tomato plants until July 20 and sweet potato slips until July 1.

One last thought to contemplate-John Steinbeck said, "A fallow field is a sin." Please pray for all us sinners.

Lelia Scott Kelly, Ph.D., writes North Mississippi Gardening Tips monthly and is a Horticulture Specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service. Her office is in the North Mississippi Research & Extension Center, Verona.