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North Mississippi Gardening Tips
November/December, 2005

FLOWERS

Garden centers and nurseries usually have a selection of winter annuals available in the fall.  Selections could include pansies, dianthus, English daisy, stock, snapdragon, wallflower, and forget-me-nots. Some cold tolerant annuals you can easily grow from seed sown in the fall would be rocket larkspur (Consolida ambigua), poppies, Johnny-jump-ups, and bachelor’s buttons (cornflowers).  Many gardeners do not know that these cold tolerant plants can often go right through winter with little or no protection.  Most of these can withstand temperatures in the teens.  Single digit temperatures would kill some without protection.  Those most cold hardy are English daisy, Johnny-jump-up and pansies. Remember that susceptibility to cold damage is not based solely on the degree of temperature, but the duration and how fast the drop in temperature occurs. A gradual cooling is easier to take than an overnight plunge from 60 degrees to 5 degrees.

CONTAINER GARDENS

To add some “plant interest” for the winter months to those barren areas vacated by your tender container plants on the porch, entranceway, deck or patio, how about considering planting an evergreen in a container?  Evergreen shrubs are without question the most versatile and frequently used plants in the landscape, so it’s a little surprising you don’t see them in containers more often.

The top evergreens for containers are yew, junipers, boxwood, arborvitae, dwarf Alberta spruce, camellia, hollies and cherry laurel.  Don’t forget to consider the plant’s ultimate size and shape.  For plants that will receive full sun, use a heavier soil mix for the container so it won’t dry out as quickly.  Adding water-absorbing gels to potting soil can help retain moisture. 

VEGETABLES AND FRUIT

If you are not growing cool-season vegetables, you should consider “covering” that barren vegetable plot with a cover crop. November is not too late to sow a cover crop of Austrian winter peas in north Mississippi. Unless we have exceptionally cold temperatures after sowing, these peas should germinate and grow well if sown in early November. It is probably too late to sow crimson clover as this plant needs a period of warm weather to get established.  Cover or green manure crops prevent washing, keep the soil loose through the winter, build nitrogen in the soil, and provide green manure humus when you turn them under in the spring. If your property is subject to roaming deer, be prepared to take preventive measures to keep these large “rodents” from making a feast of your winter peas. 

Fruit bearing trees, vines, shrubs and brambles can be planted now. Fruit trees to plant would include peaches, apples, cherries, pears, plums and nectarines. Grapes, muscadines, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries can also be planted during November and December. Be sure to plant two or more cultivars of blueberries for cross-pollination and fruit set. Check with your nurserymen if you are purchasing one muscadine plant to make sure it is a variety that will set fruit.  Some muscadine varieties have only female flowers and would require another variety as a male pollinator for fruit set. 

GROUNDCOVERS AND LAWNS

Those of us with huge Bermuda or zoysia lawns are grateful for the first killing frost that abruptly puts an end to the weekly mowing ritual. Cool season grasses like fescue and Kentucky bluegrass still are green, but cold nights and cloudy winter days have slowed growth of these grasses to a crawl resulting in less mowing. Bermuda lawns that have been overseeded with ryegrass will still need mowing to look neat and trim.  Ryegrass should grow and remain green all winter.

Remember to keep fallen leaves off all lawn grasses.  Matting of fallen leaves can smother grass, even dormant grasses. Removing fallen leaves from evergreen groundcovers is a different matter.  I personally do not worry about autumn leaves falling on my English Ivy, periwinkle or monkeygrass ground cover areas.  English ivy and monkeygrass quickly outgrow any leaves that may fall into the beds. In fact, the ability of these groundcovers to “consume” fallen leaves is just another good reason to use them under deciduous trees instead of trying to grow grass.  I do remove thick layers of leaves that have fallen on my prostrate junipers like ‘Blue Rug’ or ‘Blue Pacific.’   I have found that if leaves are allowed to remain in a thick mat on juniper groundcover throughout the winter, by next spring the foliage under the leaves is yellowing and dying from lack of sunlight and air.

TREES AND SHRUBS

Hardwood cuttings are typically taken in December, January and February.  What is a hardwood cutting?  This type of cutting is made from a plant while it is dormant or after it has completed its annual growth and the wood has had time to become hardened.  Examples of plants that can be propagated by hardwood cuttings are althea, quince, wisteria, crapemyrtle, hydrangeas, rose, and spirea.  This method will also work with many evergreens, including junipers and yew.

Cuttings should be from tip growth, from 4 to 8 inches long with four to six buds per cutting.  Put the cuttings in an outdoor propagation box or directly outdoors in a well-drained soil. Stick cuttings deep, leaving only the top 4 inches exposed.  Keep soil evenly moist and protect cuttings from drying winter winds.  Watch for new growth in spring.  When new foliage emerges and the roots are well-developed transplant to a container or to a place in the garden.   These young plants will need coddling through their first year as they establish a good root system and begin to form branches.  Keep them well watered and fertilized all through the growing season.

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.