Home Gardening

North Mississippi Gardening Tips
May, 2005

FLOWERS

Annuals add flash and dazzle to our landscapes. When you take into consideration that, with proper care, these plants will bloom their heads off partially all season, they are a real bargain. They’re not permanent, so we are free to try new plants, new combinations, every year. What a deal! For low maintenance and bloom all season try these tough annuals: spider flower (cleome), melampodium, globe amaranth, rose moss (portulaca), cosmos, narrowleaf zinnia, periwinkle. Look for these annual vines: moonflower, Spanish flag (Mina lobata), cypress vine, ‘Heavenly Blue’ morning glory, Love-in-a-Puff (Cardiospermum halicacabum).

Do not be tempted to cut or otherwise mess with the foliage of your spring-flowering bulbs. If you do this habitually, you will eventually weaken the bulb and flowering will be reduced. Remember your high school botany. The foliage manufactures the food that is stored in the bulb to support the bloom for next spring. Letting the foliage die naturally will ensure that all sugars (food) were translocated to the bulb. If the sight of sickly, yellowing foliage bothers you, plant annuals among the bulbs to help camouflage the unattractive bulb foliage.

FRUIT

Strawberries are among the easiest home fruits to grow and one of the most productive. The plants’ lack of longevity and size cause them to respond quickly to attentions bestowed or forgotten. This and a long fruiting season mean lost ground often can be regained. If all else fails, plants are easily and quickly replaced. After three years of drought and erratic care, my entire strawberry bed has, in perfect unison, decided to go home to their fathers. I will replace them with the variety ‘Cardinal’, the recommended choice for north Mississippi. Unfortunately, I did not get them in the ground early enough to enjoy a harvest this spring. For those of you who will enjoy a strawberry harvest and fresh strawberry pies, don’t forget to fertilize your plants after harvest. A general recommendation is 1 to 3 pounds of 13-13-13 fertilizer per 100 feet of row.

LAWNS

Fertilize your Bermuda and zoysia lawns this month. Refer to the Mississippi State University Extension Service publication “Establish and Manage Your Home Lawn” for recommended rates. Pick up your free copy at your county Extension office.

FLOWERS

By choosing the right perennials we can have a succession of bloom all spring and summer. Spring bloomers: peony, German iris, Siberian iris, thrift (Phlox subulata), blue phlox (Phlox divaricata), blue star (amsonia), Shasta daisy, ‘Biloxi Blue’ or ‘Homestead Purple’ verbena. Summer bloomers: purple coneflower, rudbeckia, bee balm (monarda), daylily, liatris, and lythrum. Fall bloomers: goldenrod, aster, garden mum, mistflower (wild ageratum), and ‘Autumn Joy’ sedum.

TREES AND SHRUBS

Why is it the roses always seem to coincide their full bloom with Mother’s day? Maybe this is a subtle hint from nature for all you children out there to get mama a rose bush on her special day. Thereafter, when it blooms every Mother’s day she will remember with great fondness her thoughtful child. Hybrid tea roses are very popular because of their gorgeous blooms. They are also the highest maintenance roses you can get mama. There are numerous shrub and antique roses that offer magnificent, recurrent, and fragrant blooms and do not require the spraying, pruning and other high maintenance of the hybrid teas. Talk to your favorite nurserymen about these roses. He can guide you in your selection.

VEGETABLES

We continue to plant warm season vegetables like pole beans, squash, okra, watermelons, etc. during this month. It’s also harvest time for those of us who planted cool season vegetables. Broccoli, lettuce, radishes, spinach, onions and other vegetables can be enjoyed this month. All the weeding, fertilizing and work you have to do on the warm season vegetables is less tiresome when you know you can return to the house with an armload of fresh cool season veggies.

Because of all the disease problems associated with our hot, humid Southern summers, choosing vegetable varieties based on their disease resistance is essential. Talk to your county Extension agent for recommended disease resistant vegetables. Using these recommendations will mean you won’t have to spray as often with fungicides and the less spraying the better for your family’s health and the environment.

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.