North Mississippi Gardening Tips
June 2009
Flowers
The secret to enjoying perennials to their fullest is planting them in smaller clumps in combination with other perennials. Combination is important since most perennials stay in bloom for about three to six weeks. So, select plants with staggered bloom times for a bed full of color throughout the season.
Remember that red makes a flowerbed seem larger and closer, while blues will make it appear smaller and more distant. Pinks combine well with purple and red with violet. White is a good complement for any color.
Prepare planting beds by digging the soil to a depth of 10-12 inches. Work in plenty of peat moss, leaf mulch or compost to ensure good drainage. Space plants properly, as crowded plants grow less vigorously.
To ensure flowers this season, gardeners who’ve been shearing their mums should make their last cuts by the end of the month. Continue to deadhead spent flowers to improve appearance and prolong the blooming period of certain perennials such as beebalm, black-eyed-Susan, daylily, coreopsis, purple coneflower, all perennial salvias, Stoke’s aster, verbena and yarrow.
Some easy to grow perennials for Mississippi gardens are listed on the table below.
Easy Perennials for Mississippi Gardens:
Daylily
Hosta
Purple Coneflower
Catmint
Mexican Bush Sage
Shasta daisy
Indigo Spires Salvia
Coreopsis
Peony
Rudbeckia
Yarrow
Siberian Iris
Texas Star Hibiscus
Blue Star Amsonia
Canna
Thrift
Stoke’s aster
Vegetables
If your ripening tomatoes have rotten spots on the bottom, the problem is variation in soil moisture. Mulch to help conserve moisture and water each week that it does not rain. Avoid using high nitrogen fertilizers. In the future, have a soil test, and lime your soil before planting if the pH is below 6.
You can sow another round of seeds of summer crops later this month. Sow beans, cucumbers, okra, pumpkins, southern peas, and squash. Also set out transplants of pepper, tomatoes, and sweet potato slips for a good fall harvest.
If you’ve planted more than you can use, share your bounty with friends and neighbors. You can also share your extra harvest with a local food bank or soup kitchen. Contact your church to get the phone number and address of a local organization that helps the needy or you can contact the Social Services department of your county.
Roses
As part of your summer vacation, find some time to visit private and public gardens that feature roses. Seeing those extraordinary roses that you’ve glimpsed only in catalogs can be inspiring. Notable public gardens in Mississippi that feature roses are:
- Magnolia Botanical Garden-North Mississippi Research and Extension Center, Verona
- Veteran’s Memorial Rose Garden-Mississippi State University, Starkville
- Rose Society Garden-University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg
- Mississippi Agriculture Museum Garden, Jackson
If you happen to see a variety of rose that you like in your local nursery or garden center, buy it, but be careful. Although container grown roses can be transplanted this month, you need to pay attention to watering and mulching. Such roses are under a lot of stress from heat and humidity and can easily be forgotten when stuck somewhere in the landscape. It might be better to keep it in the container close to the house so that it can get the attention it needs. Plant it in the fall when weather becomes more favorable.
Lawns
Sod of warm-season grasses can be installed during hot weather as long as you provide sufficient water to keep the soil moist. Before laying the sod, moisten the soil to prevent the roots from coming into contact with excessively hot and dry soil. Water immediately afterwards to wet the soil below to a depth of 3 to 4 inches.
New lawns cannot tolerate drought. Cool season lawns established last fall by seed need attention to watering, too, as these lawns do not have adequate roots to survive extended dry conditions. At this stage of development, drought can kill the young crowns of turf. Do not discontinue watering cool-season lawns in midsummer.
Shrubs
With the availability of container-grown plants, the planting season is limited only be extremely hot weather, frozen soil in winter, and your ability to water regularly. Need some tips on how to select a good container plant? Check out the new garden video feature on the Mississippi State University Extension Service Web site: http://msucares.com/gardenvideos.
These short videos are designed to provide seasonal tips, techniques and how-to’s on home gardening. Click on the January video entitled “Selecting Container Plants” for some helpful tips. With the onset of hot, dry weather, you can plant, but be prepared to be on call with adequate water throughout the establishment period of your shrubs.
June through July is an ideal time to take semi-hardwood cuttings when the new green growth begins to harden and turn brown. When you snap the twig, the bark often clings to the stem.
Some of the plants that can be rooted now include broadleaf evergreens such as azalea, osmanthus, magnolia, nandina, and conifers such as Japanese plum yew, podocarpus and many others.
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.