North Mississippi Gardening Tips
June 2010
Flowers
June in the Mississippi garden is a peak month for the abundance of flowering plants. To keep those blooms coming some plants benefit by a little grooming. The most severe summer grooming can be done on those early spring bloomers like snapdragons and stock, which may not be blooming well now due to the longer, hotter summer days. Cut these back severely if blooming has begun to slow down and fertilize with a complete fertilizer like 5-10-15, giving them a good watering in the process. Cross your fingers, and if the weather cooperates you may be rewarded with a strong fall repeat bloom.
Pinching, in the horticulture world refers to a specific type of pruning, not a form of discreet, public, discipline for catatonic husbands. Two of the plants that are commonly pinched are chrysanthemums and basil. When the plant is small, just pinch out the tip of each stem. This tissue will be soft, so you can remove it easily just using your fingers. Continue to do this as the plant grows. Pinching forces the plants into a more bushy shape. For mums this results in a stockier plant with more flowers. In the case of basil it produces more branches with more leaves for harvesting and tends to delay flowering somewhat.
Deadheading is another term that for the non-gardening public could bring unsettling visions to mind. But we gardeners know deadheading means removing old, spent flowers to encourage new blooms. Plants that benefit from this treatment are roses, geranium, purple coneflower, rudbeckia, nicotiana, zinnias, marigolds and many others. Using a pair of hand pruners works well for this job. For more information on this topic check out the Mississippi State University Extension Service’s Gardening Through the Seasons video on “How to Keep Those Blooms Coming.
Vegetables
Involve the kids or grandkids in growing vegetables. It’s fun. It’s easy and it builds kid's enthusiasm for gardening and eating healthy—because they tend to eat what they grow! Let the kids have their own little garden plot or several large pots in which to do their own gardening thing. Plant herbs like sweet fennel if the kids like the taste of licorice, as fennel stalks task like licorice flavored celery that kids can much right in the garden. Dwarf, salad or grape tomatoes or pepper plants like sweet banana or bell make good choices, as well as cucumbers, summer squash, or the small icebox-type, seedless watermelons. For a fun activity encourage the kids to scratch their names in the tender rinds of young watermelons or pumpkins so they can watch their melon or pumpkin grow right along with their name.
Later this month, north Mississippi gardeners can set out young tomato plants for a harvest this fall. If you can’t find tomato plants, you can easily root your own by pinching the tomato slips that emerge from the axils of the leaves on your older plants and sticking these 3-4 inch cuttings into a pot of good potting mix. Slip a large clear plastic bag or make a tent over the plant to keep the foliage from drying out during rooting. Keep the soil moist in the pot and keep the pot in a shaded area until rooted. Remove the plastic tent and gradually expose the rooted plant to direct sun. When it is well rooted and acclimated to full sun, then transplant into the garden.
Trees, Shrubs and Hardy Vines
If any shaping needs to be done on your spring flowering shrubs, vines or trees, prune this month before new flower buds are formed for next spring. Plants such as forsythia, spirea, weigela, loropetalum, wisteria, quince, Lady Banks roses, Carolina Jessamine, dogwood, redbud and azaleas are examples. Prune out any dead, broken, crossed or damaged limbs. Pruning to enhance the natural shape of the shrubs rather than pruning into a box shape gives your landscape a more professional look and displays the natural growth habit and beauty of these plants. For more information on pruning, check out the Mississippi State University Extension Service’s “Gardening Through the Seasons videos on pruning.
To get the color of crapemyrtle you want, you should purchase a containerized plant now while it is in bloom in the nursery. Consider planting one of the fast-growing, mildew-resistant selections such as Biloxi (light pink blooms) or Tuskegee (dark pink blooms). Mississippi State University has licensed a new crapemyrtle cultivar called Delta Jazz. This pink-flowering cultivar has dark burgundy foliage all growing season that doesn’t tip burn like many other dark foliaged plants tend to do in your hot summers.
Container Plants
Many people like to combine a number of different plants in their containers. While this can result in fantastic, very interesting plant combinations, you might consider a little different approach this time around. Mixed plant containers work great, but will need maintenance as the plants grow, bloom and need some reworking to look their best. How about using multiple pots of single specimens which can be grouped to form either a themed collection or a more eclectic grouping contrasting foliage or flower colors, textures, shapes or whatever pleases you! One of the main advantages of this technique is its flexibility. Plants are easily replaced if they grow too big or not big enough. If you get tired of the combination of pots, or if the some of the plants begin to look a tad ratty, it is easy just to move the offending pot out of the group and replace it with another. Don’t forget about using colored-foliaged plants like coleus, ivies, banana plants, hostas, New Zealand flax and dracaenas to liven up your combinations of pots. Flowers can be fleeting, but colored foliage goes on and on!
Lelia Scott Kelly, Ph.D., writes North Mississippi Gardening Tips monthly and is the state consumer horticulture specialist for Mississippi State University Extension Service. Her office is at the North Mississippi Research and Extension Center in Verona.