2015 Mississippi Medallion Winners

It’s my pleasure to announce the Mississippi Medallion winners for 2015. The three winners are Delta Jazz crape myrtle, Suburban Nancy Gayle daylily and Top Pot scaevola. Delta Jazz crape myrtle was developed by personnel at Mississippi State University. The foliage emerges rich raspberry maroon and matures to a dark chocolaty burgundy making a good background for the clusters of crinkly edged medium pink flowers blooming in mid to late summer. The unique foliage color makes Delta Jazz a good specimen plant. Massing several plants together would be a way to showcase the pink flowers. Suburban Nancy Gayle daylily was developed at Suburban Daylilies in Hattiesburg. This has big red with yellow throated flowers. And I mean big, they’re bigger in diameter than my hand. These plants have been growing in trial beds across Mississippi and are very impressive with the flowering performance. Scaevola Top Pot is an herbaceous flowering plant has sprawling growth out to two feet in diameter. The foliage has coarse toothed edges while the 1 inch wide fan-shaped flowers appear in mass and flower freely from spring through summer into the fall with violet blue, pink or white petal lobes and yellow throats. This plant with its growth habit is the perfect choice for hanging baskets and container gardening. Established in 1996, the Mississippi Medallion program was created to high light ornamental plants that thrive under Mississippi growing conditions. I’m horticulturist Gary Bachman for Southern Gardening.