Garden Experiments
For the love of gardening and wildlife habitat
Hot, dry conditions require drought-tolerant plants. Find the best drought-tolerant plants for your garden.
If you’re looking for a native, perennial plant to add to your garden that will be easy to care for, add great color to your garden, and attract hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies, bee balm (Monarda sp.) is a good choice. Bee balm is in the mint family; its leaves are aromatic and both leaves and flowers can be made into a tea. There are …
Continue Reading about Bee Balm Attracts Hummingbirds and Butterflies
Every spring, a patch of butterweed, a common Mississippi wildflower, shows up in my lawn. They come up in the same spot every year, and I mow around them until they are done blooming. Combined with Philadelphia fleabane, which also blooms at this time, they make a pretty landscape. Plant Description Butterweed is in the Aster family, so the …
Have you got swampy soil? Then this is the perfect flowering plant solution for your garden. Native to the marshes and swamps of the southeastern states – from Louisiana to North Carolina –swamp mallows (Hibiscus coccineus) prefer wet soil and even standing water. Swamp Mallow is Perfect for Wet Soil I had one spot in my front flowerbeds …
Continue Reading about Swamp Mallow (Hibiscus coccineus): Hardy Native for Wet Soils
The Dianthus in my garden are one of the first flowers to bloom in early spring, just after the daffodils are done. These are the low-growing variety with pink, red, or white flowers. The plants are covered in blooms and come back every year. Many Dianthus are perennial and range in height from a low ground cover (4-5 inches) to tall …
Continue Reading about Dianthus: Pinks, Carnations, and Sweet Williams
Forsythia (Forsythia x intermedia) is a non-native, deciduous, woody ornamental shrub. It provides only a little wildlife benefit, but it is suitable for soil retention and a privacy barrier and is a fast grower. It is an early spring bloomer and provides bright yellow to the landscape when there isn’t much other color. Flowers are profuse and …
Continue Reading about Forsythia: A Shrub for Early Spring Color
Purple passionflower, also known as maypop, is a relatively quick-growing, perennial, herbaceous vine in the Passifloraceae family. You can find this native vine growing throughout the Southeast from Texas to Kansas up to Pennsylvania and down to Florida. In Mississippi, I’ve often seen it in pastures or open fields. It’s a great addition to an …
Continue Reading about Purple Passionflower: Passiflora incarnata
