Garden Experiments
For the love of gardening and wildlife habitat
You can find the perfect plant for a shady garden if you have part-shade or full-shade spots in your garden. Shade-tolerant plants can have flowers, colorful leaves, great patterns, or a combination. Choose between perennial plants and annuals for shade gardens.
Coleus are known for their colorful leaves and are a great addition to shaded or part-sun areas of your garden. Some cultivars are more tolerant of sun, so be sure to read the labels on your selected varieties. Here is a list of some of the sun-loving varieties. Cultivars can have wavy, smooth-edged, or serrated leaves and come in many colors, …
Continue Reading about Coleus: Colorful Shade Plants Easily Grown From Seed or Cuttings
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
If you want to add some color to your winter garden and provide food and shelter for songbirds and other wildlife simultaneously, American Holly (Ilex opaca) is a good choice. The berries form in October and persist throughout the winter when many other food sources are gone. Its leaves are evergreen and form a dense canopy. The bright red …
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In the deep South, fall brings a bright red carpet of strange spider-looking blooms. You can find them wherever an old homestead may be found or even deep in the woods where an old homestead used to be. The red color adds vibrancy to the waning fall landscape. Although these bulbs are not native to the United States, they were introduced from …
Also known as Mexican bush sage, this salvia produces great fall color (purple and white) that attracts hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies. It looks great mixed in with other flowers for interesting color combinations, or planted in a bunch to create a nice edge or border. How to Grow Mexican Salvia This plant thrives in full sun but …
Continue Reading about Mexican Salvia – Fall Blooming, Deer & Drought Resistant
