A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2007 Growing in the Deep South

I would like to make a list of sure-fire, guaranteed to grow perennials that can survive Yazoo clay and steamy summers. I'm new.

MS Amy

I found these sites. On the first one I listed If you scroll down there is a full list of perennial native southern Ms plants and flowers

http://butterflywebsite.com/articles/msstate/pub1826.htm

here's another one I hope these help you!
http://www.i-55.com/lan/misshome007.html

Angel Blossom,

Thank you for your response. I think you lead me to enough information to mull over for months. Again, I'm new at this. Maybe I could have found this myself, I just didn't know how to look. The info in these articles is just what I needed. I added the sites to my "Favorites" for future reference. Hey, thanks again!

MS Amy

your sooo welcome Ms Amy.. Glad I could help!

Could someone help me find out what perennials and trees can be grown in rocky soil which has a lot of clay? I am not able to remove the gravel, and I cannot do heavy digging due to illness. But I so desperately want to plant what I can.

MS Amy

Amy,
I see you are in Clinton. I live over in flowers (about 10 miles before you get to Vicksburg). My hubby and I just built a house and we had to have the ground bulldozed down about 20 feet to level out the ridges so I was left with horrible clay soil. To date I've planted about 80 trees, all of which are thriving very nicely. On the top (high and dry) I have crape myrtles, live oaks, red maples, flowering crabapples, rose of sharon, saucer magnolia, ash, chinquapin oak, and various fruit trees. Down in the lower part where it's more moist I have persimmon trees, a blue cedar, leyland cypress, magnolia, crape myrtles, several types of oaks (both red and white), and a cypress tree. These are my tried and true. I had quite a few failures on various types of trees that just couldn't make it in this nasty clay we have. I have also narrowed down types of shrubs and flowers that can handle our clay soil so if you want to know what they are, just let me know.

MLN,

Thank you for your response. I would definitely be interested in knowing about other plants and flowers you have had success with. Your place sounds wonderful by the way.

MS Amy

I'm a flower lover so have lots of them on our place. As with my trees, I've had my share of successes and failures. Some of my successes are: blackeyed susan, butterfly weed, milkweed, daylilies, ferns, hostas, shasta daisies, yarrow, coreopsis, purple coneflower, liatris, cypress vine, dianthus, lithodora, moss phlox, lobelia, dwarf ruellia, May Night salvia, ballerina roses, pincushion flower, and gosh, I can't remember all the rest. Late last summer, I put out some dwarf Hamlin grass that sure looks nice mixed with my flowers and is doing quite well so far. Hope this helps with your landscaping.

MLN,

I would like to know what you plant in the shade? I have a couple of large oak trees, and the ground around them is hard to cover. I'm not interested in adding a lot of different things. Primarily, I want a solid ground cover, and 2-3 lush perennials suited to our climate.

Oh, thanks by the way, for your info on the flowers. I've got to try several of those.

MS Amy

Do you want to cover year round with evergreens or will spring through fall cover do? You know good ol' tried and true azalias grow real well under oaks (and many are evergreen). For something much simpler (and evergreen down here) you could go with vinca major or minor. I keep mine controlled by simply mowing wherever I don't want it to grow--it can't stand the stress of being mowed. I have a flowerbed on a north facing wall where I put azalias with vinca minor as groundcover underneath and it's real pretty. Let me know more about what you are interested in and I will give you more ideas. If you could possibly post a picture of the area you want to plant, it would be real helpful.

Hey MLN,

Your garden sounds so pretty can I come visit?

Ok, I don't travel. So in lieu of that could you post pictures? We love pictures around here.

I would love to see some too...if you can??

When everything comes into bloom, I will borrow my daughters digital camera and get some pictures. I really should get some of all the birds at my feeder right now! They are so beautiful and there are just dozens of them. Then I will have to get my computer genius son up from the coast to help me figure out how to post them to the site. And anyone who is in my neck of the woods is always welcome to visit--we love company! We have a guest room too.

MLN,

Is that invite for real? You know I live only 30 minutes down the road. I don't know how all this works, but if possible, maybe a moderator could give you my e-mail address??? I would love to see such a garden and meet the gifted woman behind it.

MS Amy

Yes, the invite is real--you are welcome anytime. Just let me know. I'm retired and can arrange to be home almost anytime. It would be so fun to be able to get together and really talk about gardening. And my hubby and I go to Clinton quite a lot so maybe I could come see your gardening efforts too? We should be able to PM each other but I haven't done that yet and don't know how. We'll have to ask someone to explain the process to us. I've gotten to be such a computer dummy since I retired

MLN,

I don't really have anything to show yet. I have been ill for quite a long while, and I have just gotten started - very slowly. But the idea of seeing what can be done down here is exiting. If you figure out how to PM, we can talk more. Thank you so much for all the info so far.

MS Amy

Hey Amy,
Sure hope you read this. I got help on the private messaging from Triss and melcon6. BUT, I need you to go in and edit your profile to enable the private message feature. If you don't know how to do that, just let me know and I will tell you.

MS Amy,
Don't know what's going on today--I posted one message but it didn't "post" so I'll try again. I got help from melcon6 and Triss on doing a pm and tried to send one to you but you don't have pm enabled. If you don't know how to enable it, just let me know and I will help you out with it

Well wouldn't you know it--as soon as I posted the second message, the first one showed up

:rolleyes: That's happened to me before! If it's only been a short time you can fix it by clicking on the pencil and paper icon at the top right of your post, which is "edit". Then you can just delete the duplicate and write something else! You can't get rid of the post entirely that way, but you can make it say something different and then people won't know that you're stuttering!

Thanks for helping me out again melcon6. Little by little I'm learning my way around the forum

MLN,

I just got your message and have made the appropriate change in my user profile. I was out of pocket for a couple of days. My mother had to be taken to the hospital, so I'm completely off schedule. Well, let's talk! I look forward to hearing from you.

MS Amy

Ms Amy, if you'll go to this page and check the "Enable private messaging?" box, you'll be able to send and receive PMs with other members. Its safe, and you have to option of blocking anyone you don't want to talk to...
This page may answer a few questions for you, but never be afraid to ask for help around here!

Bill,
Thanks for helping us out I finally got the pm sent!

Help! I have a large area under my oak tree that is covered by English Ivy. Last year it began to recede, and now it looks like it is starting to die out. My grandmother planted this ivy fifty years ago, and it would break my heart to lose it. Does anyone know how to bring it back? I live in an area that has a lot of clay in the soil.

MS Amy