Mississippi You're on my Mind

Over the past few weeks so much has happened for me in the gardening world. Besides getting our garden at home the way we like it and keeping up with things at our garden center we have taken a little time to visit some places in Mississippi.

We had a friend in town from Louisiana and had spent a few evenings cooking dinner and hanging around our patio. As it was getting around sunset I asked Mimi and her best friend if they’d be up for a short drive to downtown Jackson. They were up for the challenge and we jumped in the car as we were. We headed to the Mississippi Museum of Art Garden. It had been a few years since last visited the gardens and I was interested in the progress it had made.

The last time we were there the inspiration we took from there cost us fortune. They were creating beds using some of the same materials and planting styles that we love. At that time a great friend of mine was supplying the plants since he grew the kinds of plants that were being used at the time. It’s always a pleasure to see a friends work in action and the way the plants were being used taught us a lot.

Core-tin steel edges and retaining walls were being used which is something we had interest in after seeing it used while on a visit in Austin, Texas. The plants being used were mostly native plants and planted in mass to make a really cool and very neat, tidy look. Now, a great friend of ours is in charge of planning and keeping the garden as it is today so we were just as excited for that reason. I was so happy to get there just as it was getting dark and the lights were just coming on. The temperatures had cooled down significantly and we had the place to ourselves.

We entered from the side that the Westin Hotel is on so already we felt like we had taken a trip without really leaving the farm. That part of downtown Jackson is enough to give a person hope that more could happen to our downtown area if someone has enough money and love to pour into it. When we stepped onto the museum grounds we could see that everything was neat and orderly and the gardens were in perfect shape. With Mississippi's latest push for native plants and pollinator plants the group that works these gardens had concentrated on highlighting that philosophy. I was amazed at how much it seemed like we were in a botanical garden in Anywhere, USA. They had done such a wonderful job of having all the plants labeled and arranged in a way that made sense to me. The plants that were going to finish and go to seed first were more up front and those plants that last longer before committing the ultimate sacrifice were just behind them so the gardening tasks could be handled layer by layer.

The walkways between the beds are clean and lit so we could wander around taking notes and photos without really watching where we were going. I saw plants there that I had no idea were native to the south and could be so beautiful when arranged in large masses. The first plants I noticed were the poppies that were still blooming some but mostly had gone to seed which is one of my favorite stages that poppies go through. Poppy pods are just so interesting to look at and so interesting to listen to while they sing to me to please snap a few pods off to stick in my pocket so I can germinate some for myself.

It turns out I didn’t wear those shorts that I had on that night for a while after. I folded them up and put them away when we got home that night and forgot about the thousands of seeds that were in my pockets. Just the other night as I was wearing those shorts again I noticed when I got up from my chair that the thousands of seeds had spilled out on the couch where I had been slouching, that was big cleanup job but at least now I know where the poppy seeds are.

I saw Amsonia, a plant I had not thought about for years. Mimi and I used to love using Amsonia at one of the houses that we lived in earlier, when we moved we left the plants and I just clean forgot about them. There was a bed full of nothing but Narrow Leaf Mountain Mint in full bloom. Mountain Mint has a very dark green foilage covered in white blooms that nearly glowed under the lights. The blooms look a lot like a verbena bloom and just sits right on top of all that dark green.

Grasses were used throughout the gardens which added a texture and structure that blows me away every time I see it used that way, I think ornamental grasses are way under used in our landscapes as they are great looking in the growing season as well as during the winter months when their blades change colors and shape. I was envious of the Echinops, better known as Globe thistle. I had the worst luck getting those seeds to germinate for me, I think I was trying at the wrong time of the year and I had not stratified those seeds, I just figured they would pop for me if I sang good enough for them, that plan didn’t work probably because I don’t sing very good. Mimi and I watch a gardening show that always seems to have that plant growing in the background, Mimi asked me to grow some of those for us and to sell at Garden Works. I had to tell her that I failed, something I’d rather not have to do.

Another Mississippi native that caught my eye was a Penstemon called Foxgloves

Beardtoungue, the glossy maroon foilage was also catching the light and shined like a mirror. The Asiatic Lillies were in full bloom at the time. That is a plant that just makes me question myself about why we don’t use that in huge groupings at home. Those Lillie’s were about 6 feet tall with blooms and buds that make you feel like you are walking through a florist. It didn’t hurt that the garden planner used some shortish roses to skirt the tall Lillie’s with a contrasting color to really blow the lid off of it.

There were hardy Peonies, Heucheras, Magnolias in full bloom, Barberries, one of my favorites, Obediant plants and so much more. We have a treasure right here at home that will give you so much inspiration, I promise it is a trip well worth your time. If for nothing else to give you a sense of hope that with some very hard work and relentless grit by the right kind of people we can make some places downtown be something that we all can be proud of. The gardens at the Museum Of Art are kid friendly, they can play on the perfectly manicured lawns and I believe they hold some events outside there like movie nights and I have been to a couple of story telling events there. You can check their website for more information about that.

One more big gardening thing that happened for Mimi and me was getting invited to one of

our favorite customers and now a great friend house to pick up a tree that she had dug up for us. I thought we were just going to pick up a Kousa Dogwood tree and go right home to plant it. Carolyn and Buddy McIntyre have a property in Ridgeland that I just never would have guessed existed. We rambled around in the front and sides of the house looking at all they had done to the formal parts of their gorgeous gardens. We kept moving farther and farther into the back where it was wooded and shady. There were huge ravines and drop offs that were covered in plants that they have added since they lived there. Most interestingly to me is that the entire wooded area had a stone path and stone steps that led to the next opening with stones laid perfectly in the ground to give a flat platform with seating areas or stand around and gawk areas. The path would lead off around another curve with a gate to walk through as if entering a secret garden, and it was a secret garden. The next bend would lead you to another space laid in stone with a totally different feel about it. Rays of sunshine were beaming through the trees depending on the time of day the beams would hi-lite a plant or a group of plants in a spectacular way. I couldn’t imagine how all those stones got back there so deep into the woods.I had an even harder time imagining all they time and love that was put into collecting and planting all the plants that they had. I didn’t know which way to look! They had planted high on the bluffs and low in the valleys, I felt like I was in the hills of Virginia but I was about a half mile from my home.

About 3 hours later we loaded up the original tree that we came for and a whole bunch of

other plants that they allowed (insisted) us to dig up and put in nursery buckets. We are working in a new area in our yard that is very similar to theirs but they are about 20 years ahead of us. We are now officially inspired and our vision is now way clearer than it was before that visit. We had the best time together rambling around that garden of theirs, you could feel the love and purposeful moves that went into this property, we now know that we can achieve our dream with some time and patience. That is an exciting feeling and we are well on our way, at least we have the place to do it, I just hope we have the drive that these two have to make it happen.

We will forever be grateful for that visit, I believe it will be life changing for us as our focus is now sharper than it was before. The next time I write an article I will tell about a visit that we conducted in our yard and the Comedy Of Errors that came along with it, quite amusing now that we are on the other side of it. We have some very hardy gardeners in our hometown and we have some great things happing in our state due to some people who really really care. As travel looks like it’s getting weird and difficult again it may not be so bad if you visit some of our places right here under our noses. I hope you are as pleasantly surprised as I am.