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Monday, August 22, 2011
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 ORNAMENTAL HORTICULTURE UPDATE
The Ornamental Horticulture Update is a weekly publication compiled by Allen Owings and edited by Rick Bogren of the LSU Ag Center. Check back regularly for the Plant of the Week and the latest issue!
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By admin on
Monday, January 30, 2012
 Ornamental Plant of the Week
January 30, 2012
‘Jubilation’ Gardenia
from Allen Owings
Jubilation is the new Gardenia jasminoides that was introduced in the Southern Living plant program a couple years ago. It features heavy spring bloom followed by repeat bloom summer into fall. Advertised to be 3-4 feet tall by 2 feet wide with a moderate-to-fast growth rate. Follow typical gardenia growing recommendations.
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By admin on
Monday, January 23, 2012
 Ornamental Plant of the Week
January 23, 2012
‘Henry’s Garnet’ Virginia Willow
from Allen Owings
One of my personal favorites in the native shrub category is the Virginia willow. This is also called Virginia sweetspire and known botanically as Itea virginica. Interest in this plant really increased in the late 1990s when Henry’s Garnet started catching on with landscape contractors with the naming of this variety as a Louisiana Select plant. Flowers are the major feature of Virginia willow. Flowers are 4- to 5-inch white racemes (some varieties have a pinkish tinge) and have moderate fragrance. Flowering occurs over a four-to-six-week period in spring right about the time azaleas complete their flowering. Henry’s Garnet is the most widely available variety. It also has been recognized as a Mississippi Medallion plant in the past. Plants prefer more sun than shade but will grow in varying locations. It is best for soil pH to be slightly acid.
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By admin on
Monday, January 16, 2012
 Ornamental Plant of the Week
January 16, 2012
Chinese Snowball Viburnum
from Allen Owings
The Chinese snowball viburnum – Viburnum macrocephalum – is a great plant. The snowball viburnum produces 6- to 8-inch glistening white blossoms. Blooms are actually many dozens of 1-inch florets. Chinese snowball produces flowers in heavy numbers although some years the bloom is superior to other years. This is a large shrub. It is well suited for large gardens where it can be enjoyed from a distance. It can reach 10 feet tall in five or six years. Slightly moist, partially shaded growing conditions are best.
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By admin on
Monday, January 09, 2012
 Ornamental Plant of the Week
January 9, 2012
Black Petunias
from Allen Owings
Black petunias have been getting a considerable amount of discussion the past year. Black petunias, you ask? Are there black-flowering petunias? Yes, there are. These are new to the market, with spring 2011 seeing their successful debut in Louisiana garden centers.
Ball FloraPlant has added three dark-flowering cultivars. Black Velvet is being promoted as the world’s first black petunia. This cultivar works well in baskets, containers and landscape beds. Early to flower, it has a tightly branching growth habit.
Phantom is another new petunia. The flower base color is black with a yellow star pattern on the petals. A mounding petunia, it has an upright habit.
The Pinstripe variety produces dark purple flowers with a creamy, white, star pattern.
All three of these “black” petunias have been grown in LSU AgCenter landscape evaluations at the Hammond Research Station with average results. All three were LSU AgCenter landscape plant People’s Choice award winners in spring 2011. Home gardeners voted Pinstripe and Phantom award winners, while green industry professionals named Pinstripe the People’s Choice Silver Winner for the spring and named Black Velvet the People’s Choice Bronze Winner for the spring.
Don’t you think these would be great for a “Who Dat” landscape?
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By admin on
Monday, January 02, 2012
 Ornamental Plant of the Week
January 2, 2012
Wasabi Coleus
from Allen Owings
Wasabi is one of the newest coleus for landscape use. It is new for 2012 from Ball FloraPlant and was the top-performing coleus among the new varieties in trials across the country in 2011. It has chartreuse foliage and matures at a height of 2 feet. In landscape plantings at the LSU AgCenter’s Hammond Research Station, it did bleach out more than desired in a full-sun, very hot and drought-stressed planting. It is earlier to flower than Henna, Indian Summer, Trusty Rusty and some of the other newer varieties. Worthy of use. Try a partial-shade to partial-sun planting.
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By admin on
Monday, December 19, 2011
 Ornamental Plant of the Week
December 26, 2011
Sweetbay Magnolia
from Allen Owings
(Note: Sweetbay Magnolia will be a Louisiana Super Plant for fall 2012!)
Sweetbay magnolias are native to a large portion of the eastern and southeastern United States. They are very common in the coastal regions of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and are found in association with swamp red maple (Acer) and titi (Cyrilla). These magnolias perform well under a wide range of soil and planting conditions – their native habitat is swamp, bog, pond or sandy stream areas, but they grow best in fertile, moist, well-drained, silty loam soil. A slightly acid soil is preferred.
An upright, columnar type growth habit having a single truck is what you will see with most sweetbay magnolias planted in a commercial landscape setting. But you will see sweetbay magnolias with multi-trunked, shrubby growth forms also. In their native habitat, plant size and growth habit are highly variable. Pruning at a young age can be used to direct shoot growth to the desired form.
Mature trees will average about 30 feet tall with a spread of 20 feet, but larger sizes are common. Most of the time, these trees have a tendency to be semi-evergreen. The further south they are planted, the more likely it is for foliage retention to extend into winter. Some improved selections of sweetbay magnolia are close to being evergreen. A nice feature of the sweetbay magnolia is the silvery gray color on the underside of foliage. Flowers are creamy white and about 2-3 inches in diameter. Flowers are present in April and May and have a lemony fragrance. Fruit is your typical magnolia cone that is yellow-green. It splits open in late summer through fall to reveal red seeds.
Sweetbay magnolias are being produced more now in wholesale nurseries. Landscapers are using the tree in commercial plantings. Trees are good for wildlife habitat plantings. In the home landscape, they make a great small-to-medium-size tree for a woodland edge situation. They work well as individual specimen trees or in a clustered group of 3-5 trees. Try to select trees for grouped plantings that have similar habits.
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By admin on
Monday, December 19, 2011
M E R R Y
C H R I S T M A S
 Ornamental Plant of the Week
December 19, 2011
‘Emerald Snow’ Loropetalum
from Allen Owings
The craze for loropetalum, also called Chinese witch hazel, has slowed considerably the past few years, but new cultivars are still finding a place in the marketplace. In 2009, Emerald Snow was released. It is a dwarf, green foliage, white-flowering loropetalum. Most of the new loropetalums the past few years have focused on pink and fuschia flower colors with more intense purple to burgundy foliage colors. Emerald Snow is in the Southern Living Plant Collection and has a mature height of 4 feet with a 4-foot spread. White flowers appear in spring and will occur again to some degree in late summer and fall. Older foliage is dense, glossy green with light green new growth. Fertilize when new growth commences in spring. Plants need minimum pruning due to a tight, layered growth habit. A great substitute for Indian hawthorn in the landscape.
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By admin on
Monday, December 12, 2011
 Ornamental Plant of the Week
December 12, 2011
‘Field of Dreams’ Corn
from Allen Owings
A new ornamental corn (Zea mays) from Floronova has gotten considerable press this year. Field of Dreams was new for 2011, and those of you interested in growing should be able to locate seed or plugs to get started. Highly variegated green and white with touches of rose, Field of Dreams adds color and structure to large combination pots and accents in the landscape. For a fast retail product in as little as 30 days, sow 3-4 seeds per pot. Plants can reach 4 to 5 feet tall in the landscape and produce ears that are as attractive after the season as the plants were beautiful during the season. The dark kernels can be popped to add even more interest to this exciting new introduction. Plants to not maintain great appearance throughout the warm season of the year in the more southern climates, like south Louisiana. Space plants 12-18 inches apart and plant in full sun.
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By admin on
Monday, December 05, 2011
 Ornamental Plant of the Week
for December 5, 2011
‘Bouquet’ Dianthus
from Allen Owings
The Bouquet series dianthus is known to many of us. It is an interspecific hybrid dianthus and is available as seed from PanAmerican Seed. Cultivars in the series are Purple, Rose and Rose Magic. They do best planted in fall but can also be planted in February and March. Peak spring bloom is April and May. These plants have been great performers at the LSU AgCenter’s Hammond Research Station. Plants prefer full sun and well-drained soil. Plants are advertised as having cut-flower potential. Mature height is 18-24 inches. After peak bloom in the spring is completed, plants
can be pruned to a height of 6-8 inches and will re-bloom in early to midsummer. This dianthus has perennial potential in Louisiana.
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By admin on
Monday, November 28, 2011
 Ornamental Plant of the Week
for November 28, 2011
‘Sanguna’ Petunias
from Allen Owings
It is late now for a fall planting of petunias, but we need to be thinking about petunias for adding to the landscape in late winter. February through March is a great time to add petunias to landscapes for a spring show. In addition to the many great petunias, we need to consider the Sanguna series petunias from Syngenta Flowers. These have excelled in landscape trials at the LSU AgCenter. These are vegetatively propagated trailing petunias. There are 15 cultivars in the Sanguna series. Early bloom and excellent branching habits are characteristic of the series.
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Contact Allen Owings
Phone: 985-543-4125
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