News You Can Use
Time remains to prepare spring gardens
University Relations
News Bureau (662) 325-3442
Contact: Dustin Barnes
Jan. 28, 2004
STARKVILLE, Miss.—While it’s not too late to plant those bulbs for this spring’s garden, time is running out.
Pete Melby, a landscape architecture professor at Mississippi State University, warns that bulbs may not have spent enough time in the cold to be ready for blossoming in another month’s time.
“Traditional spring flowers don’t always work here,” Melby says. “Sometimes we won’t have spring-like weather; instead, it will go from winter to summer.” Many plants need a month and a half of cold weather to fully develop, he explains.
Melby says those who wait until May to plant such flowers as tulips and snapdragons likely will find the weather too hot. The best times to get these bulbs in the ground range from November to early February.
“By the time spring gets here, plants should have been in the ground for four to six weeks,” Melby says. He also recommends daffodils and Dutch iris as two candidates for anyone’s spring garden; the latter practically doubles every year and is a very pretty flower.
Flowers aren’t the only vegetation that can be planted in spring gardens. Melby says many types of greens are an option for spring, including mustard greens and red mustard greens—which are both ornamental and tasty.
Others in this dual-use category include Swiss chard, which has a dark green appearance; all types of leaf lettuce, which are good from the middle of February until June; and black-seeded Simpson, butter crunch or red sails leaf lettuce, which sport vibrant colors to go with their great taste.