CARRIERE — The long-awaited weekend is upon us – that time which comes but once a year. Yes, it’s the Crosby Arboretum’s spring native plant sale.

Perhaps you’ve always wanted a Grancy graybeard just like your grandmother grew, or have made a habit of coveting your neighbor’s oakleaf hydrangeas each spring. Maybe you’ve visited the Arboretum for a program and seen the stunning displays of yellow and orange flame azaleas along the cool, moist banks of our Aquatic Exhibit. Whatever you fancy, you are sure to find something here that will not be a run-of-the-mill addition to your home landscape.

Mississippi’s native plant species can certainly add flare to your garden. The white strap-like spring blooms of Grancy graybeard (Chionanthus virginicus) are guaranteed to steal the show when used as a specimen or accent tree. This plant is also known as fringetree. Like its relative, the familiar fragrant sweet olive, fringetree is in the Olive family, and like the sweet olive, it has deliciously scented blooms. If you have both plants, you will recognize the similarity in the fragrance.

Although it will grow in full sun, Grancy graybeard seems to appreciate a little high shade. It prefers moist, well-drained sites, but tolerates drier areas as well. This is a good thing for the home gardener, when a plant is happy in a range of site conditions.

One plant having a much narrower spectrum of areas where it will flourish – although well worth the care taken to situate it correctly – is the oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia). This shrub naturally occurs in moist, well-drained areas in the forest understory, and it will thrive if you provide it with these same conditions in your garden. As a young gardener, I remember clients with large specimens that were stunning in their woodland settings. Carpets of wildflowers added to a picture-perfect landscape. These coarse-textured shrubs towered well over my head, some twice as tall as I, which will be the hint that they will grow to ten feet.

You may surmise that these leaves resemble oak leaves, and you would be correct. Right now oakleaf hydrangea has an almost comical appearance, because it is deciduous, and like the popular French hydrangeas, they are currently bare and skeletal, having tufts of buds here and there that are just beginning to expand and erupt into young, downy leaves.

If you are not familiar with oakleaf hydrangeas, you are in for a treat. This shrub will offer you four seasons of interest in the garden. In the winter, the sculptural branches can be used to advantage, to create drama in the landscape. The peeling bark on the trunks adds to its beauty. Place this plant it in the back of a bed and locate other shorter species that will capture your interest in the winter months, such as a mass of evergreen ferns. As the unfurling leaves mature, and the shrub develops its spectacular blooms, its coarse texture and long-lasting fading blooms will persist well into the summer. In fall, it puts on a spectacular show of burgundy and maroon fall color.

Do you have one of those zippy new inventions called a “computer?” If so, run now to your favorite video site and plug “oakleaf hydrangea” into the search engine. Here, you can take your pick of gardeners who are singing the many praises of this shrub. You’ll soon see that a picture is most definitely worth a thousand words, and that this shrub is a real heart-grabber.

This spring, our native plant sale will feature many more types of native deciduous azaleas than we’ve had in recent years. In addition to the native pink honeysuckle azalea, also called Piedmont azalea (Rhododendron canescens), we’ve obtained several named varieties of the flame azaleas (R. austrinum), in various shades of yellow and orange. Swamp azalea (R. serrulatum) has white blooms in July, and the hybrid cross ‘Admiral Semmes’ (R. 'Hotspur Yellow' & R. austrinum), is the easiest to grow and most popular of Tommy Dodd’s Confederate Series.

Grounds manager Terry Johnson is proud of the red buckeyes (Aesculus pavia) he has carefully cultivated from seed. This small deciduous tree is a must for your hummingbird garden. Although it will produce more flowers in full sun, red buckeye will crisp up under such conditions in late summer, and will do best with some shade. It prefers rich but light soil, but does not do well in acidic soil. As oakleaf hydrangea also prefers basic, or limey soil conditions, these two make good companion plants.

To see a list of the plants that will be offered at our upcoming sale, visit our website at www.crosbyarboretum.msstate.edu. Then, pay us a visit at the Arboretum this Friday and Saturday, March 22 and 23, for our fabulous spring native plant sale. The sale will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and members will be admitted one hour early. Plant professionals will be available at the sale to help you choose the right plants for your property’s unique environmental conditions, and a selection of MSU Extension Service publications will also be available. Site admission is free for both of those days, so please take advantage of this opportunity to bring a friend, walk the site, and explore our grounds. Don’t forget to walk north and visit our new Gum Pond Educational Exhibit! For more information, please call the Arboretum office at 601-799-2311. We are located in Picayune, I-59 Exit 4, at 370 Ridge Road (south of Walmart and adjacent to I-59).

For further exploration: Visit the Mississippi State University Extension Service website at www.MSUcares.com for publications to help you in your home landscape this spring. From the home page, enter keywords into the search field, or select “Lawns and Gardens” from the left menu. If you enjoy watching Dr. Gary Bachman’s Southern Gardening Television segments, you can view past episodes from the MSUcares homepage as well.