Mississippi Medallion Plants are selected for their outstanding performance in test gardens throughout the state.

They traditionally are plants that have proved to be colorful, vigorous, disease resistant, not fussy about soil conditions and real knock-out choices for home and commercial landscapes.

More than 60 plants have made the grade since the program started 16 years ago. The 2012 choices are no exception. Asclepias tuberosa, or butterfly weed, and vista bubblegum supertunia are the newest additions to this celebrated group of all-stars.

Butterfly weed, one of our state’s native plant species, has grown wild along road-sides and in meadows in Mississippi and other states for hundreds of years.

Native Americans chewed the tap root as a cure for pleurisy and other pulmonary ailments and it was a well-known herbal medicine to Grandma who called it pleurisy root.

This low-maintenance, drought-tolerant, deer-resistant, brightly colored perennial herb is a milkweed and the larval host to the grey hairstreak, monarch and queen butterflies according to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas.

Gardeners who grow it should not be surprised to see the appearance of the tiny monarch caterpillars in late summer. They seem to appear overnight and will devour most of the leaves and often the blooms of this plant, a small price to pay for the beautiful monarchs.

Native bees and bumblebees are also attracted to it as are certain predatory insects which eat other insect pests in a garden.

Deep orange-red to yellow tubular flowers are arranged in clusters and sit flat atop these 18 to 36-inch upright clumping plants. They generally appear on butterfly weed between May and September.

Good drainage and full sun are necessary. To get maximum benefit, they should be planted in groups of three or more. In late summer, seedpods form filled with hundreds of tiny seeds attached to tufts of long silky hairs. The pods open and they float in the air as the wind disperses them.

They can be propagated by root cuttings according to the Johnson Center. The taproot should be cut into 2-inch sections and each section then planted vertically and kept moist until roots form. Coneflower and oxeye daisy are suggested native companion plants because they require the same growing conditions.

Vista bubblegum supertunia has been a star in gardens throughout the state for the last few years. I received one as a gift at the National Master Gardeners Conference in Littlerock, Ark., about 10 years ago before they appeared on the retail market.

I can personally attest to the vigorous growth and the abundant, clear pink flowers which cover this supertunia for months. Their 3-foot spread can fill in a flower bed quickly or be used to cascade out from a hanging basket or container planting.

These butterfly and hummingbird magnets are self-cleaning and particularly attractive when planted near blue flowering plants such as Biloxi blue verbena, victoria blue salvia and blue daze evolvulus. They do best in full sun but will tolerate some dappled afternoon shade.

Supertunias were developed to flower earlier, grow taller and spread wider than other petunia hybrids. They are heavy feeders and should not be allowed to dry out to the wilting stage, which can severely affect their flowering.

They are a favorite of garden designer P. Allen Smith and he said to keep them flowering gardeners should “Feed, feed and feed some more.”

For best results, time release fertilizer should be worked into the soil at planting and a liquid fertilizer applied with every other watering throughout the growing season.

In July or early August, when petunias often look leggy and flowerless, they can be trimmed back about 20 percent. Add more time-release fertilizer at that time and new foliage and blooms will soon appear.

They will look good well into the fall and if moved into a more protected area, such as a covered patio, they will sometimes make it through the winter to bloom again the next summer.

The Mississippi Medallion Program is sponsored by the Mississippi State University Extension Service, Mississippi Nursery and Landscape Association, the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station and the Mississippi Plant Selection Committee.

Information about previous winners can be found on the Mississippi Nursery and Landscape Association website msnla.org.

Both of these plants as well as all of the others in the Medallion Program are superb choices for Vicksburg gardens. Look for them in local nurseries this spring.