Have to shift to a potted garden

Bought a house where the local ordnance is 'native plants only,' special dispensation for Bouganvillia, oleaner and other drought-tolerant but NOT native plants. In any case, the Home Owners' Association rules say if you insist on non-native plants, they must be in pots. I have observed that those homeowners with enclosed back yards have put into the ground citrus, palms... but I will be a good citizen and not do that.

So far, I have a potted cattlaya and a Meyer lemon. I also have a small pot of herbs -- nothing exciting. I hope to eventually replace the oleander hedges with dwarf pomegranates, but that's probably a year away. The cool growing season here ends in 2-3 months.

I was worried, but now relieved!

Goes to show there's much, much more to know about gardening. I thought moving to the desert means growing cacti and nothing else. Found out that Phoenix is in USDA zone 9-10, not that different from Silicon Valley, just much drier.

When we were here 15 years ago, we had 4 kinds of citrus and two kinds of palms in the yard that were doing just great so I know they are good in this climate. And I had planted a Jamium Nitidum (Angel Wing Jasmine) by my front door that was doing great. It's really fragrant.

There's a great nursery here for RARE and EXOTIC tropical fruits and plants:
        Tropica Mango
They have guavas. I nursed a guava cutting for 2 years on my windowsill in California. It got to be about 2 feet tall. Had to give it to a friend because there was no room in the car to bring it,  but NOW, I can buy a TREE that lives outside!!!!!!

The little house we're renting now has a palm that's making dates. Great!

All I have to do now is to buy a house with room for a garden, and learn how to manage drip systems. Spraying water in 100 degree temperature is wasteful and not effective. Half of it evaporates and only increases the humidity by a bit. With the zillions of pools here, you'd think the overall humidity would increase.

Stay tuned. I hope to buy a house (with a garden) in the next months.

"Movie" of my yard

 

Click image for details about this plant

I gave away all my huge potted roses: Graham Thomas, Evelyn, Peace. Also went was my much beloved daphnes. They were blooming so were in great demand.

I could hardly pry my fingers off the pots of my miniature pomegranate, azaleas, gardenia... Now I am left with those plants that no one wants, but I still love them. Why don't people appreciate Rose of Attar (scented geranium, Pelargonium)?  Don't they know that those are more rare, and are truly collectible, than hybrid tea roses or English roses?

The 'citrus grove' of Nagami kumquat, Bearss lime, Ruby grapefruit and lemon are in the ground so they will stay. The camellias are blooming so they add a little color. The Stephanotis still has not adjusted to being planted in the ground so it hasn't filled in the pillar trellis.  The huge classic roses (Salet, B. de Prevost, Musk) and the lovely Eglantyne are still in their severely pruned state. The rosemary (blooming), tarragon, sage, garlic chives should make the next cook who lives here happy. The yard will look so much better in 3 months.

Even harder to give away is gardening materials and tools. Bags of compost, potting soil, hand tools, soaker hoses, trellises. I had accumulated so much gardening-related things over the years! I had not noticed that I had invested so much in the yard. Even though I had put in so many plants and made so many changes (dug up Nandina hedges and replaced them with roses), there is much, much more that can and should be done to make the garden wonderful.

Why am I destroying 15 years of gardening work? I'm getting it ready to be sold. Boo-hoo-hoo!!!!!! We are selling the house so the yard also must look impersonal, clean, commercial... No more Maria's Garden with pots and pots of flowers being propagated and tropical plants growing wild.

I made a 54-second 'movie' of what the yard looks like now, after $2,500 of removing roots, bushes that were 'in the way,' re-locating paths and decorative stones, and adding tons of mulch and turf. It looks good, but it's not my garden anymore.

Sprinkler problems and alternatives

Being a steadfast fan of automatic sprinkler systems, I was very unhappy when one of my circuits dribbled instead of sprinkled. At first, I thought it was blocked sprinkler heads -- replaced them all. Now I think it's a bad valve. I'm too chicken to disassemble and rebuild a valve, even after watching several YouTube videos on how-to.

What are good alternatives to automatic sprinklers? Hand-watering with a hose and a sprinkler thing on the front. Tedious and probably uneven. In the Northeast where I lived for many years, people used oscillating sprinklers or other temporary measures because it rains every few weeks so you don't need to depend on a big-deal system. The ground freezes so an in-ground system would be hard to maintain. When I was living in Phoenix, I had a drip system. OK, OK, it saves water and is more PC (politically correct) than spraying water into air as much as 50% (or more) evaporates before it falls to the ground, but it DIDN'T WORK. My trees couldn't put down deep enough roots. I could have increased the drip period but the ground is pretty impermeable caliche. The trees got top-heavy and fell over. That had a bad effect on the fences. When the drip system leaked underground, it was undetectable until it flooded the street. No, I am not a fan of drip systems. So, what to do that works well, is easy to maintain and is also PC, and not as expensive as fixing the existing automatic sprinkler system?

Soaker hoses seem to fit the criteria: good for plants, inexpensive, easy to install and PC. I bought enough 5/8 inch-diameter hoses to loop around my flowers and trees in the area where my sprinklers died. I dug shallow trenches to lay the hose in, topped with compost then wood mulch. I ran the water with low pressure for hour-long sessions thinking the moisture will spread out and and soak deep down.  Used this system all this Spring and Summer as well as hand-watered when I got worried.

None of my plants died, but they also did not thrive. I guess such systems are more effective for beds of veggies that have shallow roots.

Now that it's started to rain here, my flowers are blooming even though they don't get as much water from the 10-minute light showers as they had from my soaker hose system. The flowers seem to wave their petals at me while chanting "nay-nay-nay-na! Rain is better than soaker hose."

So, next idea is to get a portable sprinkler system to reproduce the automatic sprinkler system. Or bite the bullet and hire a pro to fix or replace the broken valve. Any other ideas?

Highlights that I forgot to mention

How could I have forgotten to post my blooming Cattlaya?! I've had it for years, gave cuttings of it to many people including my sister. Then the parent plant died -- I think I drowned it. My sister sent me cuttings from the plant I sent her! This year, my plant put out not just one, not just two, but FOUR huge corsage-quality blooms.  When I was tying it up to photograph it, I noticed for the first time that it's fragrant! All these years, I never knew it had a scent. I didn't think cattlayas had scent, but you see, I am a self-taught gardener. Sad news: I drowned the variegated phalanopsis by repotting it in the wrong medium. It was blooming too, 3 spikes. I wanted to replace it with a Brassia Rex but boy are they hard to find, and expensive! I also tried to buy Vanda Cerulea but as you know, Thailand is having problems (and do you believe this, they have an annual week-long holiday when the post office is closed. What a gift to courier services.) Anyway, I got from a group in Florida 2 tiny Vanda Panchera Delight that are 2 years from blooming size. Vanda should be easy to care for. "They" say just wire it to an orchid basket, no medium, and water and fertilize it. We'll see.

Another highlight that I forgot to mention is I received two cans of Orchard Mason bees for Christmas. It had never occurred to me  to keep bees and I know nothing about them other than they sting and pollinate. Well, Orchard Mason bees are also known as blue bees. They don't sting, they don't make hives, they don't form communities. All they do is pollinate, and pro-create. My bees came in a can full of tiny tubes. I am told that each tube contained bee lavae and food for them during hibernation. Yeah, I was surprised that there are hibernating bees. I had to keep the can in the 'fridge because they like 38 degrees to hibernate in. When it got to be consistently over 50 outside, I put opened the cans and put them out. Here's their own little house: After a few days, I looked in the tubes and they're GONE! Out working! I hope they were able to fly the quarter mile or so the the apricot orchard although it's finished flowering.

When I pruned the citrus, it was blooming and there were lots and lots of bumble bees, carpenter bees, yellow jackets, humming birds, ... but I did not notice any blue bees.  Maybe they're the smaller carpenter-like bees that hover?

My Citrus Grove and New Additions

This winter, it rained and rained. For the first time in all the years I've lived here, we have more than 100% of the annual average precipitation, and the snow pack hasn't melted yet! Thank goodness because one circuit of my sprinkler system, the one that waters my "Citrus Grove" and my beloved climbing rose is Kaput (again). If they can sell a whole TV reality series on the trials of airline gate agents, you'd think there's a program theme for diagnosing and repairing your sprinkler system.

After hibernating indoors for months, I ventured out to see what's sprouting. My friend in Menlo Park actually gave a Wisteria Viewing party last month and indeed, her arbor was loaded with long, looooong, frrrrragrant blossoms. My wisteria looked dead. Even now, it only has only a few tender leaves. I guess the trees on either side have grown tall and shade it too much, but my wisteria fights on valiantly. It'll bloom f'sure.

In my last post, I said the miniature pomegranate probably didn't make it. Well, it's fine, all green with new leaves, branches, everything. What didn't make it was my 10 year old Bearss Lime!!!!! I now fall victim to the vicissitudes of the supermarket's stock of limes for my gin and tonics. Feeling insecure in that co-dependency, I planted a foot-tall  Bearss Lime in my Citrus Grove.

The Citrus Grove

I finally had the garden shed moved from a sunny spot to a shady spot in a neglected corner of my yard. The previous tenant of that shady spot, a fruiting pear tree, never did well and what meager fruits it produced were immediately gnawed by the vermin.  So now I have sunny real estate on which I planted the new Bearss Lime next to the seven foot tall grafted grapefruit/lemon tree. I also planted the kumquat there and it's doing well. I already ate all its fruit. I hope it makes more.

Newest Additions
The other new additions this spring is a Casa Blanca oriental lily. It's growing aggressively. I hope to get at least one huge, white, fragrant flower from it. I finally put the French lavender in the ground next to the beloved classic rose. I am starting heirloom tomatoes from seed for the first time. I have about 40 seedlings and room for, oh I guess I have enough room if I put them where the lawn was. A better use of that space than the crab grass-infested lawn. Lawns are no long PC in this native-plant, water conservation culture. I plant to give those tomatoes a really hard time namely with minimal water, poor soil... what vineyards do to concentrate flavor.

Here's some eye-candy, the azeleas in full bloom! Until next post!

Big Storm is Over, Who Survived?

Two weeks of storm with serious winds and lots of rain. Plants should like that. A walk-around the yard shows the lime tree's droopy leaves have fallen off, but scratching the branches still reveals green wood. It looks moribund so, if I don't put it into the ground (from the half-barrel it has lived in for 10 years), there's no down-side to a major pruning. A quick check of YouTube revealed a 4:43 Aussie video that gave me courage. I might even take the chain saw to the BIG grapefruit/lemon tree.

Another candidate for drastic pruning is the star jasmine. I had intended it as a ground cover and it was great at that, but it really wants to climb. So now that the 7' trellis is no longer trapped by the huge rose, I'll prune the jasmine to maybe 2 feet-diameter and let it use the trellis. Or, put the Stephanotis into the ground with that trellis for support? The star jasmine seems too plebian to deserve such a prominent role.  

Other winter casualties seem to be the miniature pomegranate in the 1-gallon pot and the night blooming jasmine. But it's real tough so maybe it'll come back.

Lots of digging and transplanting to do! Put the lavender in the ground, ditto the azalea; English roses...

The Hellebores is blooming well, as are the two varigated Daphnes. I wish blogs could convey scents -- Daphnes truly have very lovely scents.

Oh and when the temperature stays above 60, I will put out the bees. I got as Christmas presents a bunch of blue bees who are currently hibernating in the 'fridge.

Season's Over!

Here's the biggest of the tomatoes that I got this year. Tasted good too. The fancy 'french chef's favorite' tomatoes were smaller and tasty, but not wonderful. This 'common' tomato was nearly twice as tall and put out a lot more fruits.

Next year, if I'm planting veggies again, I won't bother with the soaker hose and mulch. Just in the ground and that's all.

In the late summer, I noticed that the huge climbing rose that's about 10 feet from the tomatoes was forming hips very early, and the lemon tree that's just behind the tomatoes stopped making lemons. It turned out all the sprinklers were blocked. After much running around, trips to the hardware store, hassle, hassle, hassle, the watering system is working again. But the plants I guess thought it's spring again. A new flush of flowers and fruits, including tomatoes, even when the temperature begain to get low.


In November, well-meaning friends helped me by pruning the big climbing rose for the first time in its more than 10 year life. They reduced that 12-foot high, immense bush, down to 3 sticks. So they were able to remove the trellis that I had put in when I planted that rose that had since been so entwined that you can't even see it. I was quite alarmed that this huge, fragrant, carefree rose might have been pruned to death. I am relieved to see today that it's leafing out on two of the smaller branches. The 2-inch diameter ones are still bare. Now I can prune the other roses with more confidence, even though they're blooming still.

The Stephanotis is trying to take over the tree next to it so it's probably out-grown its pot. Now that I have the 10 foot trellis freed from the huge rose, I can use it to support the Stephanotis. The big question is where to put it?

Comes Spring, I will be ruthless about getting rid of so many of the potted plants that dot my garden. Looks like the miniature pomegranate bit the dust as did the very hardy night blooming jasmine and the sickly Bearss lime that was root pruned and re-potted (in a half barrel) two years ago. Oh well, good that they're plants and not children who can become ax murders due to neglectful or incompetent parenting.

Tomatoes, Kumquat, Bargain Basement Peace Rose

It's been a week of hot days, high 80s. The tomatoes obviously like it because they're turning red. Would they turn red anyway, simply as a function of time, regardless of the temperature? I heard that citrus definitely need heat to ripen. The two tomatoes are different types with different times to mature, but they seem to be getting red at the same rate. Maybe one gets deep, deep red over a longer period and the other one is ripe when more pink? Here are two pictures.

I missed the peak flush of the Nagami kumquat, but you can see that there were quite a few blossoms. I forgot to sniff them -- citrus fragrance is wonderful. I hope many of the blossoms form fruit. This plant didn't make any fruit last year. The Bearss Lime tree seems to be still recovering from the root pruning I gave it 2 years ago. This Spring, it flowered and formed a few tiny fruit buds but they fell off.

Other developments in my garden is the Peace hybrid rose is recovering well from near-death. Surprising that it did not tolerate full sun. It has been in bright shade for at least 2 months and is leafing out again. It was one of the very cheap bare-root plants that was on final sale at the hardware store for $3. I thought that it was not bred to be a bargain basement plant so should have as good genes as its expensive cousins; therefore, after a few seasons in a good environment, it should be fine. It seems that I was wrong.

It's naive of me to believe that plants would have less variability within a given specie than in animals. Derivatively, I thought that nurserymen might sort their plants for sale, like transistors are sorted, or like California olives, into "Ultimate," "Superior" and "Fine." But among plants for sale, there is no such grading system displayed; only the reputation of the nursery, or the breeder, like Graham Thomas would be a mark of quality for a rose.

Unusually Cool Summer

Global Warming, huh? We've had two really hot days so far, the rest of the time only high 70s. The plants don't know what to do.

In early May, I planted two tomato plants, taking it seriously this time. Dug a foot deep trench, added more than 25% soil amendment, got premium 4" plants from Yamagami's. I even buried a soaker hose, put on bark mulch and fancy tomato cages. The good part of these expensive cages is the supporting bars clip on so I repositioned them as the tomatoes grew, to support the heavy fruits. Worth the money.

I pointed the sprinkler heads away so that I can water them less frequently but deeply, and not water spot the leaves. I turned on the soaker hose, just a trickle, for an hour or so once a week. Last week, I forgot to turn the tap off so it was on for more than 6 hours! Then I read that soaker hoses emit a gallon per minute per foot. Seems too high a rate, but in any case, that deep watering should ding my water bill.

The big 'muscular' tomatoes are supposed to take 60 days to ripen. See? They're multi-lobed rather than spherical. The fancy 'French chef favorite' ones are supposed to take 70 days. It's been, oh, 65 days. Maybe they'll turn red in the next 5 days? Too much water and no warm weather means even when they turn red, they might not be very sweet.

Here's a picture of the French Chef's Favorite

(not their real name). Smaller fruit, smaller leaves, fewer fruit per branch, shorter plant, and not as red when ripe.

Well, I gotta say, growing big tomatoes is more rewarding than growing cherry tomatoes. All those years of growing various varieties of cherries only end up feeding the bugs. These tomatoes are high enough up, I guess, to keep them bug-free, so far.

Other garden notes: My Nagami Kumquat was looking sad: yellow and no blossoms. I thought it was root bound so finally bit the bullet and put it into the ground. Highly amended soil in a wide but not so deep hole: planted 2-3 inches above soil level; landscape cloth to control soil erosion and bark mulch. Two weeks go by, no reaction at all; leaves still yellow. But today, presto, lots of little flower buds. maybe I'll get some kumquats after all? Will post a photo when the flowers bloom.

Homesick

I miss my garden back in San Mateo. Due to its sometimes unmanageable size, I do not always miss gardening, but I do miss the garden itself. I started a little container garden here in Metz on my windowsill, primarily because I like to cook with fresh herbs, but I finally bought a little chrysanthemum last week, because the sill needed a little brightening!

Even in small towns in France, living is relatively compact. Single family homes are not as common, and buildings tend to have little to no greenspace around them. It is no wonder that it is so common to see plants on display on windowsills! I know that even though my little collection began for practical purposes, I do appreciate the small connection it gives me to something more, for lack of a better word, organic, than the concrete that surrounds me. I suspect it does that for many others, as well.

Also common in France are heavy-duty light-blocking shutters, which seem to be unique to this country. I have a roll-down version on my window, and at night, I lower it to the tops of my plants, so I can still see them, but it blocks the view of the driveway. In the morning, my plants are the first thing I see when I look out my window.

A Luridly Scented Garden

Last week, we had three days of 90-some degrees. That seems to have signaled the flowers to pop out. They're all out now, blooming aggressively even though the temperatures went back to 50s and 60s. The scent from so many different blooms wafts around outside.

The earliest to bloom was the pink jasmine (Jasminium polyanthum). I finally got it to wrap around the 10-foot tall Salet rose. The effect isn't very obvious yet, but lovely. The Daphne Marginata was just fabulous -- such a wonderful plant! My single hyacinthe bloomed faithfully but after it faded, I forgot its location and stupidly dug up what I thought was an unusually stubborn clump of defiantly gripping crab grass.

The biggest contributor to the scent right now is the Wisteria. I have a love-hate relationship with that plant. It's beautiful, has a lovely scent, is prolific and carefree, and has an Asian heritage, like me, but it's so vigorous that it's strangling the two trees on either side of it. I should have pruned it way back last winter.

The second biggest scent contributor isn't blooming yet -- the Star Jasmine. It's a huge, vigorous plant that many people use for ground cover. I hate using the hedge trimmer on it because it oozes a white sticky milk when it's cut.

I'm surprised the various blooming citrus isn't pumping out fragrance. Lemon, grapefruit, lime, kumquat. Maybe their scent is being overpowered by the other flowers?

A really great, natural nummingbird feeder is honeysuckle (Lonicera). It can be invasive so make sure it's contained and well trimmed.

The classic and English roses are blending their various scents. The Salet with its musky scent is one of the most satisfying roses to have in the garden. The Eglantyne is very, very sweet. The musk rose is just getting started. The Baronne de Prevost is putting out 4" blooms and grew a foot in height last month! The Graham Thomas smells citus-y. My beloved pampered pet, Evelyn, doesn't even have buds yet but has a sucker. The two-tone Peace hybrid has the typical tea rose scent and is blooming very well. The pure Peace, I think should be removed -- it has some kind of fungal infestation. I'll put tuberose corms in that pot.

I'm anxious for the gardenia to bloom -- it should smell great. It seems to be late this year. Thank goodness the Kahili ginger is way in the furthest corner by itself. I don't like its scent although its sheer size is impressive. I would love the scent of the butterfly ginger (Hedychium Coronaria), but it has never bloomed for me, despite lavish applications of fertilizer, compost, manure.

When it stays warm, the French and English lavender and two types of rosemary will dominate the garden's scent. The Stephanotis did well last summer, but was not the powerful scent that I was hoping for. Maybe it likes real tropical temperatures, consistently high 80s and low 90s?

The scented geraniums (real pelagonium, Rose of Attar and Citronella) are blooming but they don't put out scent -- you have to crush the leaves to release the oil. Ditto for the spearmint.

Yard Cleanup

This isn't going to be one of those 'happy happy' posts about everything blooming. It's about yard work.

It's so satisfying to cut off big, big, I mean BIG branches, and pull up 3 foot high weeds. Who knew that all those English roses that I didn't prune in January are actually climbers? Took a deep breath and cut a 5-foot long, half inch diameter cane from the Eglantyne rose (pink flower in the picture, very vigorous and fragrant!). That leaves another 6 feet of that cane. The Salet (dark red rose in picture) is being interwined by pink jasmine (jasminum polyanthum) which was what I wanted, but the star jasmine in front has grabbed branches and is throttling them! It took some patience to cut the rose free.

Then there are the mistakes from my ignorant gardener days. I didn't know that the Japanese Anemone Queen Charlotte is invasive! In addition to springing up everywhere, the spent blooms dry on long, ugly brown stalks and must be pulled out by hand. Maybe defoliant will eradicate it without hurting the tender air roots of the camellia that it's near? Speaking of invasive, I sneered at the asparagus fern ibeing sold for money. How do I get rid of the ones progressing across my yard? They have their own underground nutrition nodes so they're hard to kill.

Alas, there's that oramental tree in the center of the yard whose roots sprout branches. It has infiltrated a hedge (hard to saw off saplings that are inside the hedge), lifted a stepping stone on the main path, and appears among the ground cover. Is it possible that one small tree can propagate a whole forest of itself?

Orchids Blooming

My cattlaya is from a division from an old, old plant. For more than 10 years, that plant grew and grew in a sunny corner in the winter and summer vacations outside exposed to only morning light. I re-potted it and divided it and gave 20-some divisions away, all of which did well. Then it got a fungus or other rotting disease probably from over-watering and not changing the medium (redwood bark) and died.

My sister on the east coast successfully kept the divisions I sent her growing and blooming by giving it full zone 8 sun in the summer and horticultural lights in the winter. After my parent plant died, she sent me 4 divisions of 2-3 nodes each.

Those divisions were positioned in the full Bay Area afternoon sun. Within hours, the leaves burned literally to a crisp. The surviving pieces were put under a tree in very bright but continually shaded conditions where they happily made many new leaves.

The one that grew to 6 nodes is blooming from the 5th node. The fourth node tried to bloom around Thanksgiving but I guess the temperature was too high or the humidity too low, or the November light was too wan... or 5 nodes were still not mature enough to support flowers?

These two blossoms have deep purple petals with bright yellow throats, no scent. Maybe the other divisions will bloom later this Spring? I hope so.

A miniature varigated Phalanopsis (you can't see how dark pink the varigation is, in these poorly done photos) was given to me last May so it's been in my care for about 10 months. You can see from its bare stems that it had three stems with 13 blooms when it arrived. It lives on a east-facing windowsill with frequent watering, occasional half-strength 20-20-20 fertilizer, and even less occasional doses of a vitamin solution ("Thrive!"). Maybe I should lower the N and increase the P in the fertilizer to encourage more flowers and less foliage? It grew several really big leaves which was a very satisfying indication that it was happy. Maybe dark green leaves mean it's not getting enough light? Should Phalanopsis also have light green leaves, like Cattlayas?

I still pine for my specie Brassia with its elegantly long stem and outrageously pointy flowers. Four types of orchids are enough for now, however emboldened I might be with these two blooms.

And now, for the two orchids that haven't bloomed ever, while in my care. One is more than 6 years old and since I've never seen the flowers, I don't know what kind it is. Oh, I know I can identify it through leaves but that's really taking it seriously. The other is a 2-year old pink Miltonia. At least they're both alive and making leaves!

Miniature Pomegranate

Got this plant in a tiny 4" pot from Trader Joe's when all the leaves were falling off and it looked moribund. I repotted it into a nursery gallon pot (which is less than a gallon). Carefully loosened the roots which were wround tightly around and around. Put in a cool south-facing spot for a few weeks and voila! Blooming. I wonder if it forms miniature fruits?

The tag that came with it said it can withstand dry conditions -- no kidding seeing as the plant originated from Central Asia: Iran through to India and is grown commercially in the drier parts of California and Arizona, presumeably not in Death Valley or the basin around Phoenix. I read that it is also grown in the South where it's pretty humid and hot. In Europe, it seems to prosper around the Med, including North Africa.

The Allied Arts Guild in Menlo Park (which used to be a historic Spanish ranch) has several mature, fecund pomegranate trees. Oh how wonderfully tasty those fruits must be! The ones for grocery stores were probably picked before they were ripe so they have time to be shipped. Tree-ripened fruit are the best.

I wonder what Allied Arts does with its pomegranates, extra large olives and citrus fruits? I would love to buy them. Once, I saw canvas spread under the olive trees with ripe olives all over them so they are collecting them but maybe not for sale? I hope it isn't gardeners cleaning up, throwing them away. They can't be composted.

My doctor friend tells me that pomegranates are excellent anti-oxidants but the commercial juice has too much sugar in it. The fresh fruit tastes so much better! Next season, I'll make pomegranate sorbet!

Eveything is Already Blooming!

I was forced by a power failure to go into the yard to re-set the automatic sprinklers, so checked a few plants. The Helleborus which was entirely green, including the flowers, when I got it last year, is blooming with pink flowers! Pretty good performance for complete neglect! Do the flowers change color due to soil acidity levels, like hydrangrias? See the many, nice big buds on it? Nice, huh?

The stephanotis isn't doing as well, one of the growing tips looks like got cold damaged, however, the other tips look fine. No buds, though, probably not warm enough. Here's a picture of its flowers from last summer. Such wonderful fragrance and tough flowers.

Unfortunately, the daphne has needed repotting for a long time. It's blooming, and smelling just fabulous, but the blossoms are small, with small leaves on long leafless stalks. I need help to move all my plants around. The lime tree out-grew its half barrel despite root pruning only last year. Ditto for the Nagami kumquat, rosemary, night blooming jasmine, several English roses...

The weather is getting warm and bright enough to move the miniature pomegranite that is wintering indoors, out. It's blooming too. The orchids did well over the winter so they should be sent for spring/summer vacations! That's a rack just outside my front door. So much to do!

Maybe some gardening friends would trade their labor for lunch and refrushments?

LOVE Persimmons, especially when they're ripe

Speaking of persimmons (see next post, below), I LOVE LOVE LOVE them! Both kinds: Fuyu and Hachiya. I love them so much so that I look for them in November and eat as many as possible before the season runs out.

Last November, I saw several persimmon trees around the neighborhood. One of them is obviously not prized by its owner because I slipped on the ripe fruits that were splattered on the ground. So I left a note in the mailbox saying, "May I have some of your persimmons?" with my phone number. I left a similar note in two other mailboxes.

Only got one call-back but one was enough! She said 'sure' and 'thanks for asking.'

I put the 7' ladder into the car and was off! I brought a friend and several empty grocery bags. I picked about 25 fruit in various stages of ripeness. That didn't even begin to denude one corner of the tree -- plenty left for everyone else. They were huge -- beautiful, heart shaped ones, some with those lovely black markings on the orange skin. Yummmmm.

I aligned them carefully on the kitchen table: 15 lovely persimmons. They brighten my spirits every time I went into the kitchen, and I controled myself to savor them for weeks!

The Bane of my Existence

Deep orange, lustrous, slick, sometimes hard, sometimes pulpy, cloyingly sweet when ripe, astringently tannic when green.  Persimmons.

The Fuyu (above), round and firm, is the type most commonly found in American markets.  It can be eaten in bites, or sliced and used in salads or as garnish.  

The ovoid Hachiya (left) is edible when it is soft and pulpy and therefore completely unsuitable for market bins.  The texture can be off-putting, but if you freeze and eat them with a spoon (and throw in a little whiskey), it's not too bad.

I abhorred persimmons as a kid, and even now won't go out of my way to eat them, so of course I inherited not just one, but two large trees, one of each kind.  Every year, friends and family members receive both the fresh fruits, and those my father dries, so most of the fruits are given away or consumed by the birds and I never really give them much thought.  This year, for the first time, I actually noticed how pretty they actually are, and took some photos today.

Every autumn, both trees sag under the weight of the maturing fruit, and the delicate branches need to be propped up so they don't break.  As the weather cools and the leaves drop, the fruits ripen on bare limbs.  On the stark branches, the contrast of orange against the blue sky is brilliant on a sunny day.  And on a gray day, the flash of brightness can be a welcome reminder that clear skies will return.

Passionfruit Seeds Germinating

Over July 4th, I sowed about 36 seeds of Passiflora Edulis, from an actual 3" fruit grown near Santa Barbara (CA) that I bought at Draeger's. I put the pulp on a piece of cheesecake, but saved the seeds.

 

Two weeks later, 2 of them sprouted. Typical of passionfruit, they vigorously grew to 4-leaf seedlings in a week. Some of the slower starters also sprouted, so I got 4 seedlings from 36 seeds.

 

Encouraged by this success, I found on eBay a Canadian seed seller selling 15 Cananga Odorata (Ylang Ylang) seeds for $5. They arrived this week. I have to buy new seed medium and really baby these guys. I hope I get a better germination rate than the passiflora.

 

Meanwhile, my roses LOVED the 2-week long, nearly 100 degree heat wave! They're all blooming as if it were spring! My Graham Thomas English rose, which I actually considered throwing away because the flowers only had about 30 petals, has suddenly decided to be more true to form and have made many blossoms on long, nodding branches, each a shallow cup shape with more than a hundred golden yellow petals. I guess it knew it was headed for the trash bin.

Chemical Warfare on Blackspot: Bayer Advanced All-in-One

This is the second year that my roses have suffered black spot. Not as bad as last year, but still bad.

 

I've tried the Ultrafine oil, the Rose Defense (Neem oil), baking soda and detergent, strong jet of water... none of it worked for me. So I invested $15 (Home Depot. $20 at Summer Winds, aka Woolworth's) in Bayer Advanced All-in-One. Poured it on in June. So, don't know the various interactions with the humidity, sun, etc. etc., but it does seem to work somewhat. I still see some leaves turning brown and falling off, but the plants are blooming well, putting out strong canes... This weekend is time for the second application so by late August, I will have two data points.