Archive for August, 2008
I have not had any luck growing begonias in the ground. Snails always devour nearly every portion of the plant. I have the same problem with dahlias. Snails consume the leaves so quickly as they grow above the ground that the tuber does not have a chance to develop a stem.
A few months ago, I purchased the above-pictured full-grown begonia from a nursery and planted it in a hanging container. I figured the snails were unlikely to get to it here. So far, I have not noticed any holes in the leaves. It continues to bloom and look great.
August 31 2008 | Begonia | No Comments »
This is a picture of a peaches and cream brugmansia we are growing. I planted it about 3 years ago. It grew well for about a year and half, and it bloomed spectacularly on at least one occasion.
In January 2007, it froze to the ground during cold weather. Since then, it has slowly been making a come back. A few days ago, it started blooming for the first time since the freeze.
I really like this brugmansia, because of its peachy colored flowers and variegated leaves. It does not grow as fast or bloom as much as the Charles Grimaldi brugmansia. Even so, it makes an attractive small shrub.
I put copper tape around the base of the trunk to keep the snails from eating the leaves. Without some form of snail control, snails eat many holes in the leaves, making the plant look unattractive.
I water this brugmansia regularly. I have it growing in a spot that only receives filtered sunlight in the afternoon and mostly shade in the morning. Although many sources say to plant brugmansia in full sun, my experience has been that brugmansia wilts frequently in full sun on hot summer days. I tend to think a shady or partly sunny spot is more ideal for brugmansia.
August 31 2008 | Brugmansia | 2 Comments »
The above-pictured white rose of sharon has been blooming in our backyard for over a month. Every time I go outside to look at it, bees are buzzing around its flowers. I have not noticed a decline in the bee population in our backyard.
Apparently, certain flowers attract bees more than others. Rose of sharon appears to be very attractive to bees. My guess is that growing a diversity of flowering plants is probably good for prompting a healthy local honey bee population. Most flowering plants only bloom for a few weeks out of the year. Growing a diversity of flowers gives bees a food source over a longer season.
This rose of sharon bush was planted by the previous owners. Its flowers are attractive, and it has bloomed every summer. Also, it requires very little care. I don’t think I have ever fertilized it, and it doesn’t seem to require a lot of water. Rose of sharon is also very frost tolerant. It can easily withstand temperatures in the 20s, and probably much lower.
August 29 2008 | Rose of Sharon | No Comments »
It seems that a garden is not complete without at least one plant in a hanging container. Fuchsias are one of the best suited plants to grow in hanging containers. Growing them in hanging containers makes it easier to view them. One can just look up and view the flowers as they droop downward.
Some varieties of fuchsias have erect branches and others having drooping branches. I think that the types of fuchsias with drooping branches look especially attractive in a hanging basket.
These are pictures of fuchsias that are blooming outside our kitchen window right now.
Fuchsias are frost sensitive plants. They should be brought inside during freezing weather in the winter if they are being grown as perennials. We bought the above-pictured fuchsia in 2007. It survived the entire winter of 2007-2008 outside without being brought inside. The temperatures here did not dip too far below freezing last winter. This fuchsia is now in its second summer.
The below-pictured fuchsia was purchased from a nursery last spring, looking nearly like what it does now. It looked great for weeks until it stopped blooming. But I managed to get it to bloom again. The secret, I have learned, to getting our fuchsias to bloom multiple times each year is repeated applications of fertilizer. I apply water soluble fertilize to them about once every two weeks. The fertilizer seems to kick start another bloom a few weeks after the last one has finished. Now I am wondering whether I can keep repeat blooms going through autumn this year.
August 26 2008 | Fuchsia | No Comments »
August is the high season for fruit in our backyard. In addition to peaches and Bartlett pears, I also harvested a bunch of autumn royal apricots this week. When I planted this apricot tree six years ago, I was hoping that it would live up to its name and that the apricots would ripen in the fall. This year is only the second year this tree has produced fruit, and both years the fruit has ripened in August. In retrospect, it probably would have been better to select fruit trees with different ripening schedules so that I am not overwhelmed with too much fruit from multiple trees. On the other hand, I would rather have too much fruit than too little!
Unfortunately, most of the apricots on this tree split a few weeks ago and then began to rot at the line of splitting, before they were even ripe. The cluster in this picture is one of the few on the tree that reached ripeness without splitting.
There were about 150-200 apricots on the tree 2 weeks ago, but I was only able to harvest about 3 dozen apricots that were edible. They weren’t as flavorful as Blenheim apricots. Instead of eating them fresh, my mom and I turned them into a dozen jars of apricot jam.
Recently, I have noticed that many recipes for apricot desserts call for apricot jam, instead of fresh apricots. Apparently, apricot jam can be useful for much more than spreading on toast.
August 24 2008 | Apricots | No Comments »
The peaches are ripening on the 6 year old O’Henry peach tree in our yard this week. The tree had about 200 peaches. That’s too many for me and my partner to eat before they rot. After giving some away, I still have a lot left. So I am going to turn a bunch of them into jarred peach preserves.
The peaches are tasty, but they are small in size, much smaller than last year’s crop. I think I should have thinned the fruit more. I waited too long to thin this year (July), and I didn’t remove enough of the pre-ripened fruit from the tree. Last year, this tree had far fewer peaches, but they were much larger. I think the peaches tasted better and were juicier last year.
Next year, I plan to prune the tree much more than I did this year. Peaches and nectarines fruit on one year old branches. If I remove more of the branches in the dormant season, the tree should have less fruit next year. I also plan to thin aggressively in May and June to reduce the crop to about 100 fruits.
O’Henry peaches are a good variety overall. They don’t rot easily or split, and I have never seen insects eating them. Although squirrels love them, so the tree needs to be netted.
My mom bought and planted this tree in our yard after she bought O’Henry peaches at a fruit stand and really enjoyed them. The tree has grown incredibly fast in the past two years, after I transplanted it from the front yard to a sunnier spot in the back yard. I waited too long in the dormant season to transplant it. The tree was just starting to bloom. It went into shock and nearly died. I fertilized and watered it excessively the spring and summer after that, and it came back in a big way. Now, it’s one of the best looking fruit trees in our yard, and it requires very little care. Besides watering and occasional fertilizing, the only special care I give it is dormant season spray for peach leaf curl and of course netting.
August 23 2008 | Peaches/Nectarines | No Comments »
This is a picture of a small Bartlett pear tree in our yard. It is full of pears this year. I counted about 130. Mid-August is usually the time to harvest Bartlett pears in central California. Last year, this tree did not have a single pear.
The branches of the tree are so full of fruit, I have held them up using plastic chairs to keep the fruit off the ground. The branches of this tree are weak and spindly. A few of the branches broke off under the weight of the fruit. I have noticed that Bartlett pear trees often have an unattractive form. Overall, our tree is not a very good looking tree. But the quality of the pears it produces makes it well worth growing. The texture of the fruit is incredibly soft and buttery, and the flavor is sweet.
I am picking the pears before they are ripe and then letting them ripen indoors. Pears do not ripen properly on the tree. The fruit ripens from the inside out. If they are left on the tree until they seem ripe, the fruit may be rotten inside.
Color is one indication of when to harvest. Bartlett pears are usually ready to pick when they are a pale green color. Another technique involves lifting each fruit into a horizontal position. If the pear comes off the branch easily when lifted up, it is ready to harvest.
The fruit ripens in about 7-10 days when indoors at room temperature. Bartlett pears turn from green to yellow as they ripen. When the top of the pear near the stem (or the bottom of the pear) is soft to touch, it is ready to eat.
Bartlett pears are one of my favorite fruits. The pears I have eaten from our tree and from my parent’s Bartlett pear tree are the sweetest pears I have ever tasted.
Sometimes, when I have a large harvest of Bartlett pears, I store a portion of them in the refrigerator. Pears can be stored for weeks in refrigeration, which slows down the ripening process, and then brought back to room temperature to ripen fully. However, the Bartlett pears that I have eaten after refrigeration were not as sweet as the ones that were ripened at room temperature right after harvest.
The bottom picture is a small max’s red bartlett pear tree growing in a pot. It’s producing pears for the first time this year. The red bartlett pears I have eaten were even sweeter than yellow Bartlett pears. I can’t wait to taste these.
August 15 2008 | Pears | No Comments »
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