Tiny Flowers and Big Hopes

My Kohala longan came in the mail yesterday. It's only about 3' tall, but I opened the box to find a very sweet smelling aroma and bunches of little flowers. I'm not sure what will happen now that it's here and in a proper pot, but if it can hold on to the flowers maybe I'll get some free fruit. My Ice Cream mango has been taking off recently too. It has flowers that are about the same size and today I noticed that some of them are opened. Here's hoping for a double dose of fruity good luck.

Update: The mango dropped all the flowers without setting one fruit, and the longan almost did the same...almost. There is one fruit hanging on while some new growth pushes from the top.

Ground Cherry

It's going to be a warm weekend, so I started it off with watering my plants. Upon doing so a Ground Cherry aka Cape Gooseberry freed itself and fell to the ground. The little orange-yellow marble inside a tan paper lantern bounced with a slight crunching sound to catch my attention. I liberated the fruit from it's paper shell and popped it in my mouth. It was sweet before I bit into it. I thought, "this must be what people who enjoy tomatoes like." Except that Physalis fruits are nightshades, and they're not gross. I think anyone could grow these like they do a tomato plant, save some seeds through the winters in other zones where the plant would not survive, and enjoy the spring and summer tangy sweetness each year.

April Fools Day After

It has been some time since my last post. Partly because not much has happened since last growing season, and partly from lack of typing inclination. So, now it's time for a mega update.

I've managed to collect quite the spectrum of tropical/exotic/rare fruit plants. Some are small, but the majority are in my large plastic drilled-out pots. It was a challenge, after the flood light came down this last month, to arrange them on the patio in a non-intrusive and healthy manner. But I think I managed it sufficiently. Some skirting has to be done here and there, but in general it works. Although there are certainly a large number of plants on the patio, they're not full of leaves which gives the impression that there are not as many as a list conveys. Here that is:

Annona cherimola x squamosa Atemoya Bradley
Annona diversifolia Ilama Rosada
Annona squamosa Sugar Apple Super Atis
Annona cherimola x squamosa Atemoya Island Gem
Annona cherimola x squamosa Atemoya Phat Pakchong, PPC
Annona cherimola x squamosa Atemoya Randhir
Annona diversifolia x (cherimola x squamosa)
Annona cherimola x squamosa Atemoya Geffner
Annona cherimola x squamosa Atemoya African Pride
Annona cherimola x squamosa Atemoya Lisa
Annona reticulata Red Custard Apple Tobago Pink
Annona squamosa Sugar Apple Giant Mexican
Annona cherimola x squamosa Atemoya Dream
Bauhinia monandra Orchid Tree, Napoleon's Plume
Bunchosia argentia Peanut Butter Fruit Tree
Casimiroa edulis White Sapote Suebelle
Diospyros digyna Black Sapote
Diospyros nigra Black Sapote
Eriobotrya japonica Loquat
Eriobotrya japonica Loquat Averi, Strawberry, Vista White
Eugenia luschnathiana Pitomba
Eugenia selloi Pintangatuba
Eugenia candolleana Rainforest Plum
Eugenia uniflora x selloi
Eugenia braziliensis Grumichama
Eugenia uniflora Suriname Cherry
Eugenia victoriana Sundrops
Garcinia humilis Achacha, Achachairu, Bucorapi
Garcinia aristata
Garcinia hombroniana Seashore Mangosteen
Garcinia humilis Achacha, Achachairu, Bucorapi
Garcinia acuminata Sour Bacupari
Garcinia humilis Achacha, Achachairu, Bucorapi
Garcinia xanthochymus Yellow Mangosteen, Gamboge
Inga sp. Ice Cream Bean Pink
Inga sp. Ice Cream Bean
Mangifera indica Mango Ice Cream
Manilkara zapota Sapodilla, Chico Tikal
Musa Banana Thousand Fingers
Musa acuminata Banana Grand Nein
Musa Banana Dwarf Iholena
Musa acuminata Banana Gros Michel
Musa velutina Banana Pink Velvet
Nephelium mutabile Pulasan
Passiflora parritae
Passiflora xiikzodz x coriacea Manta
Passiflora racemosa Buzios
Passiflora malacophylla
Passiflora pittieri
Passiflora (incarnata x edulis) x (incarnata x cincinnata) Blue-Eyed Susan
Passiflora actinia
Passiflora edulis
Passiflora mucronata
Passiflora discophora
Passiflora porphyretica Angustata
Passiflora ornithura
Passiflora sublanceolata
Passiflora ovalis
Passiflora Kew Gardens
Passiflora lingularis
Passiflora actinia
Persea americana Avocado Red Russell, Bacon, Fuerte
Persea americana Avocado Brogdon
Persea americana Avocado Nabal
Persea americana Avocado Fuerte
Physalis peruviana Cape Gooseberry
Plina x Jaboticaba Red
Plinia glomerata Jaboticaba, Cabelluda Yellow
Plinia caulifora Jaboticaba Grimal
Plinia aureana Jaboticaba White
Plinia cauliflora Jaboticaba
Plinia vexator Jaboticaba Blue
Plinia edulis Cambuca
Plinia vexator Jaboticaba Blue
Pouteria hypoglauca Cinnamon Apple
Pouteria lucuma Lucuma
Pouteria viridis Green Sapote
Rollinia peruviana Biriba
Rollinia deliciosa Biriba
Rollinia mucosa Biriba
Rollinia mucosa x Biriba
Rollinia deliciosa Biriba
Rollinia deliciosa Biriba
Salacca zalacca Snake Fruit, Salak
Synsepalum dulcificum Miracle Berry
Syzygium samarangense Red Wax Jambu
Syzygium jambos Rose Apple


I have all the typical genera like Annona, Garcinia, Eugenia, Plinia etc. and they all do better in their pots than Passiflora. I still have some of those with the exception of P. edulis and the inclusion of the Bauhinia that are decorative, but pretty much all else is meant to be eaten. Though I must say some of these plants have stunning morphology.

Grafting is a fun new twist on this hobby as well. It's not something I tackled often with Passiflora although some notoriously difficult plants have been successfully grafted on to hardy root stocks, and it's slowly changing the game. That's an exciting development. I hope it leads to the proliferation of species such as P. parritae. But, back with the rest of the collection. I bought a great knife not meant for grafting, but that I figured would work well. And, it does. I bought a grafting tool that makes perfectly nesting little male-female saddle and wedge cuts. I got my wax tape and white colored electrical tape for sealing in moisture and putting pressure on the joints, and I was set. I grafted the Atemoya 'African Pride' and 'Lisa' scions first, and they took. Easy. Then I grafted the 'Mexican Giant' and 'Dream' and half took (the half under 24 light in the greenhouse), and half didn't (the half outside under direct light for a few hours). I'm told that they require lots of light to "take" and that seems to be proving true. So, I cut off the dead wood on both stock and scion for about 4 plants that failed to take and re-grafted them before popping them in the greenhouse as well. We'll see if that works.

Right now, in addition to the new growth pushing on the Annona and the releafing taking place on everything else, I have a bunch of flowers on my 'Brogdon' avocado. If I'm lucky, a bee or humming bird in need of some nectar will find it, but I'm not holding my breath on that one. I'm not sure what will be next to bloom. The 'Ice Cream' mango seems to be doing something, but I'm not certain if it's budding or leafing.