Moving Pots and Munching Pests

I got a pot mover for my birthday. It's great and even works on my flimsy plastic pots. When they're watered they are quite heavy and frequently...too frequently...I strain my back moving them about. This should solve that or at least reduce the likelihood of me hurting myself some. Another surprise came today when I was poking around and spotted a large mantis in my Passiflora edulis. This one wasn't the same crippled one that I had seen before, which means not only did at least two of my nymphs survive, they hung around my yard to feed on pests. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll reproduce.

Green Sapote Surpise

There have been buds maturing on my Pouteria viridis (green sapote) for many weeks now and I have no idea what they look like before they open. My Pouteria hypoglauca (cinnamon apple) has a bunch of tiny blossoms that are between the leaves and opening in clusters, but the green sapote has pairs of much larger buds. Now there are little proboscis structures emerging from the center. The morphology has me very confused, I guess I'll keep waiting to see what happens if they don't abort.

New Eugenia

Well autumn is coming, and while the temperatures are still pretty nice the sun has retreated too far for any more growing to happen. But, the Eugenia are blooming and looking good. Eugenia luschnathiana (pitomba) has bloomed 4 times this year. The third of those times it set two fruit which are still maturing. Currently there are a bunch of little buds popping open now along with Eugenia selloi (pitangatuba aka star cherry), which is blooming for the first time. I'm not sure what to expect from either fruit, but I'm exciting to try them. I just hope they can hold out and mature through the low light conditions.

   

Update: I got a ripe one! And it tastes like a sour peach...with a hint of pumpkin maybe...