Posted on by tonytomeo · 6 Comments

Vaccinium

Vaccinium ovatum, California huckleberry

Cranberries have been elusive. I know of no one who grows them here. Furthermore, I am told that no one grows them here because they do not grow here. I am not convinced. They grow well in portions of western Oregon. Some of the riparian climates here are not too different from climates there. I am determined to try growing cranberries, even if I can grow only a few. Just this year, I procured seed that should vernalize through winter. If they grow, they will be comparable to those that grow wild within their native range, rather than a cultivar.

Blueberries were uncommon decades ago. I can remember, when I was a kid, being told that no one grows them here because they do not grow here, just like I am told in regard to cranberries. Well, nowadays, blueberries, although still uncommon, are not rare, and are actually somewhat popular among those who want to grow them. I grow a few only because I acquired them from a garden that they needed to be removed from. Otherwise, I would prefer to try cranberries. I can not complain about the blueberries, though. They are still here after a few years because they are reasonably productive.

Huckleberries, or at least one species of huckleberry, are native. Although quite rare within home gardens, and more typically grown as an alternative to boxwood rather than for berries, they can produce a few berries. They might be more productive if cultivated more for berry production than merely for aesthetic appeal. I have collected enough berries from wild colonies of huckleberry to make jelly, which is encouraging. It is also encouraging that the native huckleberry is Vaccinium ovatum, which is the same genus as both blueberry and cranberry. I wonder how different their cultural requirements are.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 7 Comments

Wintry Berries Are Already Colorful

Most wintry berries are bright red.

Seed of most vegetation here finishes developing by late autumn to be ready for winter. It wants to germinate while soil is damp, and before it gets dry after spring. Some needs to vernalize with a bit of chill to be ready to germinate prior to spring. Some offers incentive to birds or other wildlife to disperse it. It develops within colorful fruits and wintry berries.

Both migrating and overwintering birds enjoy wintry berries while other food gets scarce. Squirrels and other wildlife are likely to indulge as well. Seed within such fruit is resilient to digestion. In fact, many of such seed germinate better after digestion softens their hard exteriors. For them, digestion by their vectors is comparable to vernalization by weather.

This is why wintry berries are so colorful. They want to be visually appealing to birds and other vectors who disperse their seed. Their vectors need no more persuasion than that. They instinctively recognize a free meal when they see it. While they eat well, vegetation which feeds them benefits from dispersion of its seed. It is a mutually beneficial situation.

Birds and wildlife are not exclusive beneficiaries of ripe wintry berries. Many people who enjoy gardening appreciate their vibrant color. Such color is particularly appealing where floral color is deficient during winter. Many who enjoy gardening instead prefer any birds who eat such berries. Unfortunately, wintry berries will not last long after birds find them.

Wintry berries are already developing color, a month or so before the beginning of winter. Some may become more prominent as autumn foliar color eventually diminishes. Almost all wintry berries are bright red, but some are rusty red, orange or even golden. Greenish pittosporum berries are not so prominent. Elderberries are uncommon in home gardens.

Firethorn is the most prominent of wintry berries here. Various cotoneasters are likely the second most prominent, with rustier red color. Toyon berries are more colorful than those of cotoneaster, but are less common. English hawthorn can retain its berries longer than its deciduous foliage, but is rare. Because they lack pollination, most hollies are fruitless.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 2 Comments

Elderberry

Blue elderberry is native here.

Although almost never planted intentionally, elderberries occasionally appear in strange places, wherever their seeds get dropped by the birds or rodents who eat their berries. The blue elderberry, Sambucus mexicana / caerulea, is native and most common between California, British Columbia and the Rockies. The American elderberry, Sambucus canadensis, is more common elsewhere, and also appears in the west where it had historically been imported for berry production. Some modern cultivars (cultivated varieties) with gold, bronze, or lacy foliage are actually related to European elderberries.

Except for compact cultivars, elderberries grow rampantly to about fifteen feet tall and wide. Aggressive pruning in winter keeps them looking fuller and more densely foliated. Overgrown plants can be rejuvenated by getting cut to the ground. The big leaves are divided into seven leaflets that are two to six inches long. Blue elderberry foliage is softly serrate and a bit more variable, with five to nine leaflets that may be as short as one inch.

Wide flat trusses of pale white flowers that bloom in late spring or early summer produce small but potentially abundant and richly flavored berries. Blue elderberries are dark blue dusted with white powder on trusses to about six inches wide. American elderberries are darker and more purplish on trusses that can be wider than eight inches. (Red elderberries are toxic!)

Posted on by tonytomeo

Birds Enjoy Colorful Fruits and Berries.

Brightly colored berries are an incentive for birds to disperse the seed within.

Colorful fruit and berries that ripen in autumn and winter bring more than their own color to the garden. They also attract all sorts of birds. Some birds want to fatten up on the earlier and typically more abundant and colorful fruit before migrating south for the winter. Other birds that stay through winter eat fruit and berries that develop over a longer season, after the migratory birds are gone.

The most abundant and brightly colored red fruit of pyracantha (or firethorn) appeals to the early migratory birds that want to fatten up fast and get south. Cotoneaster, toyon and English hawthorn are not quite as flashy, but appeal to the same crowd of migratory birds. These sorts of plants get their colorful fruit early on in the season, but are then stripped of it rather efficiently.

The fruit of pyracantha, cotoneaster and toyon is not often very messy since almost all of it gets consumed; but the birds that eat it can be remarkably messy before they fly south. Coincidentally, these three plants are often grown as informal hedges and screens around the perimeters of large parking lots, so the mess is a traditional nuisance for many parked cars this time of year.

Chokeberry and elderberry ripen early enough for the migratory birds, but do not get devoured so efficiently because they are not so brightly colored. Migratory birds seem to prefer bright red or orange berries, so are likely to leave black chokeberries and blue elderberries for overwintering birds, which stay through winter. Strawberry tree, although not very productive, appeals to both crowds, and anyone else who might be interested in their fruit, by producing bright red berries throughout the year.

Persimmon, holly, loquat, some mahonia and some crabapple are even a bit more selective, by ripening their fruit later in autumn and winter after the migratory birds are gone. Pomegranate fruit splits open in the middle of winter, exposing a buffet of juicy red berries with meaty seeds for anyone who hasn’t gone south for the winter. Many pittosporums do the same, but without the colorful advertisement. Of course, most of us want to get our persimmons, loquats and pomegranates before the birds do!

Citrus such as lemons, oranges, grapefruits and mandarins that ripen later in winter do not attract birds, so we only need to share these fruits with our friends and neighbors. Citrus are colorful enough on their own anyway.

Posted on by tonytomeo

‘Karpooravalli’ Banana

‘Karpooravalli’ is a relatively undemanding cultivar.

‘Cavendish’ and its variants have always been the most familiar types of banana locally. They are the most popular that are available from produce markets. From nurseries, they remain the most commonly available cultivars. A few other options are only beginning to become available. A few of these could be more reliably productive within local climates.

‘Karpooravalli’ has been available here for quite a while, but remains uncommon. Those who are familiar with it often describe it as wanting ‘only sunshine and water.’ It tolerates soil of inferior quality better than other cultivars, and craves less fertilizer. Within rich soil, it may crave none. It should likely stay away from fences that its pups could sneak under.

‘Karpooravalli’ is supposedly the sweetest of the Indian bananas. Although its fruit is a bit shorter than more familiar bananas, it is often a bit plumper. Ripe fruit is yellow with pale green blush, and delightfully aromatic. Foliage is more resilient to wind than that of most other cultivars. It can stand more than fifteen feet tall on its very vigorous pseudostems.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 5 Comments

Banana Trees Actually Produce Bananas

Banana trees provide boldly lush foliage.

Banana trees, much like palms, arboriform yuccas and cordylines, are herbaceous trees. They develop no secondary xylem, or wood. What seems to be trunks are pseudostems, which are just leaves in very tight bundles. These pseudostems grow from subterranean corms, which can grow rather big. Each pseudostem is monocarpic, so dies after bloom.

Although they are very easy to grow, banana trees are not very popular. They can be too easy to grow, and become overwhelming. In some climates, frost can ruin their foliage for part of the year. In some exposures, their foliage can get shabby from wind. Some expect generous and frequent applications of fertilizer. All want generous and frequent irrigation.

These characteristics are contrary to growing banana trees merely for appealing foliage. Realistically, that is what most are for. Those of the Ensente genus are fortunately easier to maintain, but fruitless. Their lushly huge leaves are spectacular, relatively durable and generate much less debris. However, after a few years, they die without generating pups.

Banana trees of the Musa genus generate fruit, although some are primarily ornamental. A few produce delightfully colorful fruit that is too small, seedy or starchy to be palatable. Musa are more pervasive although less popular than Ensente. While Ensente come and go, Musa are reliably perennial. Several produce enough pups to potentially be invasive.

Musa, unlike Ensente, therefore develops colonies of a few to many pseudostem trunks. A few new trunks can replace each old trunk faster than they can deteriorate after bloom. Removal of deteriorating old trunks promotes growth and fruiting of new trunks. So does culling of congested new trunks. They propagate very easily by division with intact roots.

Because banana trees are tropical, they are unfamiliar with the seasons here. They grow fast with warmth but very slowly without it. They bloom randomly though. Flowers that try to bloom during autumn may stagnate long enough to rot through winter. Late fruit can do the same. Fruit that begins to develop early is much more likely to finish prior to autumn. Some cultivars develop faster.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 2 Comments

Karpooravalli

Karpooravalli bananas after removal of their edible male flowers below.

Pronunciation is only slightly easier than when I first tried to read it. Spelling still necessitates cheating, which I do not feel at all guilty about. Karpooravalli is a big name! I must get acquainted with it though, since it will likely be with me for the rest of my life.

Yes, it is another cultivar of banana, which is something else that I do not feel at all guilty about. I have no intention of retaining all of the other twenty or so cultivars that are already here. In the future, I will likely give away most of them to colleagues, without retaining pups. I actually already have plans to install at work the two that are least likely to produce edible fruit, and never grow either in my own garden again.

Karpooravalli banana pups

These four new pups of Karpooravalli arrived last Monday, just two days after eight unidentified pupping pups and a single pup of ‘Blue Java’ which is also known as the ‘Ice Cream’ banana. Like these previously most recent acquisitions, as well as another ‘Blue Java’ pup and another unidentified pup that were acquired together last year, these four pups of Karpooravalli are from a private garden. All of the other cultivars here are from nurseries, and most were tissue culture plugs that never actually grew in soil.

That is the dilemma. Cultivars from nurseries are expendable. I can give them away without retaining any copies and not miss them. However, cultivars from private gardens have history, even if I am unaware of it. They are important to someone.

I can give away the recently acquired pup of ‘Blue Java’ only because another pup of it from another important source is already established here, and I knew when I took it that it would not be staying. Also, I can give away almost all of the other unidentified pups that came with it because there are already too many to retain. However, I will retain at least one of them because I know that the cultivar was important to the person who shared it. Likewise, I will retain my first copy of ‘Blue Java’ and the unidentified pup that came with it because they are important to the person who shared them.

Karpooravalli is fortunately one of the more reliably productive cultivars here, and provides sweet fruit with remarkably rich flavor. It is gratifying to know this now because I will grow it for as long as I can tend the garden. This particular Karpooravalli is very important to the person who grew it in her garden for a few decades before sharing it with me, so it is important to me now. I know that I will eventually need to share it with others as it multiplies in the future, but I will prefer to share it with those who respect its importance.

Before I was in kindergarten, I acquired my rhubarb from my paternal paternal great grandfather, and my Dalmatian iris from my maternal maternal great grandmother. Both are growing well in my garden now, and always will. I acquired my common lily of the Nile and the first of my common zonal geranium a few years later. Much of what inhabits my garden now has been with me for many years. Yet, I acquired my first Japanese iris, persicaria and goldenrod as recently as late last winter from Tangly Cottage Gardening. Perhaps it is never too late to start another important tradition.

Karpooravalli bananas

Posted on by tonytomeo · 1 Comment

Banana Republic

Yes! We have more bananas! I can explain. Although there are as many as twenty cultivars of banana here, almost all are individual pups or tissue culture plugs. (Of these twenty, three are unidentified. Of these three, one is likely a redundant copy of one of the other cultivars, one seems to be completely necrotic without possibility of recovery, and only one is notably distinct.) All but a few arrived earlier this year, so have not yet generated pups. ‘Double Mahoi’ has doubled by generating a single pup. ‘Golden Rhino Horn’ arrived as a pair, and one of the pair is only now beginning to generate another pair of pups. Otherwise, there are no spare pups to share. The only spare pups of ‘Double Mahoi’ and ‘Golden Rhino Horn’ (the one which lacks new pups) may be leaving in the next few days. Whatever remains of these two will most certainly go to another colleague at the end of winter. Another colleague would like to add any spares, regardless of cultivar, to his garden. However, until just now, I could not help in that endeavor. The few in the picture above just arrived from Gilroy because they were in need of a new home. The pup to the far left is ‘Blue Java’, which is also known as ‘Ice Cream’, is redundant to a copy that is already here, so can be shared with a colleague. The others, which are sufficiently numerous for all of us to get copies, are unidentified, which merely means that if they produce fruit, it will be a surprise. Even if their fruit is not palatable, their foliage is good for forage and compost. For the colleague who would like to add any spares regardless of cultivar, they can live in a riparian area of his garden that is too steep, damp and shady for gardening. These pups may not look like much in the picture, but their corms are quite plump, so will provide an abundance of foliage after they get into the ground and the weather warms after winter. Soon afterward, they will generate more pups, but we can worry about that later.

Posted on by tonytomeo

Black Chokeberry

Black chokeberry is already popular within its native range.

The recent popularity of fruits that contain antioxidants is restoring the popularity of an old classic deciduous shrub with an odd name. ‘Black chokeberry’ obviously does not sound very appetizing, so is more commonly known by its Latin name Aronia melanocarpa, or simply ‘Aronia’. It has always been popular within its native range east of the Appalachians and just north of the Canadian border, and is becoming more popular everywhere else since becoming available from mail order catalogues. Although it is not well rated for local climates since it prefers cooler winters, it can sometimes be found in local nurseries.

Shiny, black chokeberries are about half an inch wide, and ripen about now. They are purported to taste something like cranberries. Mine taste more like pithy crabapples so far; but I do not mind. I grow the three or four foot high shrubs just as much for their remarkable autumn color later in the year. The rather unremarkable inch or two wide trusses of small white flowers that bloom in spring can be slightly fragrant.

Pruning is rather simple, as long as chokeberries do not get shorn. Vigorous stems that may get considerably taller than four feet may be pruned back to promote shrubbier growth. Aging stems can be cut to the ground in winter, and will be readily replaced by new sucker growth.

Posted on by tonytomeo

Colorful Autumn Fruit Is For The Birds

Firethorn is typically the most colorful of autumn berries.

It is hard to ignore the slight bronzing of flowering pear trees in the neighborhood. The recent warm weather after such a mild summer may detrimentally accelerate the development of autumn foliar color, as well as the ripening of some of the colorful fruit that adorns gardens through autumn and winter. Sadly, there have been reports of scorched persimmons as well.

Despite their deviation from a more typical schedule, many of the plants that provide the most colorful fruit start to do so about now, just as birds want to fatten up for winter. My favorites of these provide fruit that I like to get before the birds do. I have already harvested gooseberries, currants and grapes, and am in the process of getting to the elderberries and black chokeberries. Pomegranates will ripen later in autumn. Citrus and persimmon will be ready later in winter, followed by loquat. Natal plum produces randomly all year.

Even fruit that I do not want looks good and keeps the birds happy though. Firethorn is probably the showiest and most popular of these, since it produces such abundant bright red berries that linger into winter. Some have orange or even yellowish berries. Cotoneaster and toyon are similar, but not so flashy. English hawthorn makes similar berries, but grows into a larger tree. Fruiting crabapples were harvested in early summer; but the ornamental, albeit sparse fruit of the flowering crabapples will linger after the leaves fall. Plants that provide abundant fruit that is popular with birds may not be so desirable near where cars are parked outside though, since well fed birds can be rather messy.

I am particularly fond of persimmon, pomegranate, English hawthorn and crabapple trees for other reasons as well. Persimmon trees will provide some of the best orange and red autumn foliar color. By the time it falls, there is plenty of comparably bright orange fruit to replace it! Pomegranate blooms with few but bright reddish orange flowers in summer. English hawthorn and crabapple trees are among the most abundant of spring blooming trees. Some of the flowering crabapple trees bloom with unique shades of bright pink and nearly red. 

Heavenly bamboo, Oregon grape (Mahonia) and California pepper tree are not often grown for their colorful fruit, but sometimes like to show it off. Oregon grape is striking because the fruit is so dark purplish black. California pepper tree makes pendulous trusses of small pink berries. Snowberry is an uncommon native that makes few but striking white berries.