Fieldhaven Fruit & Flower Report 6/9/10: ysabetwordsmith

Fieldhaven Fruit & Flower Report 6/9/10

Here is the plant report for my yard right now. Remember that if you are local, you're welcome to arrange a time to come pick fruit.

Green fruit: Criterion apple, birdgift apple, pear tree, black and yellow raspberries, blackberries, mulberries, rose hips.
Fruit starting to ripen: black raspberries
Ripe fruit: black raspberries, mulberries, pie cherries, wild strawberries.

Flower buds: butterfly bush, cleome, Queen Anne's lace, echinacea, milkweed, daylilies.
Flowers blooming: white cleome, white larkspur, foxglove penstemon, feverfew, daylilies, torenia, sweet rocket, milkweed, blackberries, white clover, red clover, yellow clover, zinnias, marigolds, snapdragons, petunias, pinks, alyssum, blue lobelia, blue salvia, comfrey, dill.
Ending bloom: chives.

The black raspberries are showing the first ripe fruit. Berries as far as the eye can see, but mostly they are still green or pink.

The criterion apple tree has green fruit.

So does the pear tree.

Rosa rugosa bears huge fat rosehips. These will turn right red eventually.

My container gardens are blooming vigorously. This one on the patio features blue-and-white clown torenia, purple wave petunia, sweet alyssum, and 'Dusty Miller' artemesia.

Here is one of the giant pots that I filled with flowers to help bees find the blooming blackberry canes. It has three shades of pink snapdragon and a pink zinnia. The other zinnias and the alyssum didn't survive there, alas.

We have a huge daylily patch near the road.

I planted several cleome plants in the wildflower garden. They come in various shades of pink, white, etc. This one is white.

This is foxglove penstemon after a recent rain.

The milkweed is now blooming in the butterfly meadow, much to the delight of monarch butterflies, cabbage whites and yellows, and some large black-winged variety, none of whom deigned to pose for me today. Fortunately milkweed is sessile.

Recently I spotted the first monarch caterpillar. It's almost pinky-finger size, so about half grown. They get pretty big.

lizziebelle

June 9 2010, 22:43:10 UTC 11 years ago

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Black raspberries are my absolute favorite. Yum.

When my sister and I were kids, we brought in a few monarch caterpillars and they climbed into the window to build their chrysalises. They're tame if you handle them right after they emerge! It was wicked cool.

Yes...

ysabetwordsmith

June 9 2010, 23:54:48 UTC 11 years ago

I like black, red, and yellow raspberries for different reasons -- the flavors are different. Black is the most robust. I like that for cobblers and ice creams.

Swallowtail caterpillars can get used to being around people too. Sometimes they show up on my parsley.

Re: Yes...

eseme

11 years ago

Try this...

Re: Try this...

asakiyume

minor_architect

June 9 2010, 23:48:23 UTC 11 years ago

I love the foxglove photo! And boy, do I wish I was in your area - I'd love to "raid" your raspberry and strawberry patches. :)

June 9 2010, 23:55:43 UTC 11 years ago

The foxglove penstemon is a new favorite wildflower of mine. I just got it this year at the Mattoon herb sale.

endlessrarities

June 10 2010, 12:02:42 UTC 11 years ago

I love the way the first ripe raspberries come in the center of the cluster, like the jewel in a ring. Then the outer ones come ripe. Pretty, and delicious.

June 10 2010, 17:50:37 UTC 11 years ago

Also, if you wait a few days, multiple berries can be ripe per cluster, which makes the picking go faster. This is important if there are vast air forces of mosquitoes on the wing. Here it's been raining every few days for weeks; the vampiric hordes are thronging.

rosalux

June 10 2010, 13:14:20 UTC 11 years ago

Your garden is beautiful!

We keep getting nearly-ripe strawberries and the ants get at them before they are ripe through. I'm trying to solve that. Peas are big enough to eat in-pod, and still flowering; zucchini is flowering; cilantro keeps trying to bolt. No fruits on my apple tree this year, I don't know why. Green mulberries except up top where they get more sun but we can't reach; green raspberries; green blueberries.

The fireweed just got done and spiderwort is blooming, but all the rest are just about to - milkweed, asiatic lilies, echinacea, daylilies.

I'm in Minnesota and it looks like we're

Thank you!

June 10 2010, 17:23:49 UTC 11 years ago

>> Your garden is beautiful! <<

I'm glad you like it.

>> We keep getting nearly-ripe strawberries and the ants get at them before they are ripe through. I'm trying to solve that. <<

How tall are the fruiting stalks? My wild strawberries tend to fruit 6-12" above ground, although they can fall over. Some domestic varieties have tall stalks but many are so short that the fruit just lies on the ground, inviting ants, slugs, etc. to feast on them. Ants are very difficult to deter, although there are some good herbal repellents.

>> No fruits on my apple tree this year, I don't know why. <<

Possible causes:
* frost-killed flowers or early fruit
* insufficient pollinators during blossom time
* early fruit all knocked off by storm or disease
* tree is resting after a heavy-bearing year.

avalon_calling

June 10 2010, 14:24:05 UTC 11 years ago

I wish I hadn't missed the stinking strawberries!! I was too late for everywhere. I checked Moran's and they said there's were done around Memorial Day! I am going cherry picking tonight in Loxa...I am really trying to preserve as much of everything this year as I can. I have a start from one of your black raspberries and it has the most beautiful full berries this year. (first year it has fruited) I'm so excited, its in a pot in the backyard, they are so versatile! My aloe plant went all fertile on me, so I have Aloe out the Yin Yang...just in case you are in need!

Thoughts

June 10 2010, 17:09:57 UTC 11 years ago

>> I wish I hadn't missed the stinking strawberries!! I was too late for everywhere. I checked Moran's and they said there's were done around Memorial Day! <<

Yeah, they came early this year. We had a lot, but so much rain that I wasn't able to pick as many as I wished.

>> I am going cherry picking tonight in Loxa...I am really trying to preserve as much of everything this year as I can.<<

Good for you! Keep an eye on our fruit report in case you see something you want.

>>I have a start from one of your black raspberries and it has the most beautiful full berries this year. (first year it has fruited) I'm so excited, its in a pot in the backyard, they are so versatile!<<

Yay! If you want more, I have oodles of black raspberry canes to share, free for the digging.

natasiakith dug up a bucketful this spring.

>> My aloe plant went all fertile on me, so I have Aloe out the Yin Yang...just in case you are in need! <<

Indoor aloe? Small spotted kind or large kind with spiny-edged leaves?

Anonymous

June 10 2010, 18:35:48 UTC 11 years ago

Spotted Aloe, I wish I could find the large spikey Aloe though

Well...

June 10 2010, 19:35:18 UTC 11 years ago

Spotted aloe I have, but thanks for checking.

June 10 2010, 18:58:29 UTC 11 years ago

Nice pots!

A very interesting post. I've been doing a mental compare and contrast exercise with our garden, and there's a lot of differences. Our chives are coming to the end of their flowering, but a lot of the ones you mention as coming into bloom or actually blooming aren't doing anything yet...

June 10 2010, 19:34:27 UTC 11 years ago

The white ceramic pot is a favorite. Next to it is a big cheap green plastic urn. Above them is a tall wooden barrel with a cheap plastic pot hidden in the top of it. They make a very nice arrangement, which would look better if it weren't surrounded by other patio junk.

It's interesting that plants bloom at different times and sequences in other places, yes. Often my chives rebloom later in the season, though.

je_reviens

June 11 2010, 00:24:14 UTC 11 years ago

mmmmmm berries...

Last night I got a link to a blog that had a recipe for individual frozen fruit pies in jars! Basically you get these smallish jars, make/buy a pie crust (they had a separate recipe for a super easy 5 minute crust), line the inside of the jar with crust pieces (no rolling necessary, just press pieces in to cover the glass) fill with fruit/sugar/spices (they had suggestions), top with either a crumble or another piece of crust with vents cut in it, put the lids on tightly, and freeze. Then, much later, when you want pieeeeeeee, you can take one out of the freezer and bake for 50-60 minutes. Voila! Pie in a jar!

Wow!

June 11 2010, 00:50:32 UTC 11 years ago

That's a clever idea.

Usually when I want individual desserts, I make them in a muffin tin. Some of my bread pudding recipes are actually designed that way.

Re: Wow!

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