There have been some warm autumn days in the last week and much talk about flowers that are still in bloom or putting on a second show. My first is one of those.
One
Choysia ternata. RHS advises that this often flowers fitfully into winter. I’d say it was putting on a very strong show. It is in north facing border at the end that catches a sliver of late afternoon sun from the west. Its white flowers are lifting the autumn gloom.
Two
Iris foetidissima. The seed pods are really popping and every now and then I help them along a little. I am hoping I will be able to develop a colony of these under the rhododendron but having looked into their propagation it seems it may take a year or so. I have taken a few berries to plant in pots and will see just how long it takes. Of course the easier route would be to divide them now or in the spring.
Three
The persimmon tree is shedding its leaves quite rapidly now but the fruit are hanging on as they are supposed to. Advice is to pick the fruit in late October and let it ripen on a sunny windowsill, so any day now I will be putting the advice into action.
Four
Borlotti beans. I grew about three plants this year. The site is against the fence, west facing but in reality very shaded until the late afternoon. It took a while for the flowers to appear and eventually bean pods followed. Its only a small crop but they will be enjoyed. I miss my full sun allotment plot but I on the positive side I am not getting so many gluts.
Five
The lemon tree with its one ripe lemon was moved into the greenhouse a week or two ago and this week I was pleased to see several of the new lemon fruits had grown in size. This is my first year of growing lemons and the first year of putting the tree in the greenhouse. I don’t know how low the temperature gets in the greenhouse over winter so this is going to be a learning curve.
Six
I do like finishing with a rose. This week it is a beautiful spray from R.Natasha Richardson.
I hope your garden to continues to flower and be fruitful. Thanks to The Propagator for hosting the wonderful Six on Saturday. Read his blog posts and all the other Six on Saturday posts from around the world at The Propagator my plant obsession
Beautiful Six! The Borlotti beans are especially fetching and have gone onto my list.
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Glad you liked them – the colours go when they are cooked which is such a shame.
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Your garden and mine are so alike! It was a joy to see your photos. Are those beans Borlotti? We call them ‘Chitra’ and I just finished harvesting them. When your persimmons get ripe, I’d recommend a persimmon icecream- 2 parts pulp + 1 part cream + dash of vanilla + handful of sugar. A splosh of Cointreau on top while serving. Enjoy!
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It was fun to see your persimmons hanging up. The days are cooling fast here and I will have to pick my persimmons soon and bring them inside to ripen. Its my first year in a new house and so the persimmon is new to me. Thanks for the recipe.
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That ternstromia looks pretty good. It is something that never looks good here, but keeps getting planted. What is the weird persimmon? Is it one of those hybrids with the Americn persimmon?
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I am new to the persimmon – i moved here a year ago and the tree was in the garden. It is very different from other persimmons?
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The fruit seems to be smaller and rounder than it should be. I thought that it looked like a hybrid of the Japanese persimmon and the American persimmon (known as ‘Nikita’s Gift’), but the leaves look just like that of a simple Japanese persimmon. I looked at it again, and still could not tell how big the fruit was. It is probably just a Japanese persimmon. There are cultivars that I am not familiar with. ‘Fuyu’ is the most common ‘Hachiya’ is my favorite, but not so common. It is sometimes planted as a pollinator for ‘Fuyu’. Both are self fruiting, but some believe that the fruit is has better flavor with a pollinator.
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Thank you for all your information. I am a complete novice when it comes to persimmon. It seems likely that I have a Fuyu cultivar. Its smaller than a tennis ball.
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That’s what that is? I did not recognize it. It is the most popular, and the most useful. It is probably the best choice. Hachiya is my favorite, but it is not good while firm, and once completely ripe, it is extremely perishable. I can not send the squishy fruit to friends, and no one else wants more than a few fruit anyway. It is not good for drying or cooking, only for fresh eating, like pudding. Not everyone likes it. Actually, very few people like it Yet, it is still my favorite.
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Stunning six and we have both gone for the iris lol, love the rose too
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The Iris was popular this week John K also featured it! Hard to resist those berries!
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If my experience is anything to go by, your Iris will plod along gently for a year or two and then find the accelerator pedal and press it down hard! I now insulate and heat the greenhouse but in the past, unheated years, I’ve generally found that the inside temperature will drop to around 2C above outside overnight as long as the days remain sunny. Essentially a bit of sun is needed to warm the glass in the day and without that inside and outside temps tend to equalise more. I wouldn’t expect an unheated greenhouse to remain frost-free all winter.
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Thanks for sharing your greenhouse experience. It makes me a little nervous for my lemon tree. I will get some fleece in and a min max thermometer.
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