WELL, it is the first time I will harvest some Carica papaya from the orchard. There are 17 hanging in there, but 3 decided to ripen in last few days rather quickly. The trunk grew to twelve feet in 8 months, without any problem with insects or disease.
The lemon and orange grafted trees, are looking aesthetically challenged thanks to leaf miners, something apparently natural according to my research. It is like a cold, bothersome but will not kill you.
The Guaicum, Hibiscus, propagated with hormones are doing fine. As mentioned before, when propagating one expects a high percentage of survival. In the first case is a hundred, in the second forty. But remember, it is better than ZERO, which was previous result without
rooting hormones. Related anecdote: Thousands of years ago, cow
pies were the original hormones, in China...
Yesterday, an above average native nice looking single mother with a strange Taino name and her 15 old daughter stopped to inquire and chat about my garden from the sidewalk. I was taking a rest after one hour in the threadmil and stationary bike.
It is not the first time this powerful dame stops to enjoy the flowers. This time she was more to the point. She has an intense affection for what I consider the most beautiful vine at home. Clitoria ternatea. The shape and indigo blue of the flower fascinates this single mother.
Gloriosa rothshildiana, was the next plant in our conversation. A really weird looking plant. The tips of the leaves work as tendrils to grasp whatever to be straight. The flowers, like another oddity, Brunfelsia pauciflora, change colors. They start red, with yellow on the borders, passing away totally red.
I have now a few garden fans. Don Miguel is another one. In the last two years, I would say that out of every fifty people who walks by, perhaps five will stop and comment, requesting plants or leaves for medicinal tea, or seeds. Not a great record. Like propagating, better than nothing.
The conversation with the single mother ended with some seed pods
of Clitorias and Merremia quinquefolia, a great combination...and a promise of some tubers of Gloriosa.
Finally, I dug a new hole in the driveway concrete, built a handsome trellis with the A shape to plant some seeds of the vines mentioned already, and the recently propagated Hibiscus.
I got tired of pruning the Cavalinna maritima on the south side garden fence. I pulled it out, cutting the main stem, now waiting for everything to dry out, to cut and dispose carefully not to harm the Passiflora and others worthy constituents. Cavalinna on the south side RIP.
The pruning was not the only issue. It looks stiff, with a desire of remaining a ground cover, perhaps its vocation. Time to go...
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