Buds Flowers and Fruit - 2023 Edition

steveb4 · July 13, 2023, 1:53am

hmm… ill have to pay more attention next time i see them. didnt think they grew this far north.

TNHunter · July 13, 2023, 1:58am

@steveb4 …i know a guy in Maine and one in Canada that grow it.

Yes there are some lookalikes… that is to the not so experienced eyes.

A young hickory start and virginia creeper can sure look like it from a distance.

steveb4 · July 13, 2023, 2:08am

ill keep that in mind but as far as i know neither of those grow up here.

wdingus · July 13, 2023, 2:31am

A young Buckeye tree can warrant a second look sometimes too.

TNHunter · July 13, 2023, 1:11pm

@steveb4 … be sure and check your States laws on ginseng. Best I remember Maine is one of those States that does not allow harvesting for resale.

You may be able to grow your own and use it for personal consumption.

Here in TN we can harvest it for resale… and we have a season for that. Sept 1 is when ginseng harvest season opens here. No permit or license is required to harvest in TN… but you do have to get landowner permission to harvest.

On your own property here… you can grow it and harvest it any time you want for personal consumption… but for resale… you can only harvest during the digging season… Sept 1… the season opens… i think it officially closes Dec 31… but the tops die and fall and can no longer be found (that year) after a few good frosts. Normally early Nov here… most of it is down and out for the year.

Late in the harvest season it has red berries and the leaves will yellow… makes it very easy to spot then. A drought in the fall can make them yellow earlier.

For a newbie looking for ginseng… that would be ideal time.

AndySmith · July 13, 2023, 1:16pm

Virginia Creeper is what I first thought when I saw your photo. It’s popping up all over the place on our properties.

zendog · July 13, 2023, 1:17pm

This morning around the yarden…

Lotus are so lovely and easy to grow in a tub or small pond.

Amorphophallus konjac leaf above some peppers give them some midday shade.

“Store jalapeno” beneath the konjac. This is a variety I started from seeds saved from a local Latino market - they were huge red jalapenos. I have no idea what they were or if they were a hybrid, but the plants I grew and the generations since have all been very large and probably more productive than others I’ve tried, so I keep saving the seeds every year.

Asi Sivri is one of my favorite peppers. Early, productive and the best tasting of the cayenne types I’ve ever grown, but with only around jalapeno heat. The lower heat works for me since I can enjoy more peppers in the food and actually taste them. I grow a bunch of super hots, but mostly give them away to food banks, friends and use a few to punch up some hot sauces. It is a Turkish heirloom that is supposedly hundreds of years old.

“Regular” and some other colored coneflowers. There is an orange and a yellow in this bunch which were seedlings of the red Cheyenne Spirit in the lower left. The yellow is hard to see since it is behind.

Squash flowers peaking out behind more peppers. This is the variety butterbush, which has been staying quite tight and bushy in my small space, but I’m starting to see some mildew which I think is a known problem with this variety.

One of a few tubs of flowers.

Kerr crabapple close to ripe. The deer and squirrels have been so busy stealing my pears they have left these alone so far. I think they need about another week to ripen, so hopefully they don’t disappear.

A little IPM among the other plants.

Some of the few remaining euro pears the squirrels haven’t gotten yet.

Saraccenia pitchers - most likely flava, but possibly a hybrid.

I had two peaches and took out one and replaced it with a persimmon since I never got any fruit. The squirrels would steal them all before they were close to ripe. I didn’t thin the remaining one and have been ignoring it (note the porcelain berry vines attacking it), but amazingly it still has a bunch of peaches and they’re almost ripe. Maybe the squirrels are too distracted with the pears? It did get a few sprays of surround and the peaches look pretty good with no real rot yet. I’ll probably bring a few inside to see if they can ripen, since I don’t know if they will make it all the way outside. Purchased from Gurneys before I knew better and supposed to be Contender, but it seems to be ripening a bit early for that to be correct?