I have to eat most of mine before they are ready. The slugs and pill bugs don’t wait, they are less patient than you or I.
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Jujubes are in bloom. Not the showiest flowers, but the whole yard smells like grape Jolly Ranchers.
Here is Zig-Zag:
Close up on the ants feeding on jujube nectar. The same colony also makes trails to a nearby So jujube, but I’m doubtful that they could be cross-pollinating the trees — I assume that the individual ants return to the nest after collecting a load of nectar and groom themselves clean of any pollen.
Honey jar:
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Seems like rhododendrons are always listed as “deer proof”, claiming the deer won’t eat them. Well, here they chow down on them like crazy. I had 2-3 years that they left them alone (don’t know why) and this winter they stripped 4’ high plants down to sticks again. I’ve given up on them.
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The deer eat my really big hostas and leave the smaller ones alone.
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They will eat all mine to stalks.
Such a small tree. If it were my tree, I would get rid of all fruitlets and let the tree established.
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I picked up a couple small unlabeled strawberry starts at the little free plant library late last year, and had no idea they would have such pink flowers! I’m guessing they are mostly ornamental?
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You may be surprised. There’s quite a bunch of pink to red flowering varieties with good fruit. Toscana, Lipstick, Tristan, Summer Breeze Cherry…
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I had never seen them before, oh @Tana that is good to know.
Red Gem goumi… my bush is loaded.
I have 3 grafts of carmine and ate several of both today… very little if any difference in taste… but carmine is 2-3x larger.
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Is the skin a little astringent when they are fully ripe? The two I had had hints of astringency in the skin, not bad, just curious if that always remains or not
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When mine are fully ripe… i do not detect any astringency.
If i pick them red and a little firm… there is some stringy… but when quite soft/squishy… none.
That is true for all 3 for me… RG, SS, C.
Goumi are not near my fav fruit… everything about their flavor is quite mild… mildly sweet, mildly tart, mild fruity flavor.
But every time I pass the bushes when fruit is ripe I have to stop and eat a few handfulls.
I have so many… i should try making some jam.
May do that this year.
Surecrop strawberries and Herritage red rasp.
Novamac apples… CM Trap working well.
How about the crotch angles on these new pear scaffold branches… nice.
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This is the first year pixie crunch will fruit for me and it seems like it set pretty heavily. First couple of years it’s been a CAR magnet. We will see how it fairs this year.
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Those are impressive. Didn’t realize goumi’s get that big
