Adeniums The Desert Rose

So recently, I was at an Asian Seafood place in Orange County called Oc & Lau. This place was simply amazing! Fresh unique seafood, like snails, shrimps, clams, crab and razor clams prepared in the best way possible way. It was quite the dining experience.

Well within the restaurant were these beautiful bonsai'ed caudiform, cactus and succulents. So I asked the waiter if she knew the name of the plants. She didn't, so I asked the owner and he said they belong to his father and that he didn't know either.

Well being the plant lover that I am I did some research and after 4 hrs of google searches I found out that they were adeniums and cyphostemma juttae.

Adenium

Cyphostemma

With further research I learned that adeniums are quite easy to grow and came in so many different varieties. And the are quite beautiful.

Cyphostemma juttae are a bit more rare but an grow quite large and be bonsai'd to look like different things. Which  I find very intriguing.

When I got home I ordered a couple plants and some seeds.

Adenium

RAPHIONACME FLANAGANII

Cyphostemma juttae

Adenium seeds

Time for the 2017 Fig Breba Report

Part of the reason why I collect figs, besides being a class 3 fig hoarder, is to trial the many different varieties here in the PNW. Because of our short season, we have to mainly grow for brebas. So I get excited to see brebas growing on my fig trees.

However with a greenhouse I get to extend my season with much more rare main crop figs.

My Breba List this year:

1. Longue D'aout
2. Vern's Brown Turkey
3. Desert King
4. Violet De Bordeaux
5. Peter's Honey
6. Gillette
7. Fiorone di Ruvo
8. Grantham's Royal
9. Mavra Sika
10. Green Goliath
11. Castanhal
12. Mt Etna Unknown
13. Preto
14. Gros Monstrueuse
15. Florea
16. Alma
17. Atreano
18. Antonio Black
19. Gene's Vashon
20. Brandon St. Unknown
21. Genovese Nero
22. Takoma Violet
23. King
24. Black Spanish
25. Pincensa
26. Igo
27. Osborne (yellow) *
28. Sicily

Paw Paw trees 2017

This is my 2nd yr with Pawpaws. And I'm patiently waiting for the day my trees will produce some fruit.

The good news is that it's May and the flowers have bloomed. Time to do some hand pollinating.

 

6/22/17 Update: So it looks like my crude hand pollinating may have worked. One of the flowers seems to be growing fruit from it, and I'm extremely excited!

Something I've noticed is that the female and male flower tend to grow next to each other. So if you are hand pollinating try to tickle the flowers back and forth since it's hard to tell the flowers from each other until the petals fall off. 

Strawberry Tree Arbutus Unedo

Strawberry Tree Arbutus Unedo

I've been wanting to add this decorative edible fruit tree to the garden for a couple of years. Well as fortune would have it. Furney's Nursery which has been in business for over 70yrs closed it's doors. So my brother and ended up with a few beautiful plants from their clearance sales.

Unfortunately, all of the fruit trees and maples were cleaned out before we got there but they had a few giant maples left and these Strawberry trees available. The taste can be considered gritty for some folks but I kinda enjoy it.

Grantham's Royal Fig 2017

Grantham's Royal Fig 2017

I have a purchased this fig from a couple different resources. And it's a San Pedro type that is suppose to produce some of the most amazing brebas. Some say it's better than the Desert King.

For the last 2 years I have not had any fruit off of this tree. Hopefully this year I can confirm the reports.

Mavra Sika Fig

Mavra Sika Fig

Discovered by Bass in PA in a Greek Neighborhood. Looks like it produces Brebas.

Not my photo: but the fruit and leaves look quite similar to my Chicago hardy or Takoma Violet

Violetta Fig

Violetta Fig

Rooted this year. There are reports this is the same fig as Bayernfeige Violetta. We shall see.

Hardy Bananas 2017 Update

The little bananas I bought last year are making a come back. It might be time to put them in ground. I brought them in the greenhouse for the winter because this is only it's first year and I wanted to make sure I protected the young plant before putting it in the wild. I thought they may have died but it looks like the roots stayed in tack and are making a glorious come back.

Green Goliath Fig 2017 (Zöld Óriás)

Green Goliath Fig 2017 (Zöld Óriás)

Sorry for the oily photos my camera phone broke during a laser tag event. I attained this cutting in March 2016 from cuttings. It has done well in the Target self watering pots. Looks like I'll be lucky to get a breba this year. The reason why I got this variety was because of the ginormous fruits it produces.

I can't wait!

http://seattlegardenfruit.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-green-goliath-fig-zold-orias.html

Growing the Pakistani Mulberry 2017 2nd year in ground in Seattle

This is the 2nd yr that my Pakistani Mulberry has been growing in ground and it's doing amazing. What a super productive tree! It's mid May and the tree has already flushed out a ton of new fruits. If you are in the Pacific Northwest and want to grow on of the tastiest pest resistance fruit trees that you cannot find in the grocery store this is it!!

I've been trying to air layer this thing for 2 years but it's proving to be harder than I thought. I might have to use some clonex.

I was about to abandon the air layer, but when I unraveled it. I noticed that the area where I made some scars on the bark appear be root initials. Well I sprinkled some root hormone into the area added more soil and now I'm hoping for the best.

Black Beauty, 10 BB-10 fig

Black Beauty, 10 BB-10 fig

There's a lot of hype about this fig this year. It seams to be the latest and greatest fig for 2017. Some of the plants were selling for over $200! That's a lot of money! Only 1 of these took since I used a mix that retained too much moisture.

De La Gloria Fig

De La Gloria Fig

Balaeric island cultivar

Spanish origin from Harvey's collection. I bought this purely on how beautiful the fruit looks. Eye catching golden fig with red stripes and a deep rich red pulp. Kinda reminds me of the Golden Riverside mixed with a red fig.
Purchased from Harvey

Tauro Fig

Tauro Fig - Tauro -Zingarella Nero-Fiorone di Terlizzi- Fiorone Menghtaur

Another Monster fig might also be  known as Fiorone di Terlizzi- Fiorone Menghtaur. Been hunting this one down for about a year. I'm glad Harvey offers if. It's a large fig. supposedly gets over 300+ Grams. I love big figs but this seems to be an outrageous claim. Purchased cuttings from Harvey

Tauro -Zingarella Nero-Fiorone di Terlizzi- Fiorone Menghtaur

A Terlizzi (prov.Bari, south Italy) is growing a particular variety of fiorone, the so-called fiorone "Menghtaur", it was selected in the end of 17th century by the Mayor Domenico Tauro, (1776). These had the intuition to marry the fiorone "Suar" (named after the noble Spanish house Suarez de Figureroa) with a valuable delicate local breed, resulting in a new species of seedless fiorone which was called "menghtàur" in honor of its "creator" ("menghtàur" is in fact the dialectization of Domenico Tauro)

June 2017 update:

The Tauros are proving to be very vigorous and prolific figs. This little tree already has 4 big figs on it.

Vinny's Pellegrino Fig

Vinny's Pellegrino Fig

Another giant fig. I managed to kill the cuttings I got last year but luckily for my good friend, Vinny. He sent me some new ones and they are doing great with the cup method of rooting!

These things can also grow some whopper brebas well over 100grams. They also do well in the Seattle climate.

Check out the size of these fruits. 

Black Tuscan Fig

Black Tuscan Fig

I love the Black Madeira Fig, so when I read about the Black Tuscan, which is suppose to be more productive and easier to grow I had to get one too. My guess is that it probably is a Preto or Black Madeira in disguise. We shall see when I get a chance to compare the fruit.

Cul D'Asse Fig

Cul D'asse Fig 

It's not a secret that I love big figs. The Cul D'asse should lead that category.  A ripe breba should top 100 Grams easily. Thanks to Brian for making this available to us.

Paratjal Rimada Fig

I received these Paratjal Rimada Fig cuttings from Marius. These came already primed to be rooted. They were huge! I got them on 4/20/17.

They rooted extremely well. Here they are on 4/17/17 less than a month later. All of the cuttings rooted and are trying to escape from their cups!

6/20/17 Update they are ready for their first big boy feed.

Google Search "Paratjal Rimada" and you can see how beautiful this fruit is.

What!? You can't graft that! Update 5-10-17 Part 6

Do you remember this series where I grafted 2 cuttings together? Well here's the update a year later on the Fiorone Di Ruvo that was grafted onto a Gillette cutting.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Part 4
Part 5

This is how it looks today 5/10/17 1 year later. The breba on this thing is huge. I'm almost afraid that the graft union maybe too weak to support the weight of such a giant fig!

I love it.

The gillette had a sucker that is also putting out brebas!

The ripe fruit tasting: