White shahtoot mulberry

I really like my white shahtoot mulberry.  Each spring it is absolutely covered in long sweet mulberries.  As we are heading into winter here in Australia my mulberry trees are going dormant.  Then in spring they will erupt in catkins and leaves.

Most white mulberries (Morus alba) have dark fruit that causes mess.  White mulberry doesn't refer to the fruit colour as white mulberries come in white, pink, purple, or dark black.  Unfortunately most 'black mulberries' sold in Australia labelled with the binomial name of Morus nigra are either incorrectly labelled white mulberries with dark fruit, or are hybrids of white mulberries, instead of the black mulberry species.  I would love to get a black mulberry one day as their flavour is absolutely superb but I am yet to find anywhere that actually has one for sale,  but I am getting off topic.

As the white shahtoot mulberries are green/white when ripe, instead of dark purple/black, they don't stain faces, or hands, or washing, or cars etc.

White shahtoot mulberry is either a species of its own (it is often claimed to be Morus macroura), or it is a hybrid between the white mulberry and another mulberry species (which is highly likely).  My white shahtoot is grafted onto white mulberry rootstock.  When it is larger I would like to graft a few more of them.

Like many other mulberries, white shahtoot mulberries are pretty low maintenance and highly productive.  The bowl of mulberries above was collected one day and was pretty standard for the amount that was collected most days while it was fruiting.  This does not include the ones I ate whole picking, or the ones the kids ate while no one was looking, or anything that was stolen by birds or other animals.

The mulberries on white shahtoot are quite long, making them fast and easy to pick.  When they are ripe they change colour slightly, when ripe even the slightest touch makes them come off the tree, and slightly under ripe mulberries still taste good, so harvest is a breeze.

At this stage my tree has only grown slowly and is still very small.  Even as a small tree it is absolutely covered in berries in season.  I can hardly wait to see how productive this thing is when it is larger!

Shahtoot mulberry, one branch laden with fruit in Spring

Look how productive they are!

I don't think that the white shahtoot handles hard frost as well as other mulberries.  Each spring it seems to have some minor damage to a few branches.  That being said, my little tree has survived a few winters of hard frosts and is growing larger and stronger each year.  I am told that once it is larger the frosts will be less of an issue.

I have had a few berries that are forked, unfortunately I didn't notice until they were picked so haven't any pictures of them

At this stage I only have the one little tree.  I am told they don't grow from cuttings very well and are best grafted.  This spring I plan to try and graft a few more.  If that goes well I may be able to sell them through my for sale page.

Yellow fruited raspberries in Australia

This past summer I had a few people comment on my yellow fruited raspberries.  Most people were taken by their stunning colour.  The people who tasted them were amazed by their delicately floral and surprisingly sweet taste.  They are an impressive plant and something that always generates interest in the garden.

Yellow fruited raspberries, productive and tasty

These yellow raspberries are a slightly different version of the regular red raspberries.  There are very few places in Australia to get yellow fruited raspberries and I count myself lucky to have had a chance to grow them.  The plants look like ordinary red raspberries, they grow the same, they spread the same, they flower the same, but the fruit is yellow instead of red, and it tastes different.

I would almost say yellow raspberries feel different in the mouth, but I grow a few varieties of red raspberries and each of them feels slightly different in the mouth, so this trait probably isn't unique to yellow raspberries.

The yellow fruited raspberries I grow are quite productive.  Sometimes they grow a few flowers, but mostly they have clusters.  The berries don't all ripen at once, so the harvest gets spread out somewhat.

Yellow fruited raspberries - this cluster eventually had nine raspberries

Spreading out the harvest instead of ripening all at once means that if birds happen to steal some, of if there is a swarm of bugs, or if the weather turns dreadfully hot and the plants get fried, I should still get to enjoy some of these yellow raspberries.

Yellow fruited raspberries - berries don't ripen all at once

There is a story that birds ignore yellow raspberries (and yellow or white strawberries) and will only eat the red ones.  Many passerine birds do see red especially well, so this story almost seems logical.  Many people swear by it, and I even see places advertise white or yellow strawberries to 'beat the birds'.

Birds, however, are not that simplistic.  If they were they would have all died out long ago.  Birds eat yellow raspberries in my garden just as much as the red ones, perhaps a little more so.  I don't lose a lot of berries to birds, so I normally just let them share.  Strangely enough, I lose far more white or yellow strawberries to birds than I do red ones when they are grown side by side, but that is a story for another time.

If you have trouble with birds, net your raspberries to protect them, don't rely on their colour to stop birds from taking them.

Yellow raspberries taste similar to a red raspberry, but yellow raspberries tend to be sweeter and more floral.  I quite like them and my kids seem to prefer them to the red raspberries.  While I enjoy the taste of yellow raspberries, I grow both red and yellow fruiting raspberry plants.  If I had to chose a favourite I think I prefer most of the red ones.

Yellow fruiting raspberries

Over winter when my plants are dormant I sell yellow fruited raspberry plants (as well as a few varieties of thornless red raspberries).  I don't have huge numbers, but I should have a few extras most winters.  I can post them, but not to WA or Tasmania or outside of Australia.  If you are interested they are listed on my for sale page.

Drosera Capensis from seed

When I was young I grew a cape sundew (Drosera capensis), it lived for many years and was rather large by the end.  It was the first carnivorous plant I successfully grew, through that plant I learned how to grow carnivorous plants, how to things from seed, basic seed saving, how to take cuttings, and some basic plant breeding.

They are so easy to grow that I ended up with more of them than I could count.  The lessons I learned from it allowed me to successfully grow and reproduce venus fly traps, and I eventually grew a whole lot of other carnivorous plants too.  I missed growing carnivorous plants.

For a few years I have wanted to grow carnivorous plants again, but haven't had the money or space, and I had nowhere safe from my kids to grow them.

Drosera capensis sending up a flower stalk - not my photo

Recently I got some seed of Drosera capensis.  Seed was cheaper than buying a plant, but it is risky as seedlings are tiny that things can go wrong and old seed or poorly stored seed can have low or no germination rates.

I had good rates of germination and decided to record the number of days from planting the seed.  If I remember I will try to record the flowering date, but that is a few months away and any number of things could happen between now and then.

Days to germinate Drosera capensis
Seed planted             22/03/2019      Day 0
Germinated              06/04/2019       Day 15
Carnivorous leaves   21/04/2019      Day 30
Seeds ready to plant 19/12/2020      Around 21 months under poor conditions

Drosera capensis seedlings

The seeds are tiny, several would fit on the full stop at the end of this sentence.  The seedlings are far too tiny at the moment for me to be able to take a decent picture, so I found some pictures on the internet of mature plants.

For a full list of vegetable days to maturity (I know that sundews are not really vegetables) please click here.

Drosera capensis leaf curling around prey - not my photo

Non-photosynthetic plants

You don't see many non-photosynthetic plants, which is probably a good thing.  I am not talking about fungi, they are not plants.  I am talking about flowering plants that don't photosynthesize.

The first time I saw a non-photosynthetic plant I was a teenager.  We had done a hazard reduction fire and a few weeks later a stem appeared in the parched ground.  It grew no leaves, only a flower stalk.  The flower stalk reached about 5 or 6 feet tall then opened into flowers.  It was a native orchid.  It was beautiful, I had never seen one before and have never seen one since.

Broomrape flowers

Most people know that green plants use photosynthesis to make energy, and that albino plants quickly die, so non-photosynthetic plants need some other way to gain energy.  Apparently non-photosynthetic plants are either parasites which directly feed off other plants, or they are indirect parasites through being myco-heterotrophs (feed off fungi) the fungi usually feeds off other green plants. 

Non-photosynthetic plants is a fascinating topic.  Sometimes this is a symbiotic relationship between the non-photosynthetic plant and the fungi, often the fungi gets nothing out of the deal.

Some non-photosynthetic plants don't have any above ground parts until they flower.  Others have stems and things above ground.

Non-photosynthetic plants sometimes have no above ground parts other than flowers

Last year I found a non-photosynthetic plant.  I hoped it would be an orchid, so I kept going back to check on it until it flowered, but it wasn't an orchid.  It was something I had never seen before.  I showed someone who identified it as a 'broomrape'.

Broomrape

Broomrape are plant parasites, in Australia there are three species.  I am not sure which this was, I have narrowed it down to two possibilities.  None of them have been recorded here, but two of the species have been recorded an hour or two from here.

Broomrape growing among grass

Branched broomrape (Orobanche ramosa) is a noxious weed that must be destroyed and reported.  It represents a serious threat to grain crops and has never been reported in this part of the country.  After looking at pictures on the internet and reading descriptions I am pretty confident that this plant was not branched broomrape.

Clover broomrape (Orobanche minor) is a minor agricultural pest, but not considered too much of a problems in Australia.  I don't think it needs to be destroyed and reported (I may need to double check this).

Native broomrape (Orobanche cernua var. australiana) is, as far as I can tell this is very rare and almost extinct.  Being native and rare it is not to be destroyed.

Non-photosynthetic broomrape

The plant is an annual that has long since died and disappeared.  If you can tell from my pictures what species of broomrape it is I would love to know.  Or if you have a simple way to tell between the two species please let me know, if it flowers again next year I will have a closer look.

Days to maturity Buckwheat

This year I grew some buckwheat.   I grew buckwheat mostly for the flowers, it was planted so late that the frost will likely kill it before it gets a chance to set much seed. 

Days to maturity Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum)

Seeds planted       02/03/2019       Day 0
Germinated           04/03/2019      Day 2
Flowering             26/03/2019       Day 24

The time from planting the seed until buckwheat flowered was remarkably short.  I had dry seeds in my hand, then a little over three weeks later they were flowering!  I heard it was fast, but was always skeptical, so I'm happy to have seen it for myself.

I was also surprised to see some plants had white flowers, others had light pink, others were dark pink.  I much prefer the dark pink flowers.  I wish I planted buckwheat a few weeks earlier so it could set seed.

For a full list of vegetable days to maturity please click here.

Buckwheat setting seed

Flowering time for bees - Murrumbateman

I decided to start recording flowering times each week over a year, this helps me to know when my bees have ample food and when they may struggle more.

I only recorded things that were plentiful, there was no point recording if I had a dozen flowers.  I only recorded flowers that were on my property, or really obvious things on the neighbouring properties that share a fence with us (I didn't look over the fence, it is just what I can see from the street).  Everything on my list was within 80 meters of my hives.

I have certainly missed or forgotten some things, and I have probably used inaccurate and/or inconsistent common names for some plants, but the intention of this was to help me work out when the dearth will be here.

Before someone says something nasty, I understand that this list will change depending on what I am growing that year or if I get a new fruit tree etc.  The weather each year will make things a few weeks earlier or later, this is a simple guide.  I also realise that honey bees do not forage on everything on the following list, and they will travel far off my property to forage, again I stress that this is a simple guide intended to help me know when my bees are likely to have ample food to forage.

Honey bees, lining up politely

January

Week 1

clover
barrel medic
dandelion
strawberries
lawn weeds
jump up viola
borage
parsley
skirret
carrot
Paddock St John's Wort
tomato
pumpkin
lemon balm
lime balm
lettuce
carnation
fish mint
ground cherry
tomatillo
pomegranate
neighbour roses
neighbour privet
neighbour silk tree

 

Week 2

clover
barrel medic
dandelion
strawberries
lawn weeds
jump up viola
borage
parsley
skirret
carrot
Paddock St John's Wort
tomato
pumpkin
watermelon
lemon balm
lime balm
lettuce
carnation
fish mint
ground cherry
tomatillo
garlic chives
pomegranate
neighbour roses
neighbour privet
neighbour silk tree

 

Week 3

clover
barrel medic
dandelion
strawberries
lawn weeds
jump up viola
borage
parsley
skirret
carrot
tomato
pumpkin
watermelon
lemon balm
lime balm
lettuce
carnation
fish mint
ground cherry
tomatillo
garlic chives
pomegranate
neighbour roses
neighbour privet
neighbour silk tree

 

Week 4

clover
dandelion
strawberries
lawn weeds
jump up viola
parsley
skirret
carrot
tomato
pumpkin
watermelon
lettuce
carnation
fish mint
ground cherry
tomatillo
garlic chives
wasabi herb
pomegranate
upland cress
mustard
lavender
neighbour roses
neighbour privet
neighbour silk tree
Paddock St john Wort

Week 5
dandelion
strawberries
lawn weeds
jump up viola
parsley
skirret
carrot
tomato
chilli
pumpkin
watermelon
lettuce
carnation
fish mint
ground cherry
tomatillo
garlic chives
wasabi herb
mustard
pomegranate
upland cress
lavender
neighbour roses
neighbour privet
neighbour silk tree

February

Week 1

dandelion
strawberries
lawn weeds
jump up viola
parsley
skirret
carrot
tomato
chilli
pumpkin
watermelon
fish mint
ground cherry
tomatillo
garlic chives
wasabi herb
sunflower
neighbour roses
neighbour privet
neighbour silk tree

 

Week 2

dandelion
strawberries
raspberries
lawn weeds
purslane +
jump up viola
parsley
skirret
tomato
potato
chilli
pumpkin
watermelon
fish mint
ground cherry
tomatillo
garlic chives
wasabi herb +
neighbour roses
neighbour privet
neighbour silk tree

 

Week 3

dandelion
strawberries
raspberries
lawn weeds
purslane +
jump up viola
parsley
skirret
tomato
potato
chilli
pumpkin
watermelon
fish mint
ground cherry
tomatillo
garlic chives
wasabi herb
neighbour roses
neighbour privet
neighbour silk tree

 

Week 4                    

dandelion
strawberries
lawn weeds
purslane
jump up viola
parsley
skirret
tomato
potato
chilli
pumpkin
fish mint
ground cherry
tomatillo
garlic chives
wasabi herb
neighbour roses
neighbour privet
neighbour silk tree

March

Week 1

dandelion
strawberries
lawn weeds
purslane
jump up viola
parsley
skirret
tomato
potato
chilli
pumpkin
ground cherry
tomatillo
garlic chives
wasabi herb
neighbour roses
neighbour silk tree

 

Week 2

dandelion
strawberries
lawn weeds
jump up viola
tomato
chilli
pumpkin
pineapple sage
ground cherry
tomatillo
garlic chives
wasabi herb
neighbour roses

 

Week 3

dandelion
strawberries
lawn weeds
jump up viola
basil
Jerusalem artichoke
tomato
chilli
pumpkin
pineapple sage
ground cherry
tomatillo
garlic chives
wasabi herb
neighbour roses

 

Week 4

basil +
tomato
chilli
pumpkin
pineapple sage
alpine strawberries
Jerusalem artichoke
celosia
borage
jump up viola
diploid potato
dandelion
false dandelion
clover
milk weed
neighbour's roses +

April

Week 1

basil
tomato
chilli
pumpkin
celosia
borage
jump up viola
alpine strawberries
wasabi herb
stevia
dandelion
false dandelion
milk weed
neighbour's roses

 

Week 2

basil
tomato
wasabi herb
chilli
borage
stevia
alpine strawberry
dandelion
false dandelion
milk weed

 

Week 3

basil
tomato
wasabi herb
chilli
borage
stevia
alpine strawberry
dandelion
false dandelion
milk weed
raspberry
jump up viola
neighbour roses

 

Week 4

basil
wasabi herb
tomato
pineapple sage
alpine strawberry
raspberry
borage
jump up viola
dandelion
false dandelion
clover
milkweed
neighbour's roses
bottlebrush

May

Too cold for any significant bee activity, more than enough flowers are present for the days that the bees were active

June

Too cold

July

Too cold

August

Too cold

September

Week 1

dandelion
jump up viola
wasabi herb
nectarine
neighbour almond
neighbour apricot
chickweed

 

Week 2

dandelion
wasabi herb +
jump up viola
exploding brassica
chickweed
plum +
peach
nectarine +
apricot +
neighbour almond +
neighbour apricot +
strawberries
Persian speedwell

 

Week 3

dandelion
wasabi herb +
jump up viola
exploding brassica
plum +
peach
nectarine +
apricot +
neighbour almond
neighbour apricot
strawberries
Persian speedwell
chickweed
clover
capeweed
small lawn weeds
string of pearls
strawberries
camellia
barrel medic

 

Week 4

dandelion
wasabi herb +
jump up viola
exploding bittercress
plum
peach
nectarine
apricot
strawberries
Persian speedwell
chickweed
clovers
capeweed
small lawn weeds
string of pearls
strawberries
camellia +
barrel medic

October

Week 1

dandelion
flatweed
wasabi herb +
exploding brassica
apricot
strawberries
chickweed
persian speedwell
clovers
camelia +
barrel medic
small lawn weeds
jump up viola
cape weed
nashi fruit
pink lady

 

Week 2

camellia
clover
barrel medic
dandelion
flatweed
pink lady
Huonville crab
Igloo apricot
cape weed
wasabi herb
strawberries
lawn weeds
jump up viola

 

Week 3

camellia
clover
barrel medic
dandelion
flatweed
pink lady
Huonville crab
Igloo apricot
cape weed
wasabi herb
strawberries
thyme
lawn weeds
jump up viola
red poppy
upland cress
borage
neighbour's hakea
coriander
plantain

 

Week 4

camellia
clover
barrel medic
dandelion
flatweed
pink lady apple
cape weed
wasabi herb
strawberries
thyme
lawn weeds
jump up viola
red poppy
upland cress
photinia
raspberries
borage
neighbour's hakea
coriander
plantain
rosemary
lavender
pigface

 

November

Week 1

camellia
clover
barrel medic
dandelion
flatweed
pink lady
cape weed
wasabi herb
strawberries
youngberry
thyme
lawn weeds
jump up viola
red poppy
upland cress
photinia +
raspberries
borage
neighbour's hakea
coriander
plantain
everlasting onions
sage
diploid potato
pigface
rosemary
lavender
neighbour honey locust +

 

Week 2

clover +
barrel medic
dandelion
flatweed
wasabi herb
strawberries
thyme
lawn weeds
jump up viola
upland cress
borage
neighbour's roses
coriander
everlasting onions
sage
diploid potato
pigface
lavender
lemon +
neighbour bottle brush

 

Week 3

clover
barrel medic
dandelion
flatweed
strawberries
lawn weeds
jump up viola
borage
neighbour's roses
coriander
everlasting onions
Babington leek
sage
diploid potato
pigface
lavender
lemon
neighbour bottle brush
poppy
paddock St John's Wort

 

Week 4

clover
barrel medic
dandelion
flatweed
strawberries
lawn weeds
jump up viola
borage
neighbour's roses
coriander
parsley
carrot
Babington leek
diploid potato
pigface
lavender
lemon
neighbour bottle brush
large poppy
Paddock St John's Wort

 

Week 5

clover
barrel medic
dandelion
flatweed
strawberries
lawn weeds
jump up viola
borage
neighbour's roses
coriander
parsley
carrot
Babington leek
potato onions
diploid potato
pigface
lavender
neighbour bottle brush +
large poppy
pomegranate
Paddock St John's Wort
mustard
upland cress
radish
Chilean guava
elderberry

 

December

Week 1

clover
barrel medic
dandelion
strawberries
lawn weeds
jump up viola
borage
neighbour's roses
coriander
parsley
carrot
Babington leek
potato onions
diploid potato
lavender
neighbour bottle brush
large poppy
pomegranate
Paddock St John's Wort
mustard
radish
Chilean guava
elderberry
tomato
pumpkin

 

Week 2

clover
barrel medic
dandelion
strawberries
lawn weeds
jump up viola
borage
neighbour's roses
coriander
parsley
carrot
Babington leek
potato onions
tree onions
diploid potato
lavender
neighbour bottle brush
large poppy
pomegranate
Paddock St John's Wort
mustard
radish
Chilean guava
elderberry
tomato
pumpkin
lemon balm
lime balm

 

Week 3

clover
barrel medic
dandelion
strawberries
raspberries
lawn weeds
jump up viola
borage
neighbour's roses
coriander
parsley
carrot
potato onions
tree onions
lavender
large poppy
pomegranate
Paddock St John's Wort
radish
elderberry
tomato
pumpkin
lemon balm
lime balm
globe artichoke
lettuce

 

Week 4

clover
barrel medic
dandelion
strawberries
raspberries
lawn weeds
jump up viola
borage
neighbour's roses
coriander
parsley
skirret
carrot
lavender
pomegranate
Paddock St John's Wort
radish
tomato
pumpkin
lemon balm
lime balm
globe artichoke
lettuce
carnation
fish mint
ground cherry
tomatillo
neighbour privet
neighbour silk tree

 

Do sunflowers track the sun?

When I was young I heard amazing stories of how sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) turn their flowers throughout the day to follow the sun. The story says that they face east in the morning, track the sun as it moves during the day, face west in the afternoon, and then overnight turn back facing east ready for the sunrise the following day. What an amazing story. I wanted to see this for myself.

When I was a kid I got some sunflower seeds, planted them, tended the plants, and remember being disappointed to see that the flower buds didn’t turn to track the sun at all. I figured maybe they only changed direction once they were open, so I waited. When the flowers opened I was even more disappointed to see that the flowers did not move at all. They stayed facing the same direction that they were facing back when they were fat little buds.

Last year I was talking to someone who told me how I must have misremembered, and that all sunflowers do follow the sun – that is why they call them sunflowers. They said there are even time-lapse videos on the internet of this happening with entire fields. My experience growing sunflowers was a lot of years ago, so the chances of me remembering incorrectly is really high. I grew a variety called Giant Russian and another old heirloom variety intended for poultry feed, perhaps they are too large and heavy to turn a noticeable amount?

This year my daughter grew some sunflowers, they were smaller varieties. If any type is going to turn it is going to be these little ones. So I decided to take notice of which way they faced and get some photos at different times of the day to help me remember correctly.

Somehow I forgot to take photos, which was irritating. Luckily one late sown seed grew, I forgot to take pictures of the unopened flower bud, but I did remember to take pictures of it throughout a day once the flower had opened.

The first picture is of the sunflower in the morning after the sun had been up for a while. Note which way it is facing. I tried to stand in a similar place to take the next two photos, but I may have been off a little. Even being off a tiny bit you will still be able to see how far the flowers turn or don’t turn.

Sunflower in the morning

The second photo was taken at mid-day, note which way the flower is facing here. Again I tried to stand in a similar position, but was off a little bit.

Sunflower middle of the day

The third photo was taken in the late afternoon before the sun went down, again note which way the flower is facing.

Sunflower in the afternoon

As you can see from the three pictures above, the open sunflower does not turn to track the sun. None of the other sunflowers that I forgot to photograph turned, nor did the unopened flower buds. When the plant was very small the growing point did display a bit of heliotropism and tracked the sun somewhat, but once the bud started to develop and become plump its sun tracking stopped completely.

I tried to track down some of the time lapse videos of this allegedly occurring. Not surprisingly all I could find were some poorly faked videos with digitally added rainbows in the background, and nothing that looked even remotely real. How disappointing. Oh well, at least now I know for sure that sunflowers don't track the sun each day.

Red Fleshed Apples Australia

There are very few red fleshed apple varieties available in Australia at the moment.  One is called 'Red Love'.  Apparently there are a bunch of different apple varieties owned by Red Love overseas ('Redlove Calypso', 'Redlove Circe', 'Redlove Era', and 'Redlove Odysso'), I am not sure which one is present in Australia but I am told it tastes like a granny smith apple, sour and unimpressive.  It looks pretty enough.

Another red fleshed apple in Australia is called the Huonville Crab, it is said to be the cross between a domestic apple and a crab apple.  I am growing this one.  Its bark, leaves, and flowers look amazing, this apple tree would not look out of place in an ornamental garden.

This year my Huonville crab apple produced fruit, the birds got to some and knocked them off the tree early.  There is a good chance that when the fruit are ripe I will forget to take any pictures, so I took pictures of the fruit the birds knocked off.  Some of them had bits missing where the birds had eaten parts, so I cut these bits off for the picture.

The skin and flesh does get a little darker than the pictures below, they still had a month or two until they were ripe, but it gives you a good idea of what they will look like.

Huonville Crab Apple - deep red and shine up well

Birds bit pieces, so I cut them off

Huonville crab apple - red fleshed

Red fleshed apple

Huonville crab are quite a pretty apple

The seeds were pink!

Winner of the Flower Blog Award 2018

Recently I received an email from someone who claimed to work for Sparpeia.ch offering to nominate my blog for the "Flower Blog Awards 2018".

It was a blog competition, they had 10 blogs for people to vote for, and they offered to make mudflower the eleventh blog in the competition.

I had not heard of them before, and I never click on links that are emailed to me, so I googled them.  I found the following description of sparpedia.ch

• Online Shopping, Discount Store, Vouchers, Our mission is to provide all Swiss with the latest and best offers of all online shops in Switzerland.

They are located in Switzerland.  That seemed odd.  Would my blog really be good enough to be nominated for an international flower blog award?

I did some more googling and it all appeared legitimate, so I replied to the email and agreed to be nominated.  It felt like the competition had been running for some time prior to my inclusion as there was less than a week left until voting closed.

I had a look at the other blogs in the competition, and they were all really amazing blogs, so I was delighted that my blog was considered worthy to compete with such high quality blogs.

It was a great honour to be nominated for an international flower blog competition!  Even if I didn't get a lot of votes this would still be a great experience and I was really excited to be part of it. 

If you voted for me in Flower Blog Awards 2018 thank you, I really appreciate it. 

The voting progressed and at the end the most amazing thing happened, I won!  My blog won the Flower Blog Awards 2018.  Seriously, I really won!  This blog got 40% of the votes.  Second and third place each got 7% of the votes.

Wow, I honestly wasn't expecting that.  

They emailed me the HTML for a cool little badge thingy to put on my blog (it is over on the right hand side somewhere) and sent me some prize money that was kindly provided by their sponsors Ricardo, Easyjet, Swisscom, and Autoscout24.

It isn't every day you win Switzerland's flower blog award! Thank you Sparpedia for allowing me to be part of this, and thank you to the sponsors who made this all possible.

Marshall's Bananaphone Pea

This past year I grew a rare variety of pea named Marshall’s bananaphone. What an amazing name! I grew them in the hope of building up seed numbers and distributing them.  Unfortunately it didn’t really work out that way.

The birds decided they were going to dig up and eat most of my pea seed, so I didn't get many more seeds from any variety that I planted this year. Marshall’s banana phone is no exception to this. I protected a few plants, but nowhere near as many as I planted.

To top this off, every time I looked away the kids would eat a few more of them. As I couldn’t increase the seed numbers significantly I thought I would write a description of this variety of yellow podded shelling pea.

Marshall's Bananaphone not yet ripe

Massive Leaf Parsley

Last year I tried to do a bit more wide plant breeding.  I have a few things I am trying that may or may not be worth doing, but it is fun learning.  I seem to be achieving a few things that people say are impossible, as well as other things that it appears that have never been attempted.

One thing I attempted to do was cross members of the Apiaceae family.  Crossing Apiaceae is fiddly and time consuming at the best of times.  So my success rate is low and my confidence levels that I have made the cross I had hoped for is even lower.

Then I grew the most remarkable plant.

My mystery seedling

I attempted to cross skirret and parsley.  I had many hundreds of parsley seeds germinate, as well as many skirret seeds.  As well as those seedlings a mystery seedling grew.

When it was tiny it looked a lot like skirret but something was different.  I like skirret, and I like plants that grow from seed by themselves, so I decided to leave it to grow.  Who knows, it could turn out to be something special?

After the plant grew larger, the leaves looked different from skirret.  It didn't look like anything else I am growing either.  The leaves kind of looked a bit like parsley. But not flat leaf parsley, and not curly leaf parsley.  Each leaflet had rounded lobes.

mystery plant - possibly skirret x parsley hybrid

Skirret and parsley are both in the Apiaceae family so crossing is not entirely out of the question.  Skirret is Sium sisarum, while parsley is Petroselinum crispum.  Wide crosses between different genus is very uncommon, but not always impossible. 

There is very little information on skirret on the internet so it is not surprising that I can not find any reference to any skirret hybrids at all.  It is too bad, skirret deserves to be grown more and understood better.

I found reference to a few parsley x celery hybrids and a parsley x carrot hybrid that was achieved using protoplast fusion.  I read one study where parsley and celeriac were cross pollinated, only  three seeds out of 1,000 were hybrids and the others were not. 

It appears that some hybrids within Apiaceae are possible, but very unlikely.  So it is a good thing I planted (and accidentally dropped) so many seeds!

Parsley leaves at top and middle, skirret leaves lower

The leaves of my mystery plant do not look like parsley or skirret leaves.  The mystery plant's leaves have rounded lobes, while parsley tend to have pointy lobes.  Skirret leaves tend to show a bit of diversity and can be pointy or rounded.  The mystery plant's leaves each grew five leaflets, each of which were about the size of the palm of my hand.  I am not yet certain, but this is either a hybrid, or a remarkable massive leaf parsley.

As it started to flower the leaflets became more pointed and thinner, eventually resembling fatter flat leaf parsley leaves. 

The leaves taste and smell like parsley

The leaf petioles of skirret tend to be almost round in cross section, while the petioles of parsley often are not.  Most parsley tends to have crescent moon like shape in cross section, like a tiny version of celery.  That being said, I do have a few parsley plants with petioles that are almost round.  The leaf petioles of my mystery plant are almost round, resembling skirret petioles.

My skirret often grows a small leaf from the where the base of a larger leaf  joins the plant.  This mystery plant is also demonstrating this behaviour.  Oddly enough, some of my parsley do this while most others don't.  This small leaf became a growing point that eventually put up up flowers.

The base of each leaf became a growing point that eventually sent up flowers

Some of my skirret have purple petioles while others have green.  I don't know if this is due to environmental factors or if it is purely genetic.  Parsley has green or white petioles. The mystery plant has green petioles.

I have not dug up the plant so do not know what the roots look like.  I am very tempted to dig and have a look, but fear that will not end well for my little plant.

The leaves are fascinating

Skirret is a perennial plant that flowers in its first year when grown from seed and goes dormant over winter.  Most parsley is biennial only flowering in its second year, after which it dies.  If parsley flowers in its first year it tends to be due to stress, and the plant is small and weak.  Parsley does not go dormant over winter in my climate.

My mystery plant is currently flowering in its first year.  The flowers are small and unremarkable, much like the flowers on any Apiaceae, but closely resembling parsley flowers more than skirret flowers.  Both my skirret and my parsley are flowering at the same time too.  I do not know if my mystery plant will die after flowering, if it survives I don't know if it will go dormant over winter.

It is widely documented that in parsley is diploid and 2n = 22.  Bell (1966) states that skirret is diploid and 2n = 22, which would mean that a hybrid between the two could possibly be fertile and may be able to set viable seed.

Unfortunately, several other sources contain conflicting information and state that in skirret is diploid and 2n = 20.  If this is the case then this hybrid will likely be sterile and none of its seeds will be viable.  I have no way to determine ploidy levels at home, so will have to wait and see what happens.  

At this stage the seeds appear to be forming normally, so I would be surprised if they are not viable.

Parsley usually reaches about 2 to 3 feet tall.  Look at the size of this monster!

At this stage it was 157 cm tall, it got much taller than this

If this plant is an intergeneric skirret x parsley hybrid, it will be the first one to have ever been grown and should be resistant to almost every disease that bothers parsley.  If this plant is just parsley, then it is the most remarkable parsley I have seen.

This plant may be fertile and produce viable seeds, or it may be infertile and none of the seeds will germinate.  This plant may be perennial and produce offsets like skirret, or it may be annual and die after flowering.  If it is infertile and annual then this will be possibly the first and only intergeneric skirret hybrid to ever be grown. 

Hopefully this plant proves to be fertile and I can save viable seed.  I would really love to grow the F2 seeds and see what they are like.  Hybrid or not, I would love to stabilise a massive leaf parsley.

I can hardly wait to see what happens.  I plan to write another blog post after the seeds have been planted and I know more.

Strawberry x Raspberry intergeneric hybrid berry taste

Earlier I wrote a post on strawberry x raspberry hybrid experiment update, now it is time for a description of the berries (botanically they are not berries, but let's move on).

I tried to think of how to describe the taste of these berries, saying "they are really delicious", or "I like them", probably isn’t all that useful to anyone.  So I thought hard about how to describe the taste of strawberry x raspberry hybrid berries.

To me they are sour, but not in a bad way, and certainly not as sour as store bought strawberries or raspberries.  They taste like strawberry mixed with something tropical.  They taste warm (is warm a taste) and floral (is floral a taste) and really nice.  They are very fragrant, the smell is delicious and similar to the taste.  The fragrance is like strawberry mixed with something tropical.  That is the best description I can come up with.

I asked someone else to describe their taste, and was given the following elaborate and rather fancy description.

• They taste sour and warm with a delicately intense combination of wild strawberries, apricots, bananas, and raspberries. They have the unmistakable heavenly scent of a lolly shop.

Wow, I don't know what to say.  I guess they are far better at words than I am.

I asked someone else to describe the taste and was told:

• are AMAZING!!!!!!!! They’re little flavour explosions!  So YUMMY!!!! 

Than when I asked for a better description was told:

• Booom!

I guess the taste of strawberry x raspberry hybrid berries inspires the overuse of exclamation marks and capitalisation?  In all seriousness, they do taste sensational and unlike anything else I have eaten, so their taste causing a lot of excitement is understandable.

The texture of strawberry x raspberry hybrid berries is different from that of either parent.  Perhaps something akin to a ripe pear, but without any grittiness that pears often have. 

The hybrid berries all look similar to strawberries.  They have achenes (the true fruits that most people refer to as 'seeds') on the outside of a fleshy receptacle.  These achenes are barely attached to the receptacle, and I wonder if they would fall off from the lightest hint of a breeze, yet somehow they stay attached.  The skin and achenes are red, and the flesh is white all the way through.

They are vaguely strawberry shaped, but all of them are odd looking, lumpy, bumpy, and bulbous.  They all have irregular bumps, some are curved, in some the end is slightly forked, or the berry is twisted, some are short and fat while others are elongated.  The weird shapes do not appear to have been caused from issues with pollination.

At this stage I don't know if they are self-pollinating, or if they are being pollinated by strawberry or raspberry plants growing near by.  I don't know if any of these seeds are viable and will grow.  I have many breeding experiments I want to try with this hybrid and will try to write more blog posts as I discover more.

All the following images are of strawberry x raspberry hybrid fruit off the same plant.

Strawberry x raspberry hybrid fruit, has lumps and the end is slightly forked

Strawberry x raspberry hybrid, note the base is bulbous

Strawberry x raspberry hybrid, note the irregular shape and the leaf arising from the calyx

Strawberry x raspberry hybrid, berries are all irregular

Strawberry x raspberry hybrid berry

Strawberry x raspberry hybrid

Edit to add: I sent samples of these plants to the CSIRO who tested them and determined that they are true intergeneric strawberry raspberry hybrids.  The results can be seen here.

 

Strawberry x Raspberry Hybrid Experiment Update

It is time for an update on my strawberry x raspberry hybrid experiment. 

Strawberry x Raspberry hybrid semi double flower (it is missing a petal)