Geranium Blog

Amaryllis Fun

I grew four varieties of amaryllis this winter. Somehow I missed getting a picture of Pink Surprise. It was extraordinarily beautiful, I promise you. Sorry you missed it.

Picotee is reputed to have a purple picotee edge on the flowers. What a bunch of malarkey! It has a light pink picotee edge and stands in nicely for a white amaryllis. I am still enthusiastic about Picotee. It is strong and tall and already producing babies.

Bizarre Mystery Pods Turn Out To Be...

Last week my husband found two strange hollowish green pods in the rose garden. We could not imagine what they were or where they came from. This afternoon we were sitting on the patio, looked up and saw them hanging from the creeping fig on the wall. HA! We've been growing this vine for about ten years. It's never made fruit before, nor did anyone notice it flowering.

Tournament of Ornamental Peppers: Medusa Keeps Jumping In Front Of The Camera

Medusa is putting on a spectacular color show. Still blooming and making new peppers, too.

Tournament of Ornamental Peppers: Chilly Chili

Chilly Chili is much taller than Medusa. It is just now starting to bloom and make peppers. I think it is showing a lot of promise.

Tournament of Ornamental Peppers: Post Your Pretty Peppers

Join the fun:

• All varieties of peppers and chilis may be considered ornamental.
• Post a photo of your most beautiful peppers/pepper plants on your blog by October 1, 2007. Use the term "Tournament of Ornamental Peppers" in your posting.
• Leave a note in my comments or email me (geraniums =at= momcom =dot= net) with a link to your post in case I don't see it right away.
• A winner will be named! It could be you! The winning gardener will receive massive bragging rights and an attractive button for their blog.

Tournament of Ornamental Peppers: Medusa

Medusa seems to be an overachiever among ornamental peppers. Her rivals, Chilly Chili and Bolivian Rainbow, have yet to reach this level of productivity. (More about that tomorrow.)

Medusa's little peppers are sweet and edible. They start out whitish green and change to yellow, orange and red. The bushes grow about 8 inches tall with a low, spreading habit.

Medusa Peppers

The Medusa peppers are well ahead of the other two ornamentals I'm growing. Medusa is producing numerous little twisted whitish-green peppers. These will soon turn yellow and orange. Her competitors in the Tournament of Ornamental Peppers are further behind: Bolivian Rainbow is blooming a lot with darling purple flowers, but no peppers yet. Chilly Chili is just starting to develop buds.

Ornamental Peppers

These are two of the three ornamental peppers I grew from seed this year. Bolivian Rainbow will grow little oval fruit that is extremely hot. The fruit is supposed to change colors - white, green, red, purple, yellow, orange. Chilly Chili (below) will have small, narrow, elongated peppers that are sweet.

Little Round Eggplants

The Pickin's

Pepper-Eggplant Mystery Continues

A couple of weeks ago I wrote derisively about some Brazilian Aji Peppers that looked suspiciously like eggplant. Now it has produced some fruit and I must admit, the fruit is the correct shape. On the other hand, silvery-green eggplant-ish leaves and the fact that these plants are constantly crawling with ants, continue to make me think eggplant. There are several varieties of eggplant that produce 2-3" round fruit and I'll bet that's what this turns out to be.

WooHoo! An Almost Red Tomato!

This is my favorite variety of tomato for desert gardening. It is a reliable producer of large (1 1/2" to 2") grape tomatoes. High temperatures hardly seem to trouble these plants.

Miracle Eggplants Grow From Brazilian Aji Pepper Seeds

One batch of new peppers I started from seed this year don't look very pepper-y. I think they are eggplants. Very disappointing: I was expecting Brazilian Aji hot peppers.

No Shortage of Sweet Banana Peppers

Canna Seeds

I've decided to collect some canna seeds. The fertile pods become enlarged. When a pod is dry it is ready to pick. The seeds are dark round spheres. To grow them, notch the seeds with a file and soak them for 48 hours. Plant about 1/2" deep.

Coral Canna

The coral cannas (I don't know the "real" name) have burst into bloom. The flowers are speckled with deeper coral spots and there is just a touch of yellow at the center. The leaves are bronze. They grow about 3 feet tall. I grow them in a big pot next to the pool.

Blanket Flower

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Scarlet Sage

Scarlet Sage

Scarlet sage has run amuck in my rose garden. A few years ago I brought home a six-pack of scarlet sage seedlings. The next year, they were coming up all over the place! I started digging them up and giving them away. They add a lot of visual excitement to late summer and fall. And they shade the soil at a time when it is so necessary. Best of all, hummingbirds are crazy about scarlet sage!

Juliet Tomatoes

Juliet tomatoes

This is how I found my Juliet tomato bush after vacation - and what better way to find it! Juliet is a "grape" tomato, actually larger than a grape, but smaller than a Roma. They are very meaty and tasty and seem to do well in hot weather.

Viva La Okra!

Okra!

Okra tantilizes from its throne on the plant, unaware of the deep-fried fate that awaits.