This is one of those rare occasions where even I am at a loss for words. Shocked and appalled doesn't begin to describe it.

Prof ;-)

Well prof, I have read that they can grow to be the size of baseballs. I'm not expecting that to happen.

Firstly, I had to google that!
Those are cool! Tell me how long a wait til
you actually get the hairy balls?

The flowers are cool too.
Mary

Mary, I have never grown these. I got them in a trade or a RR swap, I can't remember now. I don't keep notes.

If Prof is right, two more weeks. LOL!

Oh, nuts Token! We all knew that! But do you have monkey balls?
{{gwi:366255}}
Not my hand...or my ball...I planted mine two years ago but didn't take pictures so I stole this one.
-B

I'd expect a winter sower to have brass ones.

:-)

oops - I hope no one under 18 is reading this

Monkey balls...we have a plant that lives around the lakes here that look like that, only a lot smaller.

The ball above is called a Osage Orange.
It is said to repel spiders and other varmints.
Never heard them called monkey balls before.

About the hairy balls, you will move this inside
during the winter right??
Just curious.
Mary

I won't. Our growing season is so long that if I like it, I'll save seeds. I might take cuttings. If I get Monarch cats, well then we'll have to see what to do about that. I think they can be brought inside.

lol wow I had to google this one too and OMG the stuff that came up! I then googled "hairy balls plant" and got a much better response to what I was looking for. They are way toooooo cool. Would love to get seeds to that one token! Save some for me!!

Token you will likely have a female Monarch use your hairy balls (for laying eggs, that is). And yes you can bring the Monarch cats inside. I raised and released 19 Monarchs for the first time last summer (first year for WSing too).

I had the most success raising them from eggs though - Monarch caterpillars can be parasitized, become infected with OE spores, etc., and raising them from eggs reduces some of these risks.

Are you growing any other milkweeds?

I've got common milkweed and scarlet.

OMG!!! I have Monkey Balls. There's a line of Osage Orange trees along the back of my property that produce these all fall. Total pain in the neck. The girls keep bringing them in the house.

Last year, back neighbor had a slew of them cut down. I inquired about using the branches as firewood. Tree man tells me it takes three years to dry out--one of the hardest woods imaginable.

Prof

Here we call them hedge trees and the fruit either hedge balls or hedge apples. The wood is really hard and extremely durable. Makes very shiny furniture, although it's usually used for fenceposts in this area. Indians used it for making bows.

There're still quite a few hedge-tree fences in these parts and people still plant them for windbreaks - nothing else can top them for that, those things are rock solid - but I prefer the huge pines because I love the swishy sound of the wind in them.

They're pretty trees with nice, dark green leaves and get fairly tall - I'd say in the 40'-50' range, on average. The branches are thorny and it drops a lot of balls in fall, so it isn't something you'd want right in your yard or if you lived in town. Squirrels go wild for the fruit, and I've seen horses give them a taste, too.

I've never noticed that it works on spiders but it honestly does work on box elders. Wait til they fall and then chop them in half with an axe (the hedgeballs, not the bugs). Rub the cut side on the thresholds, all around the inside door frames, and inside window frames - mainly wherever a wily bug might crawl, and don't forget any windows/cracks in the basement. You can leave the halves inside the windows over winter or toss them along the sides of the house. We always do this and box elders actually do stay out.


Also, it'd be a prime candidate for wintersowing!

I grew up in Kansas and had a hedge row of them. The wood is the best for cookouts! When we moved to Michigan no-one knew what they were so I had my father grab one when he was visiting my sister(who still lives there). I probably have 100 little seedlings now. People from Pennsylvania call them monkey balls.
-B

Didn't surprise me at all Token. I wouldn't have expected anything else from you! :)

We always called what you all are calling Osage Orange - hedgeapples.

Token, hope yours reach maturity. . . .

I am trying a second time since last year my plants never bloomed. Hope I choose a better location this time.

Becky

My hairy balls haven't sprouted yet. I had to disguise the label so as not to shock the kids. I am growing peter peppers too and just intend to let them grow and not mention them. We'll see if anyone notices.

I'm also trying to grow hairy balls:))

I grew up in Pittsburgh where we called the osage orange "monkey balls".

Karen