The he oranges are almost ready!

Hi All,

I could hardly wait to share this bit of gardening with you. In September I posted a picture of my purple tomatillo plant which was doing really well and then Mary shared that tomatillos need a second plant to cross pollinate and fruit. I was very bummed and tried to find another plant, and only one nursery had any and they wanted $20 for one, which I thought was insane, so I planted some more seeds that sprouted and then got eaten by birds, mice, grasshoppers, something, so again saddness. I called another nursery and the gentleman on the line said, "have you tried bloosom set? I told him no I had never heard of it. He explained that it was a hormone spray and that that should work for me if I sprayed two pumps on the flowers the first day they opened. I found some spray at Ace Hardware and sprayed away. And nothing. Saddness once more. A few weeks go by and I see this

Also, with inspiration from you guys I put in a brown turkey fig

My weird squash is still doing very well, getting bigger all the time. It looks like it is changing color a little and the skin is getting a little waxy. I don't think it is ready yet having no idea what it is actually but I will keep you all up to date on its progress.

Shannon

Fun updates! My oranges are almost ready too, Marianne--this week is JUST started to notice a tiny bit of yellow-orange forming on some of them. Hurry hurry hurry, LOL. What variety is in your pic? It's a big one! :)

Great update too, Shannon, I've heard of that "blossom set" stuff but have never tried it. Thanks for sharing your experience with it. I hope you get a ton of tomatillos! Good luck with the fig and the tangerine and the other fruit trees you planted. We love updates so don't be shy. And speaking of which, thanks for the update on your weird squash/melon, hah. I can't wait to see pics of it sliced open and to hear if it's squashy or melony and what you did with it and how it worked out. Such a fun mystery!

Here's a simple, fun combination: pink petunias and 'Margarita' ornamental sweet potato. Easy, fun, almost-cliche combination that I love. So easy and they look great all autumn, winter and spring.

Here's a pic of a flower on my thornless crown of thorns plant (um, does that make it just a crown, LOL?), Euphorbia geroldii.

Happy gardening all!

Grant

That orange is some kind of navel. I have 2 navel trees, different varieties but no clue what ones. But, they're great!

Niiiiiiice on the tomatillos! That's great you found something to set them. Thanks for sharing, that's handy to know.

Yeah, good job Shannon. I too have heard of blossom set but hadn't thought of it. Good to know it worked as designed! There's a thought....

Alright everyone, are you ready- the
mystery is solved! So here's the story. I was watering yesterday and I
noticed a lot of little bugs by the smaller mystery squash/melon and I
turned it over and found this-

Some one, I presume a little b****** of a mouse was busy eating in my garden. So I cut it open to find this

It tunneled in and ate all the seeds and pulp. Crazy little mouse?
Fat little mouse, wonder how long it took him? I was not very pleased as
you can imagine, but I tasted the flesh hoping to figure out what it
was, it wasn't ripe I could tell but the flesh tasted like cucumbers and
honeydew, heavy on the cucumber. So I decided to check the other one,
the big boy and I turned it over and found this

I guess this means it is ripe, probably very ripe. This is the shot of what it looked like right side up

So no time like the present. I cut it open.

Looks like a cantaloupe. So I scooped out the seeds, I saved them of
course, and had a bite. THE MOST DELICIOUS MELON EVER! So juicy and
sweet. Amazing.

Can you see all the juice on the cutting board. So I looked at the
seed packet that I originally planted and saw under cantaloupe the
variety "Crenshaw"

However, if you can see in the picture on the packet it is of a regular cantaloupe.

This is NOT what mine looked like. But doing further research they can look like this

Or like this

Obviously the person picking pictures from Burpee has no idea what a
Crenshaw looks like. It is considered the "Cadillac" of melons. Based on
what mine tasted like I would certainly agree! Yesterday was a GREAT
gardening day for me. I cut slices of my melon and gave them to all the
neighbors and still had plenty for us. It was a pretty big melon!

Hope
your enjoying your garden too!

Shannon

Hey Guys,

I am trying to update with a story on the squash melon but it isn't showing up. It is a bit long and a lot of pictures but only I can see it. Does anyone know what is happening?

update: Obviously the other story has come up now, but only after this question posted. I have had this problem before. Any idea why it doesn't post for awhile?

Hi Shannon, not sure but would venture a guess that it takes the system a while to process all the pics. Don't let that deter you though, we love pics!! I don't buy Burpee seeds anymore. :-/

GREAT update, Shannon! I kept thinking that foliage didn't look watermelony at all--very cantaloupey. Glad you solved the mystery and posted it! Sorry someone get IN and ate the one fruit (clever!) but glad you got to taste the ripe one. You're right, the seed packet pic doesn't match 'Crenshaw' at all. Fun mystery, thanks for solving it!

I've been away in Maryland for a week for work (5 days of work in Rockville, then goofed off for two days in DC). I returned and found this nice flower on one of my variegated "amaryllis" clumps, Hippeastrum reticulatum 'Mrs. Garfield'. Great striped, evergreen foliage and nice peppermint-striped flowers off and on all year. So easy in afternoon sun. Happy gardening!

Thanks, Karen, I'm glad you like it too. I traded away an arm and a leg to get a single radish-sized bulb in 2000 but am glad I did. I have several large pots full of them now. Love them.

Have fun at that nusery--you might want to combine it with a trip to Desert Foothills nursery too over on Cave Creek Rd, just south of the Carefree Highway. They have a great demonstration garden and really do a lot of cacti too. All of my cardons are from them years ago. Have fun and post pics of any new babies! :)

Darn, I got your suggestion about the other nursery too late. I have been to that one in years past, and it is a good one. I loved the N Scottsdale one. I got a pot, a Hesperaloe parviflora 'Yellow' and a varigated portulacaria afra. They're not too thrilling to you guys here, but things I haven't had and wanted. I also saw an Ocotillo I want to get for our place in NM. They aren't native there, but they grow even better than here in our area. The one I already have there blooms prolifically and then stays so green til the cold hits.

Those cantaloupes look great, I wish I had more room in my back yard for more spreading plants. Here's a few pics from my back yard this month:

Okinawa spinach! Does it require something special in the summer? I did not know it could survive out here

The Okinawa spinach seemed to love the summer, although I had it with my other plants that prefer shade in the midday in the summer.

I just got the other type of spinach so I don't know how that'll handle the summer. I hear it doesn't like the cold though, but it's been completely fine with the cooler nights lately.

Hello. Nice to read about people growing okinawa spinach. I'm also growing okinawa & longevity spinach. The longevity spinach handled our NC summer (zone 7b) here fairly well. All mine are in pots. When outside in summer I put them in part shade, because full sun all day wilts the leaves (they recover at night). The Longevity seem to handle the full sun better than the okinawa. The are all indoors now that cool temps are here. Okinawa grows quicker for me than longevity. I don't know much about Arizona in the winter, but I bring mine inside when it gets under 50F.

Anyone else a twee bit chilly this morning?

YES, Marianne W, my garden and I were chilly! I just started the December 2015 update thread by complaining about it, hah. I never, EVER complain about heat, but I do about cold, even when it's not cold by most of the world's standards, hah. No frost yet for me, what about everyone else? I'm glad to see a warming trend starting tomorrow, LOL. Happy gardening all!