Fruit trees: Apple blossoms, tart cherry blooms, pears have set.

Technically, this counts as "Kitchen garden" but I'm keeping the "backyard orchard" in a somewhat separate category. Plus, apple blossoms are ornamental in their own right, even if the trees don't bear fruit. Same for the tree forms, which become increasingly beautiful and gnarled with age, starting fairly early.

Asian pears have set fruit. This is the 3-variety tree planted Spring 2009.

Second variety, different coloration. All 3 have set. Cool! They'll need thinning in a few weeks, I'll keep them to one fruit to a spur.

Golden Delicious. I think this was a semidwarf, not a minidwarf. It is too vigorous. This is the first year with significant blooming. Last year there was one cluster of flowers. This is the best blooming year ever! Cool!

May not look like much, but this was just planted last month. This is Karmijm. We'll see how it looks next year, and the year after. If it blooms, I really should remove any potential fruit, to allow for growth this year. Same for the new Honeycrisp, which as discussed before was little more than a stick with a root. That one will definitely not be allowed to set any fruit this year, if it blooms.

This little tree needs a stake placed before the roots get growing too much, so that I don't damage roots. All minidwarf apple trees need a stake for support.

Jonagold. This is becoming a handsome specimen, with beautiful flowers. Last year was quite fruitful. No every-other-year bearing in this backyard-orchard-culture 'orchard'. About 6 ft tall.

I need to move the stake so that the tree doesn't lean so much. Not a problem now, but she apples weigh it down, I'd like for it to be better balanced.

Liberty. Also increasingly beautiful, year after year. Still only about 5 ft tall.

Northpole. Beautiful specimen! Last summer, fall, winter, I pruned it right, finally! This year I intend to be more diligent about protecting the apples from insects (little socks for the apples), and trim to one apple per spur, and pick them when ripe!

"Surefire" tart cherry (pie cherry). I planted this tree late winter, 2009. It's blooming. How cool is that! Probably not enough this year for a pie, but assuming they set, there'll be enough for a good taste of cherries. Maybe we'll get a pie from in in 2011, at this rate!

The Lilac Dénouement

Lilacs can be slow to bring into bloom. Most of these were either from small, bare-root plants, or from tiny starts that probably originated from tissue culture or cuttings. These have been in the ground here at least 4 or 5 years. Earlier, I gave them a boost of fish emulsion, hoping that it would stimulate growth for next year. The older lilacs have bloomed for a few years, but this is the first time for several. Our intent, was a blooming hedge for some privacy. They are not yet to that stage.

Nice purple. Fragrant.

Nice white. We cheated - it was purchased last year at the Lilac gardens, and was already in bloom at the time.

I've been carefully pruning this lilac to reduce height. Lat year it was 3 feet taller, with the flowers out of reach. I'll take of a few of the taller stems this year as well. It might be a good time to do so now, with the flowers kept as bouquets.

This shrub was probably 15 feet tall, maybe more. It was more tree, than shrub.

When open, this will have white edges on magenta flowers.

Old fashioned lilac-colored lilacs.

This was the first. It's oversized for the location, so after blooming will be pruned back, and root pruned, in anticipation of transplanting.

Kitchen garden log. Tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, and lemons.

Tomatoes and peppers. They are now spending their days outside in the sun, but brought inside at night. Still under 50 F at night, so too early to plant. Tomatoes require 50-degree F nights, and Peppers require 55-degree. Interesting to note, thermometer in barrel planter shows 60-degrees soil temp overnight. I might do an experiment with one of the peppers, planting it in the barrel and covering it at night. We'll see.

Potatoes are growing. The last ones to start were on the shadier side. The warm sun makes a difference.

The eggplants were the slowest to get started - still not ready for individual pots, but now both varieties have sprouted and some are on their second leaf (first true leaf). It's still early, so I think they should be fine.

Not sure what to do about this. Meyer lemon, basically neglected it all winter, in south window, dry. Most of the leaves fell off. Then it bloomed, and now has lemons. It's on the deck now, made it through a 31 degree night.

Oncidium plants from backbulbs

The 3 little plants in front of the larger one, are starts from backbulbs taken last summer. I used the "sphag & bag" technique, which involves no more than placing the severed backbulbs in a zip-lock bag containing moist (not soggy) sphagnum moss, and leaving it in a bright but not full-sun location. I had them on an East-facing windowsill.

As time passed, each sprouted new growth. Wide range of when this happened, from about a month to about 6 months. The fastest one came from 2 connected backbulbs, and was the youngest as well. I do admit to watering the psuedobulb itself with the "weakly weekly" diluted plant food that I feed the other orchids with, thinking that some of the minerals may be absorbed into the plant indirectly. This watering has occurred only since the pseudobulbs were removed from the sphanum ziplock bags. Each had almost no roots at the start.

Now they are all growing, and putting out roots as well as top growth. Fun project.

Close up of the parent plant. It did not bloom this year. What I thought was a flower spike, was a new pseudobulb. I may have given it too-good care. Certainly, the 2 most recent pseudobulbs are the largest, with the most leaves, compared to any prior ones. Maybe I should neglect it a bit more.

I enjoy watching the new roots sprout and work their way down into the bark mixture. Almost like they would in nature.





This appears to be an Oncidium, but who knows? From Wikimedia Commons here. Original from Source: Nordisk familjebok (1907), vol.7, Till art. Epifyter. So, it's about epiphytes. I like how it shows the plants in their original ecosystem.

"Day Off". Orchid Blogging.

Repotted one of the Paphiopedilum plants. It turned out to be two plants in one pot. I was disappointed, because instead of one robust plant, it was 2 smaller plants. Even so, I guess it means a additional acquisition. They were not identical - one has more mottled leaf appearance. They are now in the same potting mix as my other orchids. As terrestrial orchids, they'll need watering a bit more often, but I like this mix. I sprayed the leaves with neem after potting, to give them a little protection. It also give the leaves a healthy-looking satin glow.

My photos were blurry, so here are some 19th century lithographs instead.

English: Lawrence's Paphiopedilum var. viride(1896)Source Lindenia Iconographie des Orchidées via wikimedia commons. It looks like these were originally classified as Cypripedium, but the appearance is clearly like the modern Paphiopedilum Maudii hybrid.

I'm surprised at how much these look like the modern hybrids.

Paphiopedilum superbiens, originally labeled as Cypripedium. Same source of illustration.

Update:
This is how the repotted Paphiopedilum plants look now. I wanted a record here for future reference.