First fig of the year.

The prize goes to Lattarula. I had one yesterday but it was slightly spoiled on the tree. So the is the first really good fig. At 72 grams it's a fair sized fig, nice and juicy and sweet.

I also planted 3 little fig plants at the new place in Battleground. More on that later. The soil is a little better than it was originally here in Vancouver, but not much. Plus, it's mid summer, hot, dry. As potted fig plants, they should have less transplant shock than one dug out of the ground. I planted 2 King figs, each about a foot tall, and one Petite negri, which I've been growing for about 4 or 5 years and has a fair number of small figs on its branches. With lots of water and lots of mulch, maybe they will do OK. One year I left a potted Petite negri fig plant sitting on the deck without water for about 2 months, and it survived.

Beans are ready

These are the beans I planted in tubs April 14, so roughly 90 days from seed to bean.

There are lots more beans on the plants, ready or barely formed.

The beans themselves aren't visible until you get right into the plant.

Iris Order

Order came from Schreiner's Irises. I don't usually "endorse" a source or product. This blog is just my garden diary. But this is different. The rhizomes from Schreiner's were the best I've ever bought. They were carefully packed in excelsior. The tubers were beyond plump - they were like elephant iris. The were clean, healthy, and the leaves were green. I'm so impressed. They also sent two "bonus" tubers, varieties I didn't order. The bonus tubers were just as beautiful as the ones I bought. Schreiners is at schreinersgardens.com. No room for other additional varieties in the yard now. I had to dig out the patch of Bumblebee Delite, pull out the weeds, and install a weed border as I did for the others, for one and for a couple of rhizimes from Bumblebee Delite, and the found Iris I previously labeled Rescue Me but that isn't really a variety. These are the varieties I'm planting. The pics are from the Schreiner's online catalog. I hope they don't mind, especially since I just gave them a AAA rating.

Pink Bubbles.

Redondo.

Mariposa Skies.

Crimson Cloud.

Gay Parosol.

Garlic from seeds

I've been reading several internet postings on growing garlic from seeds. As far as I can tell, this isn't currently done except in research and by some dedicated hobbyists. Garlic plants have been cultivated from cloves for eons - probably in a continuous string of generations (clones) dating back thousands of years. As a result, they have nearly lost their capacity to make seeds. Some don't even make flower stalks (scapes). Those that make flower stalks/scapes are the "hard neck". In the ones that do make scapes, much or all of the flower head is replaced by tiny baby garlic bulbs (bulbils) instead of flowers. Those bulbs can be grown into plants, but they are genetic clones of the parent plant. It turns out that there actually are flowers, but they form more slowly than the bulbils, and are crowded out and die before blooming. Getting garlic to make flowers involves removing the bulbils before they take over the room and resources of the scape. The covering is split open, and twezers are used to remove bulbils as soon as possible. Removing the covering from this scape, it looks to me like these are flowers. The bulbils must not be formed yet. I will leave it in place, and wait for the other 3 plants whose scapes I inadvertently left in place.

This may not work at all. I've never done it. Gardening is always an experiment.

The potential advantages of seed are many. In the millenia of cloning, genetic diversity is lost. There is some mutation and adaptation via rogueing, because sports also form. But overall, the genetic diversity is decreased, and the ability to adapt more quickly to environmental challenges or growth in new areas, becomes decreased. In addition, if seeds can be formed, so can hybrids. Hybrids give us more choices, and increase potential adaptation and development of variety, such as larger bulbs, or growing faster. Again, based on reading multiple articles, once a new generation of garlic is produced by seeds, subsequent generations are easier to produce. Finally, it's mentioned that viruses are passed through cloning, but not through seed production. I've seen that said for other plants too. I don't know if garlic varieties are virus infected - probably not as bad as with plants that are grafted (fruits, roses) or have long lives (figs), but it's been proposed that producing virus free seed-produced plants would mean more vigor and higher production.

Paw Paw Trees

Here are the 2 containerized Paw Paw trees I bought yesterday at Portland Nursery. When I walked past them I thought No! Impossible! They are the named varieties, Sunflower and NC-1. Based on my readings, the roots are delicate. The trees are best planted while in growth, not dormant. It is best to shade them for the first 1 to 2 years.   I'll have to identify a spot, clear it, enrich it with compost, and plant them. Not sue if I'll do that now or just keep them in the containers and plant next Spring.