Early Growth on New Apple Trees. 4.17.19

Early Growth on New "Urban Apple, Golden Treat".  4.17.19

 The new apple trees that I planted this winter are pushing out nice healthy looking leaf buds.   Interesting to see that the leaf buds on RedLove Era have a red coloration.

Early Growth on New "Redlove Era" Apple Tree.  4.17.19

Early Growth on New "Urban Apple, Tasty Red".  4.17.19

Fig Tree Brebas (early fig buds). 4.17.19

Brunswick Fig Brebas.  4.17.19

 Here are the brebas on most of my fig tree collection.  For some varieties, they will likely all fall off, forming new main crop figs to ripen later.

Of those that have brebas which almost always fall off - probably 95% to 100% fall off  - are Brunswick and Hardy Chicago.  On the other hand, King is an entirely breba variety, so almost all should ripen.  Lattarula does both. 
I usually get a few brebas on Carini and Petite negri but it depends on the year.  Celeste is too young, I have not had ripe figs at all from that 3 foot tall tree yet.

I'm not sure about LSU Tiger or Sicilian.  I need to pay more attention this year.

Petite Negri Fig Brebas.  4.17.19

Celeste Fig Brebas.  4.17.19

Hardy Chicago Fig Brebas.  4.17.19

Latarrula Fig Brebas.  4.17.19

Baby Fig Tree, Lampiera Preta.  4.17.19

Carnini Fig Brebas.  4.17.19

LSU Tiger Fig Brebas.  4.17.19

Petite Negri Fig Tree that I moved about December 2017.  4.17.19

Sicilian White Fig Brebas.  4.17.19

Bearded Irises. Update. 4.17.19

Early Bearded Iris Flower Buds.  4.17.19

Bearded Irises Almost Budding.  4.17.19

 Some of the bearded irises that I have been obsessing over are showing signs of flower buds.  A few clumps, in the woodlot border, have actual flower buds.   I counted 5 stems on one plant.  That might be a historic variety.  I also saw a couple of flower stems beginning to form on Alcazar, and some of the others.  One is a very large leaf variety, so I'm guessing it's more modern.  However, Helen Collingwood is also very large and vigorous.

I'm excited they will bloom and I can identify most of them once I see the flower.

Meanwhile, I dug out a few bearded iris plants from the fence row, where the gnarly rhizomes were thrown two years ago and some took root and grew.  There was also one in an area that has been converted back into lawn, and somehow survived, and one in deep shade under a spruce tree.  All are not in the "recovery bed" where they may need a year to come into bloom.   Tough plants, when they are neglected.

Bearded Iris Rescue Garden.  4.17.19

Asian and European Pears in Full Bloom. 4.17.19

Original, NOID Asian Pear in Bloom.  4.17.19

Orcas Pear in Full Bloom.  4.17.19

 Most of the Asian and European pear cultivars in my orchard are in full bloom.   In some cases, I don't know what they are.  The Asian Pear that came with the place is full of flowers.  So is Hamese, Mishirasu, Maxie, Orcas, Rescue.  I think Nijiseiki and Shinseiki are just beginning to bloom.  I also have some grafts of European pear, I think Bartlett and Anjou, that are not open yet.

Rescue Pear in Full Bloom. 4.17.19

Apple Bloom Time, Beginning. 4.17.19

Dolgo Crabapple Blossoms.  4.17.19

Gravenstein Apple Blossoms.  4.17.19

This year I am more carefully watching fruit tree blossom times.

Many of the apples have buds showing the first signs of petals.  The only apple cultivars that have a significant number of fully open flowers, now, are Gravenstein and Dolgo Crabapple.

The Dolgo branch is small, and with so much rain, I don't know if bees are pollinating yet.  So we will see if that is enough to give us some Gravenstein apples this year.

As for Dolgo, I don't know if it is self pollinating.  Gravenstein is triploid so unable to pollinate other cutivars.

Nepenthes. 4.17.19

Nepenthes sanguinea pitcher, not quite open.  4.17.19

 The Nepenthes carnivorous plants in the sunroom are beginning to mature their pitchers.  Fun to watch.  I bought these earler this year - late winter - from growcarnivorousplants.com in Oregon.

Nepenthes x St Mercury.  Pitcher beginning to open.  4.17.19

Nepenthes thorellii x aristolochoides pitcher not quite open.  4.17.19

Pawpaw Buds. 4.17.19

Pawpaw NC1 Flower Bud.  4.17.19

 Gotta watch the pawpaw trees so I can pollinate them when the flowers are ready.  Not there yet but some flowers are beginning to open. 

Pawpaw Sunflower Flower Bud.  4/17/19

Cherry Trees Blooming. 4.17.19

Sweet Cherries Vandalay and Sweetheart.  4.17.19

Pie Cherry Montmorency.  4.17.19

This is peak bloom time for sweet cherry varieties Vandalay, Sweetheart, and Ranier, as well as for Montmorency.  I don't think Montmorency pollinates the sweet cherries, and is self pollinating.  The sweet cherries look like they will have a good crop this year.

I planted Vandalay and Sweetheart from shipped bare root trees from Raintree in 2012.  Ranier was a bare root tree from BiMart in about 2014.   Montmorency was from Home Depot, I think in 2010, and I replanted it to the Battleground orchard in 2012.  It was a ball and burlap tree.

Sweet Cherry Ranier.  First Bloom.  4.1719

Bearded Iris Update. 4.15.19

 These are irises in the woodlot border - bunches that lost their labels.  When they bloom, I'll be able to check old photos and identify them.  Several of these clumps are beginning to push flower buds, most for the first time in three years.  They went through my not being able to care for them, to randomly transplanting to the edge of the woodlot, to getting a little more attention in the past year.  A lot of these are historic cultivars although some are modern.

Growth is rapid now.  The fir bark mulched plants remain cleaner, much less leaf spot disease compared to those in bare soil.

Looking back through photos, the leaf spot has been present in most of the older photos, but the plants bloomed nicely anyway.  I think I can also see it on the plants in my old photos of visits to Schreiners' Iris Gardens.  So I think as long as it is limited, it won't hurt.  But if the bark mulch really does decrease leaf spot, I will consider using more of that.

One thing that's interesting, is most of the irises I see around town have no problems with leaf spot disease.  I don't know why.  Most of those are also in borders with ground fir bark.  Again, I wonder if that is protective?

I also wonder if the disease arrives on freshly purchased and planted rhizomes. Those seem like the most affected in my garden.  The older, long-established clumps do not seem affected, or much less so.

The plan:  buy a truckload of chopped fir bark this summer, and apply around each of the iris clumps.  I  use about an inch thick.  I try not to cover the rhizomes per se, but I don't obsess over keeping them exposed.

It's hard to see in these photos, but these plants have several flower buds.  Very promising.

Nepenthes Update. 4.15.19

Nepenthes sanguinea.  4.15.19

Nepenthes x St. Mercury.  4.15.19

The larger of these tropical carnivorous plants, Nepenthes pitcher plants, are making nice pitchers.   They appear to be on the verge of opening.

This is my first try with these, so I don't know how long they will take to open.  Fun to watch them every day.

I've been watering them with rain water, supplemented with very diluted regular miracle grow.  The instructions state that for regular watering of house plants, use small scoop (I think the small scoop is 1/4 teaspoon) per quart of water.  I'm using 1/2 of small scoop.  I let the water drain through.  This seems like an almost homeopathic dose, but over the long run seems to be supporting excellent growth, and I don't have to remember the last time that I fertilized them.