Weekend plants and stuff

I found one pod on my Hong Kong orchid tree a few weeks ago that seemed to have viable seeds in it. All the flowers--and there are hundreds of them every year--set pods but usually the pods are empty. Anyway, I dried this pod and I noticed yesterday that it had split open [they twist as they split open, like a wisteria pod--probably to dislodge the seeds].

It had seven seeds, which I planted in a Jiffy pack today with a single miracle fruit seed. Don't know if the miracle fruit seed will hatch; it's been sitting on my desk for a week and I think they're supposed to be planted fresh.

Then I planted another Jiffy pack with custard apple [Annona reticulata] seeds. A woman who works with Ms. Fatma has given us several custard apples, also called bullock's heart and Jamaican apple, from her tree. This last time I save a dozen segments and this morning I plucked the seeds from the saved segments. They are also supposed to be planted fresh.

They are a very interesting fruit. They are about the size of a bullock's heart and filled with many clearly defined, easily separated segments, each about the size of a clementine segment, with a single small torpedo-shaped seed in the center. I should add that the membrane the encloses each segment is not at all noticeable the way they membrane that encloses a clementine segment is.

Then I potted up some rooted cuttings of Mexican petunias [Ruellia brittoniana] and re-potted two golden barrel cactuses. Very carefully, I might add.

I refreshed the cutting box where the Mexican petunias had been and started a whole bunch of new cuttings--three kinds of begonias [including one small angelwing that Ceres sent to me a year or two ago] and several cuttings of rubber vine [Cryptostegia grandiflora]. It's called rubber vine because it has a sticky, latex-like sap.


Island Jim
Southwest Florida
Zone 10
27.0 N, 82.4 W

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Support hort.net -- join the hort.net fund drive!
http://www.hort.net/funds/

Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index