Chocolate or chocolate? That is the question!

Berlandiera lyrata

Cosmos atrosanguineus

Both have a chocolate taste, the first one has more intensive smelling, the colours of the second one are more closed to chocolate.

July garden highlights II

Pelargonium lanceolatum

Leucospermum cordifolium

Sempervivum tectorum

Eucryphia xnymansensis

Deer

Well, to be honest, reading botanical books about mediterranean climate I always jumped the chapter about deer resistant plants. First because my major problem is to find plants that resist our moderate cold but also wet Winters and second because my garden ist not located at the border of any forest. So I never experienced some close contact with cervids in my area.

All this have changed since this morning. I had a small thalk with my neighbour. She told me a "night visitor" has cleaned up her apple tree leaving a gift.........

This year the harvest will be done in a minute!

There is no doubt, with this shape and size (2.5 cm) they match only with red deer (Cervus elaphus) pellets!

Recovery from winter damages

It's seems long time ago that temperatures dropped unter 0°C. I have some zone 8 borderline plants that suffered least winter not because of the minimum temperature (it dropped just to -6°C in one occasion for a couple of hours) but due to persisting minus temperatures (-2 to -3°C) for nights and nights and also some days.

This is my Banksia integrifolia resprouting from the rootstock this week.

This dwarf form of Banksia spinulosa also suffered the cold 2009-10 Winter.

Last Winter was to wet and snowy for med plants too. But if your speciments are succombed, just wait a little bit, it may be the case like with this Satureja thymbra, that the lost plant will be replaced by a young seedling.

July garden highlights

Drosophillum lusitanicum is an atypical carnivorous plant from Portugal, Spain and Morocco. Unlike other carnivorous plants Drosophillum grows on well drained sandy loam free soil. In the natural habitat, water is supplied in the Sommertime only by regular morning frog. Watering will be the challenge in cultivation.

Glumicalyx goseloides from South Africa.

Mutisia subulata from Chile (sharing the picture with Pelargonium sidoides) is very slow to establish, flowering only 3-4 years afer sowing.

At home in zone 8 Bomarea caldasii blooms very well also in containers.

It is still Juli, but in my garden Leucojum (Acis) autumnale seems do not respect the seasons and wishs to bloom now!

Borderline in my 8 Zone, I need to keep my Lagunaria patersonii in a relative large container, that will be placed in the garage for the wintertime. Lagunaria survived least winter -6°C without any leaf lesions.

This gardenia cultivar named "Mistery" survived in my garden -7°C with strong cold winds without any protection. Since 2 weeks hundreds of blooms are opening night after night giving a taste of heaven to my garden.

Cattleya rex

Finally! After years of intense care, my small Cattleya rex is big now! The only problem is, with 32-34 °C and dry wind, the blooming period will be short.

Chinotto di Savona

A couple of years ago I found an interesting article about a forgotten citrus fruit that in the least two centuries was commonly found in the restaurants of Liguria (North-West coast of Italy). The Chinotto di Savona is a cultivar of the Myrtle-leaved orange and the plants not taller than 5 feet produces small round greenish fruits that discolor to orange at full maturity. The fruits are eaten only after a complex transformation. First the chinotti are washed and traditionally a very thin layer of the external surface is peeled out. The fruits are put in a 10% salt water solution for 20 days. Change the water every 4-5 days. This procedure will attenuate the bitter taste. The fruits are now ready for the most important step: the sugaring (canditura). The fruits are immerged in boiling sugar syrup for 10-15 minutes. Leave the chinotti in the syrup for 24 hours. Than increase the % of sugar and repeat the step for 5 to 6 days in order to allow the chinotti to assume a translucent discoloration. The fruits are conserved in the syrup or more traditionally put in Maraschino for 5-6 days before tasting. Simply gorgeous! The Chinotto di Savona is a presidium of slow food (http://www.slowfoodfoundation.org).