'Hardy Chicago' Fig

Last Fall, I posted about a single fig fruit that ripened here. I wasn't sure how reliable it would be, but was happy I could get any fruit at all from it. Well... this year's fig production has REALLY amazed me. That same 'Hardy Chicago' has already ripened 62 fruits (as of today), and there are more figs still maturing on it. I'm impressed and would recommend this fig to anyone in the area (Washington County, Maryland) or comparable zone 6b-ish places. The first picture shows a bunch that I picked a few days ago. They were splitting from all of the excessive rains. Usually there haven't been so many ripe all at one time. They've been typically ripening a couple of fruits every 2 or 3 days since July or August. The second picture shows the two fruits I harvested this evening, quartered to show of the juicy insides. They're actually kind of ugly, I think. But if you overlook that, they are really sweet with a texture something like a ripe peach. And very easy to grow. No pest or disease problems.

Russian Pomegranate

Well, we couldn't stand to wait any longer and went ahead and harvested two egg-sized (undersized) fruits. They were partially filled with little red jewel-like "seeds" but many of the seeds hadn't developed. I'm guessing maybe it's a case of poorly pollinated flowers. Even so, these first fruits were sweet-tart and juicy - pretty good! I took a bunch of cuttings to see if I can propagate it. And soon I think we'll have to harvest the rest of the fruits including the two bigger (tennis ball to baseball sized) fruits. Of course, we'll be planting all of the seeds too. Gotta see what kind of variability we might get.

Rosa glutinosa x palustris

Close-up of the mature foliage of Rosa glutinosa X palustris. Compared to its seed parent the leaflets are more elongated and pointy. The edges aren't quite as deeply toothed also. The foliage scent is nearly as strong as the seed parent and only a little bit altered in character.

With all of the sawfly larvae and tobacco budworm caterpillars I could hardly find any leaves of the parents to show, but here are some ragged specimens of glutinosa on the left and palustris on the right.

Rosa palustris x 'Home Run'

Here's the new foliage of three of the palustris X 'Home Run' seedlings. With the recent rains they've sent up some nice canes. As well as they're growing, I'm hoping that they'll bloom next Spring.

Purple / Black Pigmented Tomato Line

I've posted several times recently about some hybrid tomatoes from 'White Wax' X F4 hirsutum derivative. My goal is to get the purple black pigment expressed in a white fruit background. Here's a picture of the Lycopersicon hirsutum derivative that I used in that cross with 'White Wax'. This is a selfed seedling from that F4, so this would be F5. I keep saving the seeds from only the most intensely pigmented fruits. The cooler weather lately has been encouraging extra intense pigmentation. All but the ripe one of the far left are from one cluster. Notice the dull greenish - yellow ripe fruit color. I'm still surprised (and really glad) that the funky hirsutum taste of this one got left out of the hybrid with 'White Wax'.

Jerusalem Artichoke X Red Sun seedling again

It's been in bloom ever since a modest few flowers back in late June / early July. This extended period of bloom is one thing that sets it apart from a normal Jerusalem artichoke. I'll have to check my image folders to see exactly when that first bloom opened.

Better close up of purple blushed hybrid tomato

I wasn't happy with the images I'd posted so far of this hybrid. They just weren't showing the purple blush like I see it in person. So I took this one cracked fruit outside (for stronger light) and tried to do a better close up image. The two images are of the same fruit but from different angles. Hopefully you can see the purple blush better - it looks like a brown dirt smear because of the yellow skin showing through from behind. Oh just as a reminder, this is from 'White Wax' pollinated by a purple-black blushed F4 line that was itself derived from 'Brandywine' crossed with Lycopersicon hirsutum (Solanum habrochaite). Happily the purplish anthocyanin blush has been passed along while the objectionable hirsutum flavor isn't there at all. It's actually pretty tasty. Next generation, I hope to get some revertant white fruits with decent purple blush.