Saturday Gardening, Puttering and Art Thread, Feb. 19

I know I said earlier I wouldn't bore everyone with another crocus picture this year, but this little guy just burst out in the recent sun we had. All by himself. The others are still waiting a bit.

Diogenes

A brave little crocus bursting forth from bare (except for some little seedlings) ground in February is never boring, Diogenes! It is certainly better than this alternative:

Edible Gardening

We still haven't had any orange-destroying frost here in the South-Central San Joaquin this season. Navel oranges are still on, and good. Smaller than usual, because of water restrictions during the summer.

Last week, we featured one of the Indigo Tomatoes, and Wee Kreek Farm Girl came in with a late comment on Surinam Cherries (also featured) and other unusual crops.

Today, our Tomato of Interest is Tiger Blush.

So what makes the Tiger Blush Artisan tomato so amazing? Well, it certainly starts with a flavor profile that is simply unrivaled. It can best be described as a sweet, near tropical explosion to your taste buds.

The oblong fruits are packed with pure sugary sweetness. Many visitors to our garden swear that it somehow has to be related to a peach. . .

Its size makes this tomato quite unique as well. The fruits are cylindrical shaped and usually average around two inches in length. Although it doesn't fall into the category of a large, full size tomato, it is certainly larger than a cherry or plum tomato variety. . .

The advantages of growing the Tiger Blush do not stop with its amazing flavor. At just 60 days from seed to fruit, it also happens to be one of the earliest producing tomatoes around. Even better, as an indeterminate tomato, it keeps on producing right up until the end of the growing season.

You might expect a tomato plant that infuses so much sugary-sweet goodness into its fruit to be a little lower in production levels - but that simply isn't the case with the Tiger Blush.

Perhaps one of the best attributes of the Tiger Blush is that can thrive nearly anywhere. It grows extremely well in a traditional garden setting. It happens to be the perfect size for raised beds too. But it's also compact enough to grow in pots, containers, or even 5 gallon buckets.

In fact, we grow a few Tiger Blush plants in our bucket planters near the house every year. It is wonderful for quick and easy access for salads and fresh eating. The Tiger Blush will grow a bit smaller in a container setting, but the yields will still be extremely high.

It can be hard to find plants in stores, but you can find and grow seeds. The plant actually grows fast enough to seed outdoors if you don't want to start seeds indoors. It can go by several names, Tiger Blush Artisan and Artisan Blush are the most common.

If you are looking for something more in the beefsteak category, how about Ananas Noir?

Do you wonder why a tomato named "Black Pineapple" looks sorta green on the inside? Lots of the dark tomatoes taste best when picked before they are fully ripe, for one thing.

80-90 days. A most exciting new tomato, it is wonderful in every way. This unusual variety was developed by Pascal Moreau, a horticulturist from Belgium. The multi-colored, smooth fruit (green, yellow and purple mix) weighs about 1 1/2 lbs. The flesh is bright green with deep red streaks. Everyone loves its superb flavor that is outstanding, being both sweet and smoky with a hint of citrus. . .

Do you think the tomatoes above are as sweet as these?

Would Mom do a better job with the flavors?

Anybody growing celery? It's actually kind of a challenge, so unless you are doing pink celery or cutting celery or celeriac or something, maybe you could concentrate on something else as the main crop in your garden. Farmers will probably do a better job.

Puttering

Badgerwx has been busy:

While puttering in the yard last weekend doing winter clean-up, I discovered it's time to start my mid-atlantic spring-watch. My hellebores have sprouted and should bloom in a few weeks - despite the continuing arctic cold fronts. As spring approaches the warmups between fronts are warmer & the arctic cold doesn't last as long. My daffs have sprouted & my witch hazel will be blooming come early March.

Here is another visitor to my bird feeders. He started coming occasionally last summer and is a regular this winter. The consensus ID of my co-workers is red-bellied woodpecker. He's in a war with the mourning doves for who gets to to clean out both my feeders. He's got the advantage because he can hang off the small bird feeder & the doves have to settle for the seeds the small birds drop on the ground.

Finally, here is my puttering project for Washington's birthday or Presidents' day or whatever the holiday is now. Last weekend I cut up my leaning arbor vitae but now I have to dig out the stump & rootball soI can plant the replacement tree come April. The county won't take anything that big as yard waste so I'll have to do something else with it. If I lived out in the country I'd just let it dry out, cut it up & burn it.

Work.

Forgotten Art

Botanist Mark Whitten was rummaging in an old drawer in the University of Florida Herbarium for tracing paper when he discovered something unexpected: hundreds of World War II-era watercolor paintings, each of a unique Florida plant.

Likely untouched in the 20 years since the herbarium's move into Dickinson Hall, the collection was largely forgotten, but the same cool, dark conditions intended to preserve the herbarium's more than 400,000 specimens also preserved the paintings.

Artist Minna Fernald donated over 320 paintings of Florida wildflowers to the university in 1942, providing a rich record of the state's past ecological life.

"If you go out looking for these plants nowadays, you can find them but they're only in little isolated preserves," said Whitten, a biological scientist at the herbarium. "My impression is what Minna Fernald saw was a much more wild and interesting Florida than what it is now."

They are still working on ways to share this treasure trove of forgotten botanical art.

If you would like to send information and/or photos for the Saturday Gardening Thread, the address is:

ktinthegarden
at that g mail dot com place

Include the nic by which you wish to be known when you comment at AoSHQ,
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posted by K.T. at 01:16 PM

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