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well - there's a surprise!

 
Nancy Reading
steward and tree herder
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I was taking the dogs for their regular patrol this week and noticed something strange. On the ground were some red berries. I thought initially they were rose hips, and that the birds had dropped them whilst sitting in the tree above. However, when I looked at them (and the tree!) I realised that one of my American haws has fruited pretty well this year! The fruit had blown off after a bit of a storm in the week.
It's a bit of a surprise as we've had a rubbish summer, so I really didn't expect any fruit at all. These have quite a nice rose hippy sort of tropical flavour to them, although with quite a large central seed cluster, so I'm not sure whether I'll pick them or leave them for the birds!

Have you had a plant surprise you this year?
IMG_20261021_145335.jpg
Crataegus arnoldana - ripe haws on Skye
Crataegus arnoldana - ripe haws on Skye

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My projects on Skye: The tree field, Growing and landracing, perennial polycultures, "Don't dream it - be it! "

 
Anne Miller
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I can see that my vitex tree/plant has survived a couple of drought years and is about a foot or more tall now.

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

 
Joao Winckler
pollinator
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Ha, always a nice surprise when something fruits without any effort on your part. I had a quince do similar a couple years back, convinced it was never going to amount to anything and then just covered in fruit one autumn. Rubbish summers sometimes seem to push them into it, like the stress tips them over the edge.

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Thom Bri
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I eat mine in mid-winter, after some freeze. Wonderful, tart.
 
M Ljin
gardener
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Joao Winckler wrote:Ha, always a nice surprise when something fruits without any effort on your part. I had a quince do similar a couple years back, convinced it was never going to amount to anything and then just covered in fruit one autumn. Rubbish summers sometimes seem to push them into it, like the stress tips them over the edge.



Ooh! I have wondered why the (red flowering) quinces would never ever fruit. Maybe the summers are actually too hot here?

About springtime, they make a big flowering and then they all drop off and nothing happens. But I have a friend who knows some reliable spots. I am not sure what the difference is. It could be higher or lower in elevation. But I did know someone higher up who had some good harvests on their quinces.

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Riona Abhainn
pollinator
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In July I noticed that surprise tomatoes were growing, in two different places!  I didn't know what type they'd be or anything, I knew them by their smell, I love that smell.  They're cherry tomatoes!  And we continue to enjoy snacking on them as they continue to grow.  I love happy surprises.  Often our surprises are more along the lines of dandylions, mallow, well those are always around so maybe they're not really surprises haha.  

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Burra Maluca
out to pasture
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Yesterday, growing in among the patch of pretty flowers that were planted by the previous owner as ground cover, I found some ripe grapes. Not only that they were purple muscat grapes. Which are my favourite.

This confuses me no end because we've been here for nearly seven years and the only muscat grapes were white ones growing in front of the house. I spent cold, hard cash buying in a purple muscat grapevine which I planted the far end of the garden (so I can eat them all, because I'm the only one who likes them and also the only one who goes that end of the garden - they are my little private indulgence...). So I have no idea how this 'new' grapevine got there. Maybe it was there all along but just swamped by a great big ancient white grapevine which we cut back a year or two ago?

One of this morning's jobs is to extract the 'new' grapevine from the mass of overgrown flowers that it's growing through, find where it's growing from, and train it up into something I can look after and harvest properly. I was very restrained and left a couple of grapes on it so I can identify it. That may change later though, once I've located the main stem...

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Burra Maluca
out to pasture
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Found it!

First I found the bit of stray grapevine I'd found yesterday, then I noted there were at least two visible vines growing nearby which I'd always assumed were off-shoots of the mega white grapevine that we'd cut back recently.

I went to have a look at the one growing behind prickly pear. It's a seed-grown one that hasn't flowered yet so I don't know what sort of fruit it will give, but that area is a bit shaded by the ginormous orange tree and also got overgrown with brambles this year.



And on closer inspection there were two juicy little purple grapes, which turned out to be sweet and musky, just the way I like them best.



I think I need to do a lot of bramble clearing. And maybe cut the orange tree down to size to let a bit of sunlight through. Or then, maybe having grapes in late October because of the shade makes up for it. I've already taken a cutting from the mystery prickly pear and planted it up on the next terrace in full brutal sunlight so maybe that will give me fruit then I can have a nice shady area for plants that don't like our brutal August sun.

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Nancy Reading
steward and tree herder
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That is a nice surprise Burra! I guess the grape that is fruiting must have been there last year, maybe it is also seed grown? and a nice microclimate too

How Permies works: https://permies.com/wiki/34193/permies-works-links-threads
My projects on Skye: The tree field, Growing and landracing, perennial polycultures, "Don't dream it - be it! "

 
Clairey Allen
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The other day at the allotment, I noticed that some onions I’d completely given up on had reappeared, or at least had sent up some leaves. And we had some delicious self-seeded tomatoes this year in the polytunnel. We have to take the small wins, don’t we 😊
 
Ac Baker
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Lovely surprises here!

Our best cropping tomatoes by far, self-starter from the partly rotted compost we trenched the scarlet runner beans with.

I'm also trying mounding up our purple potato volunteers around the plot.  We've got new seed purple potatoes on order too.  But it will be interesting to see what we can do with the volunteers too ..

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John Weiland
pollinator
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I've tried making hawthorne jam before, but was disappointed with the outcome....the flavor seemed to decline from the processing.  As you noted, the seeds are pretty large and the pulp a bit like an over-ripe apple.  But they grow very well here so I'm glad to see them bear fruit in any year!

“The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe.”― Albert Einstein

 
Nynke Muller
pollinator
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For tree years in a row I put the kernels of all avocados that I eat, in the ground. They are not completely suitable for my climate, but there are some examples of avocado trees growing far out of their proper climate zone. The winter of the first two years everything died off, not sad, because this was to be expected. I experiment with location and winterprotection etcetera. Last winter killed 6 out of 8 avocados. The two remaing looked bad, but made it in the end.

My surprise: Yesterday I found an avocado plant resprouting from the roots, on a location where I only planted kernels or plants 3 years ago and I have never seen it since that summer.

"If you've never failed, you have not tried enough new things"

 
Jay Angler
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Nynke Muller wrote: My surprise: Yesterday I found an avocado plant resprouting from the roots, on a location where I only planted kernels or plants 3 years ago and I have never seen it since that summer.


Avocado seeds seem to have two sides to them, so yes, if one side dies back, the second side may come up. I have noticed this at least twice with avocado pits that I've planted.

It's very iffy in my ecosystem too. Apparently there are some "Mountain" avocados in Mexico that tolerate cold better, but since I'm planting grocery store pits, I have not idea whether I'll get lucky or not. For this winter, I've brought them inside. Not sure they'll even survive that way. Time will tell...

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