Sunday 11 September 2016

An Horticultural Post

Hello All,
Back from fishing, with 40lb of fish fillets safely in the freezer.

Some time ago I noticed a seedling growing among the spinach. It looked familiar, but I couldn't quite recall what it was. After a week or two I recognisd it as a Thorn Apple (also known as Devil's Trumpet) and decided to let it grow to show to the grandchildren, as though it is not rare it is quite uncommon around these parts. As they say, like Ttopsy, it grew and grew into this monster plant. The last one that grew here was not nearly so big, as you can see this is as tall as the sunflowers next to it. The white "dashes" that you can see open into large white trumpets towards evening. If you know the greenhouse plant Brugmansia  or Angels Trumpet, it has similar flowers, though I don't think it is the same family as I think that Thorn Apple is of the potato/tomato family.
Here is a close up of the seed, clarifying why it is commonly called a thorn apple. This plant is covered in these seed cases.
All parts of the Thorn Apple are poisonous, so I now have to, reluctantly because it is a beautiful plant, and with care (and rubber gloves) dig up the plant and bag it ready for the tip.
I have just looked up the latin name for this plant it is Datura Stramonim.

While with the tomato family, here is a tomato I grew from some seed which came with my last order from Marshalls Seeds. It is new bush variety called Montello. I don't know how to copy the picture from the catalogue, but it doesn't look like my plant which instead of bushing and bunching has long branches with fruits about two inches apart. This pic show the top two branches, there are more underneath looking exactly the same. Mmmm what happened there I wonder? Did anyone else grow this?
                                                                                                                                                                   A few years ago I lost one of the Victoria plum trees to who-knows-what. I bought a new one and planted it at the opposite end of the orchard. This year it flowered for the first time, the grand total of plums being eight BLACK plums! Four of those fruits are on the left, next to plums from our other Victoria. The fruits are a good size, I should have put a 50p next to them to show how big, I would say 2 to 2.5 inches. Clearly it is not a Victoria. Does anyone know what plum it is?

This last pic is of some lovely plump walnuts. I knew the squirrel would get them first and                  determined to pick them even if they were green when we got back from or fishing week (we got back yesterday) Too late!! they are all gone, apart from a few on the floor that are covered in bite marks. Did I tell you I hate squirrels?!
I reckon that is enough for now
Back Soon
Gillx

20 comments:

  1. In medieval times the fruits of the thorn apple were used by nuns to provoke hallucinations. They would slice them in half, place them on a hot surface, then inhale the smoke. Too much inhalation would cause them to see red for several days (hence the expression). I do not suggest you experiment.

    Walnuts are everywhere here, and very few Squirrels. I drink 2 teaspoons of oil every morning, and try to eat about 8 nuts a day. Very good for you.

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    1. I'm visualising nuns getting high, and why not?!
      I really like walnuts, so am jealous.

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  2. Hi! I have three Montello plants that are extremely bushy. I semi-trained them up the fence and then let them just bush and, my goodness!! The skins are quite tough but they are wonderful when cooked and make a lovely sauce or passata. Loads and loads of fruit!
    J x

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    1. I agree the taste is good. I guess I must have some rougue seed.
      I started to grow them as a bush but they wouldn't behave so I just tied them to a support, which they hung from!

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  3. I must remind the farmer to go and look at our walnut trees.

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  4. Looks more like a damson than a plum
    Good fishing catch

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    1. The shape and size is Victoria, just the wrong colour!
      Fish pie tonight (again)
      Glad to hear that Col is home

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  5. Pesky squirrels, there are definitely too many pests waiting to steal the fruits of our labour.

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    1. If I had a gun I would probably get David to shoot them if he ever caught sight of the little blighters. I'm told they make good eating, not unlike guinea pig in taste (which is no help!)

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  6. We once bought a nectarine tree that turned out to be a peach. This year our 'Gardeners Delight' tomatoes turned out to,be yellow plum tomatoes. Someone on our site had a thornapple appear some years ago too.

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    1. Not too bad a suprise I suppose, but when you wait for years for something it is a bit disappointing.
      Funny things thornapples they just appear, probably bird spread.

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  7. Shoot them and eat them! (Squirrels).

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  8. damn squirrels, they have already pulled my bulbs up and moved them! how weird is that?

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  9. Great post. I find the tomato family so interesting. Either nurish you completely or kill you stone dead! I need to plant some more plum trees as I do love them and miss having the ones on my parents farm. Not sure what type it is though. Does the tree have a graft on it? Maybe it's the root stock fruiting

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    1. Just had a really good look at the tree and can see no signs of it being grafted. I'm told you can identify stone fruit by the stone, something like a finger print, I'll look into that.

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  10. I live in Texas USA. I have never seen a Thorn Apple tree. What an extraordinary plant! Very nice post, I have a couple of pecan trees on my property, but prefer to eat walnuts. Have a great day!

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    1. Thanks!
      I love pecans too, do squirrels bother you?
      You have a great day too and thanks for your comment.

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