A Giveaway on Election Day

My husband and I voted early, as did most of my friends, and listening to political advertisements and constant flurries of statistics and predictions was something I've wanted to avoid ever since.  Unlike a certain billionaire, I can't give people a million dollars to "encourage" them to vote (and I certainly wouldn't act in support of the man he does).  However, I decided that an innocuous condition-free giveaway of my own might provide the diversion I needed on Election Day.  

I got started with my preparations on Monday.  The obvious focus was the two persimmon trees, which have been laden with fruit this year.  The trees' branches have strained under the weight of it and critters had started going after that fruit, breaking branches in the process.  It was time for a harvest.

These are both shots of Diospyros kaki 'Fuyu'.  I tackled the fruit shown on the left first, collecting 4 dozen undamaged persimmons to give away.  The fruit on the right, hanging over the fence, still needs picking. 

The flat-bottomed 'Fuyu' persimmons are shown in closeup on the left.  The rounder 'Hachiya' persimmon is shown on the tree (right).  I harvested 3 dozen of the latter as a start.

As I'd spent several hours cleaning up our back slope over the past weekend, I knew I also had an excess of lemons so I decided to add a bucket of those to my giveaway too.

The lemons that looked like this one, presumably stripped of their skin by rats, went in the green bin but I was able to pick more than 2 dozen lemons in good shape

As we had just two children show up at the door on Halloween, I also had leftover candy I needed to unload give away.  And of course I usually have succulents to pass along.  All combined, I was able to put together one of my larger giveaways.

I took photos with my phone after my initial set-up, which is a good thing as by the time I returned with my regular camera some things were already gone

Both varieties of persimmons were offered, along with bags if walkers needed help in carrying the fruit home.  A prior post on the differences between the 2 varieties can be found here.

The candy and the lemons are shown here

I put out 2 large rosettes of Agave attenuata (aka foxglove agave) I'd removed from different areas.  They weren't planted in soil but both had developed roots.  In addition, I added several pots containing pups of a Mangave, 2 varieties of Agaves, and an Aloe.  Surprising to me, all the small succulents disappeared quickly but the 2 foxtail agaves hadn't caught anyone's interest when I last checked in the late afternoon.

If you're a US resident, I hope you found a way to focus on little things that make you happy yesterday (after voting of course).  I imagine it's going to take a while to sort out the results given all the reports predicting a close race.  Be sure to take time to breathe!

All material © 2012-2024 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Time for a giveaway!

I'm fairly certain I offered a giveaway from my garden earlier this year but, if that's so, I can't find documentation of it.  I've been thinking of putting out plants for neighbors to take since I accumulated a large number of Agave 'Stained Glass' bulbils in August thanks to Denise of A Growing Obsession.  However, I thought I'd hold off until the tiny plantlets developed roots and I had a wider range of material to offer.  This week I decided I couldn't put off harvesting the persimmons any longer so that triggered my decision to move ahead at last.  As it was, the critters (probably raccoons) have been breaking the persimmon trees' branches on a regular basis.

I'd already passed along a bag of 'Fuyu' persimmons (Diospyros kaki) to a friend but the 'Hachiya' variety was increasingly under siege by critters as well so I picked a bucket of both.  Fruit that had been chomped went directly into the green bin.  There's still 'Fuyu' fruit that looked too green to cut but the only 'Hachiya' fruit I left behind was that too high in the tree for me to reach.

With the persimmons ready to go, I assembled the other items I had to offer and printed information sheets to help neighbors decide what they might want to take home.  Yesterday morning I got everything laid out along the street.

I usually put all giveaway items next to the driveway entrance but, as the hedge running along the street is currently in full flower and buzzing with bees, I moved everything down the street to an area that allows passers-by to keep some distance between themselves and the bees

I've never seen this Xylosma congestum hedge as covered in flowers as it is now.  The chartreuse yellow flowers are a magnet for bees.

This is my little display

It includes 16 rooted variegated octopus agave bulbils (Agave vilmoriniana 'Stained Glass') in 4-inch pots.  I'm saving 2-3 for myself and plan to pass along others to friends.

Somehow, cuttings of Euphorbia 'Sticks on Fire' end up in most of my giveaways.  We removed one plant in our back garden because it was in my husband's way when he was working on our irrigation system problems.  (Those seem to be resolved at last.)

A friend told me that the 'Fuyu' persimmons in her local market are going for $4 apiece so I wasn't surprised to find people taking those but the 'Hachiya' fruit is moving at approximately the same rate.  I left small paper bags so people could carry them home more easily.

I finally finished planting out two areas with Aeonium arboreum cuttings I took earlier so in the late afternoon I added 2 buckets filled with extra cuttings next to everything else

There have been far fewer people walking the neighborhood of late but apparently people do brake for plants when driving through the area.  What I put out in the morning was half-gone by 6pm.  I'm not sure how much interest there will be in the Aeoniums but I thought I'd check rather than tossing all those cuttings directly into the green recycle bin. 

All material © 2012-2022 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Bloom Day - October 2022

I'm a day ahead of the official schedule for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day but I've been busy in the garden and had to fit my post in when I had the time to work on it.  My garden is in its late-summer doldrums, worsened perhaps due to two recent heatwaves and a two-week outdoor watering ban, but I realize my climate is still kinder than many so you may feel the floral display is greater than I perceive it to be.  Temperatures have plummeted in the past week but daytime highs remain in the mid-60sF to low-70sF, perfect for tackling garden chores that have been on hold much too long.

I'll start with the plants providing the brightest splashes of color right now.

Dahlias, clockwise from the upper left: 'Catching Fire', 'Lavender Ruffles', 'Enchantress', Fairway Spur', 'Summer's End', and 'Karma Prospero'

Felicia aethopica 'Tight & Tidy'

The ever dependable large-flowered Grevilleas 'Superb' and 'Peaches & Cream'

Pelargonium peltatums (aka ivy geraniums), refreshed by a little rain and cooler temperatures

Pennisetum advena 'Rubrum'

The vast majority of zinnias have already succumbed to mildew (which really means I just couldn't stand the appearance of their foliage and have pulled them up).  These 4, clockwise from the upper left, are still somewhat presentable: Zinnia elegans 'Benary's Giant Deep Red', 'Benary's Giant Carmine Rose', 'Benary's Giant Purple', and 'Queen Red Lime'

Ripening fruit doesn't count as flowers but it does provide color at this time of year.  The 2 persimmon trees (Diospyros kaki 'Fuyu' and 'Hachiya') are bearing more heavily than ever before despite our drought conditions.

What would a Bloom Day be if there weren't a few surprises?  Here are mine:

An Agapanthus blooming in October is just plain weird

I had a difficult time determining the identity of the 5 bulbs whose foliage showed up in the middle of my backyard border.  I finally found record of planting 5 Amarine belladiva 'Emanuelle' (a cross between Nerine and Amaryllis belladonna) in April 2021, which is clearly what this is.  The first bloom is just opening now.

I cut this Argyranthemum frutescens 'White Butterfly' back hard about 6 weeks ago in lieu of pulling it up altogether but I was still surprised when it began to come back

Yucca 'Bright Star' blooms on its own schedule.  This bloom spike popped up during the last heatwave and is already spent.

A hedge of Xylosma congestum shrubs surrounds our garden on 3 sides.  I've seen sporadic blooms on a small scale before but this month the entire section of the hedge running alongside the street is in bloom.  The area is covered in bees.

A few other plants are getting an early start on their fall displays.

Barleria obtusa (aka bush violet) usually blooms in November but the shrubs in the back garden are already getting started

All the Australian fuchsias have started to bloom.  The flowers are hard to photograph even at the height of bloom.  From left to right are Correa 'Dusky Bells', 'Ivory Bells', and 'Wyn's Wonder'.

As usual, I'll close with the best of the rest organized by color in collages.

Clockwise from the upper left: berries of Auranticarpa rhombifolium (like tiny pumpkins) and a self-seeded Cotoneaster, Echeveria compressicaulis, Cuphea 'Vermillionaire', Gaillardia 'Spintop Copper Sun', Lantana 'Irene', and noID orange Lantana

Clockwise from the upper left: fresh blooms of Achillea 'Moonshine', noID Gaillardia, Grindelia camporum, Nemesia 'Banana Split', Abelia grandiflora 'Kaleidoscope', Lantana 'Lucky White', Zephyranthes candida, and noID Angelonia

Clockwise from the upper left: noID Angelonia, noID Duranta repens, D. 'Sapphire Showers', Salvia rosmarinus officianalis, noID Scaevola, and Trichostema 'Midnight Magic'.  I still can't get over the fact that rosemary is now classified as a Salvia.

Clockwise from the upper left: Arbutus 'Marina', Cuphea 'Honeybells', C. 'Starfire Pink', Polygala fruticosa (with yellow spider), Osteospermum 'Berry White', Alstroemeria 'Inca Lucky', and Leucadendron salignum 'Blush'

That's it for October's Bloom Day.  I'm babying a handful of dahlias and zinnias but it's almost certain that all these plants will be gone well before November's Bloom Day.  I'm looking forward to getting started on my cool season cutting garden, sowing seeds and planting plugs, but there probably won't be much to see there until early next year.

To see what's blooming in other parts of the US and various locations around the world, check in with Carol of May Dreams Gardens on October 15th.

All material © 2012-2022 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Natural differences

Many gardeners look forward to ripe apples and pears each fall but those fruits don't do well in my part of coastal Southern California.  Due to limited hours of winter chill, most fruit trees other than citrus don't do well here in general.  Persimmons are a notable exception.  Frankly, I knew next to nothing about persimmons before we moved into our current home.  I'd never even eaten one.  We inherited two young persimmon trees with the garden but they bore relatively little fruit until last year.  This year, despite two years of minimal rainfall, water restrictions, and rising temperatures, we've got more fruit than I know what to do with.

The common persimmon, Diospyros virginiana, was growing in North America before Europeans arrived on the continent but the trees didn't become popular until the sweeter Japanese persimmons were introduced in the mid-19th century.  Both my trees are Japanese persimmons, Disospyros kaki.  I have the two most common varieties of the kaki persimmons : 'Fuyu' and 'Hachiya'.  However, other than bearing fruit on approximately the same schedule, they're different in many respects.

This is the 'Fuyu', sited alongside the fence that divides my cutting garden from the dry garden on the other side.  It's being crowded by a larger lime tree on the left.

The photograph on the left suggests a small tree with not much fruit but its heaviest limbs are hanging over the fence, visible from the dry garden as shown in the photograph on the right.  I had to cut 2 limbs 2 months ago because they were threatening to break under the weight of the developing fruit.  I suspect this means I should've thinned the fruit earlier.

Closeup of the 'Fuyu' fruit, which is flat on the bottom and looks a little like a miniature pumpkin

This is the 'Hachiya', sited in the dry garden at the top of the concrete stairway that leads down our steep back slope.  Unlike the 'Fuyu' tree, the 'Hachiya's' foliage is showing signs of stress.

The view of the tree from the concrete stairway shows off the fruit more clearly

Closeup of the 'Hachiya' fruit, which has an acorn shape

Diospyros is Greek for the "food of the gods."  The fruit is rich in beta-carotene, vitamin C, and potassium.

The fruit of 'Hachiya' (left) and 'Fuyu' (right) doesn't look the same but their appearance isn't the only difference between them

Until I started looking into the fruit while trying to decide what I'm going to do with this year's crop, I assumed they differed in shape but not in taste.  It turns out that's not true.  'Fuyu' is the most popular persimmon and the one you're most likely to find in supermarkets.  It's not astringent and the fruit can be eaten much like an apple.  While the darker the color, the sweeter its taste, it can be eaten when still firm.  It works well in salads and can be frozen to be eaten like custard or to garnish for ice cream.  In contrast, 'Hachiya' is so astringent that taking a bite before it's very, very ripe can cause numbness in your mouth.  One source I read likened the taste of an unripe 'Hachiya' to the taste of a a very green banana.  Another source claimed that while 'Fuyu' can be appreciated by impatient consumers, 'Hachiya' requires a consumer willing to until the fruit is so ripe it appears ready to throw out.  Its skin should be translucent and, when held, it should feel as though it's filled with water.  The persimmons used in baked goods are commonly 'Hachiya'.  It's taste is said to combine well with spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves. Online sources offer many recipes for using persimmons as you can find here and here.

The usual suspects are already stealing the 'Hachiya' fruit while branches of the 'Fuyu' are so heavily laden it's reasonable to expect branches may break even without the additional weight of a foraging raccoon.  I can't leave the fruit in place too much longer or it'll all be smashed or half-eaten.  I expect to harvest the 'Hachiya' within the next week or so and, unless my husband gets an urge to bake, I'll give the fruit to friends and neighbors.  I'd like to wait a bit longer to harvest the 'Fuyu' as that fruit is less ripe.  Fortunately, fruit cut prematurely will ripen in room temperatures given time.  Ripening also can be sped up by placing the fruit in a paper bag with a banana.

A final difference between the trees is also worth noting.  In addition to their difference in appearance, taste, and use in food preparation, the trees differ in terms of their foliage.  The foliage of the 'Hachiya', at least in my location, goes from green to a homely brown as summer comes to an end.  In contrast, the foliage of 'Fuyu' offers the best fall color of any plant in my garden.

Photos of 'Fuyu' taken in November 2021

Let me know if you have any uses for persimmons you'd like to suggest.

All material © 2012-2022 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Wednesday Vignette: Rats!

In one of the driest years I can remember, the persimmon and guava trees in my garden have produced more fruit than I've ever seen before.  What's up with that?!  I can't walk through my north side garden without ducking my head to avoid the ripening persimmons - or, more commonly, hitting my head on the hanging fruit when I'm not paying attention.

This is the 'Hachiya' persimmon (Diospyros kaki).  The tree's fall foliage doesn't live up to expectations but the fruit is beautiful.  

The 'Fuyu' persimmon in the cutting garden is also loaded with fruit, the majority of which hangs over the fence that divides that part of the garden from what I call the north side garden.

This is the 'Fuyu' variety.  The fruit has a flat bottom and is said to be less astringent.  This tree reliably produces the most colorful fall foliage in my garden.

Neither my husband nor I care much for persimmons.  One source describes it as the "fruity love child of a mango and a roasted sweet pepper, with some cinnamon in the background."  I don't care for its texture, which is accurately described as "slippery."  I've already given some of it away but, as more of it ripens on the trees, I'd like to off-load the rest of it as soon as possible.  While all the critters, other than an occasional squirrel, ignore the still-green guavas, the persimmons attract a variety of creatures.  The raccoons break tree limbs getting to the fruit and frequently leave it half-eaten on the ground to rot.  Some fruit gets eaten while it's still on the tree.  I thought the culprit was a squirrel until I caught sight of this:

That's no squirrel!

He (or she) looked up at me and then kept on eating.  Doesn't he/she look healthy?  My cat's fur is less silky.  According to another reference, persimmons are a good source of fiber, vitamins A, C and B-6, potassium, and manganese.

Not wanting to get too close to the rat, I went inside to get my telephoto lens to capture a better shot but, by the time I got back, the rat had left.  I'm not sure which is worse: picking up half-eaten, rotting fruit from the ground, or trying to pull it off the tree.

I guess I need to start picking.  I'll hold some fruit for a friend who loves persimmons and may put the rest on the curb to see if it appeals to neighbors.  It's supposed to be tasty in muffins...

For more Wednesday Vignettes, visit Anna at Flutter & Hum.

All material © 2012-2021 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Touches of Fall Color

Although Pam at Digging no longer hosts her foliage follow-up meme, I'm still conditioned to think about foliage after collecting a glut of photos in preparation for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.  There isn't much in the way of fall color in my region of the country, especially as temperatures seem to be growing higher with each passing year, but our nighttime temperatures have markedly declined* recently so I took my camera outside and mounted a search.

The deciduous trees still aren't showing much color but I found two exceptions.

The coral bark Japanese maple (Acer palmatum 'Sango Kaku'), grown in a protected spot alongside our garage, is the only reliable provider of fall color I have

The noID persimmon at the edge of my cutting garden didn't produce any fruit this year but it has a touch of fall color, which isn't always the case.  A second persimmon tree on the other side of the fence has a little fruit but ugly brown leaves.

This year Leptospermum 'Pink Pearl' is obscuring the persimmon's best side

The persimmon doesn't look as impressive from this side, at least not yet

In the absence of real fall color, we look to plants that can mimic it.  Here's an example:

Graptoveria 'Fred Ives' has colored up nicely in the succulent garden on the south side of the house

My neighbor's maples are just showing the first signs of changing color but I expect it could be Christmas before they're flashy enough to show off.  I hope those of you in colder climates had a chance to enjoy the colors of fall before freezes hit or snow arrived.  Best wishes to all of you in the US in the sights of the Nor-easter.

*A "marked decline" here means temperatures occasionally dipped into the 40s.


All material © 2012-2018 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party