Passionfruit and the Scent of Lilac

FLORAL ARTISTRY

I was going to have Tony Mattson from Cut above tools, on the program until I realised that I needed to talk to one of the judges of the Tesselaar rock Star Florist competition.

The art of floristry has come a long way from posies of yesteryear.
Floral Design is the ‘in thing’ or buzz word, where creating anything from simple bouquets to floral chandeliers, to floral head dresses are the go.
Where can they showcase their stuff?
At a floral competition and today I’m talking to Julie Rose, one of the judges and former competition finalist for 4 years.

This year there are three bona-fide Australian RockStar Florists to judge  the competition as expert judges and mentors:

•Holly Hipwell from The Flower Drum

•Melanie Stapleton from Cecilia Fox

•Julia-rose from Flowers by Julia-rose

These industry superstars will help select finalists and the ultimate winners. They will also then offer their valuable time and expertise to train up our lucky winners.

The way it works is the judges chose their finalists (9 each for a total of 27 finalists), which they have already done, then from 16th -23rd November, the public can vote on facebook.com/tesselaarflowers, where you, get to select the 3 category winners – then back to the judges who will decide amongst themselves who is to be the overall winner - 2016’s RockStar Florist!

VEGETABLE HEROES

Passionfruit or Passiflora edulis.
Almost every garden has space for a passionfruit.
Yes, it’s a fruit but botanically it’s a berry.
Plant a Passionfruit or two- Passionfruit Panama Red, Panama Gold, Nellie Kelly and Banana passionfruit.
The passionfruit vine has the look of a tropical vine with it’s lime green glossy 3-lobed leaves and its intricate purple and white flowers with a crown like appearance.
So distinctive is this flower that 16th Century Spanish Catholic missioniaries named it "Flor de las cinco llagas" or "flower of the five wounds."
They thought the flowers portrayed ‘Christ’s passion on the cross’ because it showed the Three Nails, the Five Wounds, the Crown of Thorns and the Apostles

Passiflora edulis

So it could have come from Brazil but no-one knows for sure.
PASSIONFRUIT is a well known and loved vine in Australia.
Passion fruit grew here before 1900 in what had been banana fields.
Until1943, passionfruits were a high yielding commercial crop but when the vines were devastated by a widespread virus, the industry was devastated.
Although some plantations have been rebuilt, they can’t produce enough passion fruit to satisfy the demand.
So Why Grow A Passionfruit?
Passionfruit vines are have twining tendrils that grab onto anything within reach and can clamber up trellis, fence or pergola in most soil types.
They’re also suitable for large pots on a balcony.
The passionfruit vine is very ornamental in leaf and flower and will improve the appearance of fences, stark walls, tanks and just about anything else.
Almost every garden has space for one passionfruit vine, so try to find a suitable spot against a sunny fence or wall.
The common, or purple, passionfruit are the size of an egg, round to egg-shaped with a thick, purple skin, which becomes dull and wrinkled as it ripens.

Inside, the pulp is yellowish-orange, sweet and jelly-like with many edible, black seeds covered in jelly-like pulp.
Some varieties are yellow, some are banana-shaped, others are larger than the purple passionfruit.
Commercial growers in cooler climates often use hybrid varieties of the purple and golden passionfruit.
That way they get a plant that tolerates cooler weather.
How to grow Passionfruit from seed.
Growing passionfruit seeds isn’t hard.
The seed just needs to be fresh.
For some reason old seed takes a lot longer to germinate.
So buy some nice passionfruit, separate half a dozen seeds from the pulp, and plant them as soon as possible.
They take about ten to twenty days to germinate.

Keep in mind that most passionfruit found in the fruit and veg shop are hybrid varieties and won’t come true to type.
Another problem with growing from these seeds is that the plant that grows will be more susceptible to the fungal disease, Fusarium Wilt.
If you have this problem in your district, often in cool temperate zones, then you’ll have to buy a grafted variety of passionfruit.
If you buy your seed then it's likely older, so be prepared to wait.
Old passionfruit seeds can take months to germinate.
The best way seems to be to just put them in the garden and leave them be, and they may came up.
Next Thing.
When your seeds germinate and are ready to transplant, dig in some Chook poo pellets before planting,
Sprinkle  the soil with 0.5 kg dolomite lime, and mulch with an organic mulch once the vine’s in place.
All passionfruit like full sun and protection from wind and frost.
They also need something to climb over.
You only need two wires along a north facing fence.
One placed near the top of the fence and another one 50 cm lower.
Train the young plant up a stake until it reaches the first wire, then allow two shoots to go out along the wire.
Of course you can grow it along other structures, it’s really up to you.
Like all fast growing plants passionfruit needs a lot of nutrients.
Passionfruit are notoriously short lived, so it’s a good idea to plant a new vine in a different part of the garden every couple of years.
In colder areas you can grow the banana passionfruit which have a similar taste and pink flowers.
Regular water and fertiliser will increase vigour and crop size.
Passionfruit plants have a vulnerable root system.

A fertile soil with lots of organic matter is the ideal situation.
If your soil is poor you will get problems with wilt diseases, root rot and nematodes. Heavy clay soils also cause problems with rot diseases.
The root system also can handle lots of water as long as the soil it’s in is well drained.
The plant also needs plenty of water when it’s fruiting.
In warm areas you will get fruit for most of the year.
In temperate areas expect a crop summer and late autumn.
In cold areas only summer.
 (Passionfruit - Panama Gold vigorous and sweeter than the others.
Black Passionfruit - (Passiflora edulis) Will tolerate light frosts. Self pollinating.)
Why Are They Good For You?
They’re an excellent source of beta carotene, which the body converts to vitamin A.
A good source of vitamin C
They’re an excellent source of dietary fibre. Australian figures rate passionfruit higher than any other fruit for dietary fibre.
Also contain more of the B complex vitamins riboflavin and niacin and also more iron than other fruits
AND THAT WAS YOUR VEGETABLE HERO SEGMENT FOR TODAY!

DESIGN ELEMENTS

Scented Plants for Cool Temperate Gardens. (The envy of warm climate gardeners!)
Earlier this year Garden Designer Peter Nixon started a series on scent for your garden.
We now take it up again with a focus on scented plants for cool climate gardens.

Sometimes I think cool climate gardens have it all.
Not that you need to have a palace as in the photograph of lilacs taken in Vienna.
Those gardeners can plant an English style garden, they can even plant a tropical style garden by choosing cold hardy large leaved plants.But best of all, they can plant these sumptuously scented plants that gardens further north struggle with.
Let’s find out more.
I'm talking with Peter Nixon, garden designer and project Manager of Paradisus Garden Design. www.paradisusgl.peternixon.com.au

Daphnes, Luculias, Bouvardia,  and Lilac are all plants that gardeners other than in cool climates try to grow with limited success.
Sometimes they last for a few years, sometimes they don’t survive the season.
Their allure keeps drawing us in.
The plants that Peter mentioned are:

Philadelphus coronarius

Daphne odorata : Viburnum carlesii

Luculia gratissima, L. pinceana, L. grandifolia
Siringa vulgaris - Lilac
Edgeworthia chrysantha - Paper Bush
Chimonanthus praecox - Winter Sweet
Lonicera fragrantissima - Woodbine
Narcisis - jonquils, daffodils Lavendula

PLANT OF THE WEEK

Amaranth caudatus_Love Lies Beeding

Described as have brilliant red seed heads that dangle like rubies, the tassles of this flower can reach up to 30cm long.
That means that if you want to display them in a vase, the vase has to be quite tall.
So let’s find out what it is.
I'm talking with the plant panel:Karen Smith, editor of Hort Journal www.hortjournal.com.au  and Jeremy Critchley, The Green Gallery wholesale nursery owner. www.thegreengallery.com.au

Did you know that Love-Lies-Bleeding grew in many Victorian English gardens and in the language of flowers, it represents hopeless love?
Tiny blood red petal-less flowers that bloom in narrow, drooping, tassel-like, panicles throughout the growing season.
The tassels contain thousands of tiny flowers and hang straight down to 30cm (occasionally 60 cm) long and look like velvet cords.
Did you know that the red colour of the inflorescences is due to a high content of betacyanins?
This plant grows best in full sun and well drained soil.
It tolerates dry conditions and poor soil, but can’t grow in the shade.
If you have any questions about growing  Amaranthus or Love Lies Bleeding, why not write in to realworldgardener@gmail.com
 

Cinderella's Passion About Gardening

WHAT'S COOKING

Would you drink a shrub?

19th Century Kitchens

No, it’s not a plant that you have to liquidise but it’s a term to describe a type of drink that for some reason fell out of usage both here and in England, but remained in use in America.
Where does the drink shrub stem from?
We’re about to find out  by listening to the podcast. I'm talking with Jacquie Newling from Sydney Living Museums.

So wine was considered socially acceptable to drink but not spirits like whisky and brandy.

Wine grapes were planted in Australia as early as 1788

However, cider was being made in the colony as early as 1803.
Peach cider though was more common than apple cider, just because peaches were plentiful.
Fruit was left to ferment and some old properties in Australia still have a cider press.
Most of the soft drinks that you see today came from the recipes in the kitchens of the 1800's.
But if you belonged to the temperance movement you would be drinking various cordials, barley water and shrubs, but perhaps not the apple and peach ciders.
Amongst the cordials were elderberry cordials, and raspberry vinegar cordial.
To make Raspberry Vinegar cordial you step the raspberries in cider vinegar for a few day and then add enough sugar to temper the acidic flavour.
All that's left to do now is to bottle it and over 8 - 12 months the vinegar tempers quite a bit.
This was used as a cordial base for children's drinks.
If you have any questions about drinks from old or have some information you’d like to share, why not email realworldgardener@gmail.com or write in to 2RRR P.O. Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675.

VEGETABLE HEROES

PUMPKINS
Pumpkins (Cucurbita spp.) Cucurbita pepo, or Cucurbita maxima and so on, are members of the Cucurbitaceae family along with zucchini, gourd, squash, melons and cucumber.
Pumpkins are a little different from the other members of the Cucurbit family because Pumpkins are normally hard-shelled whereas the squashes have softer skin, but there are exceptions.

The name “pumpkin” originated from the Greek word, “pepon,” which means, “large melon

Did you know that technically pumpkin is a fruit, and has been in cultivation for more than 5,000 years?

Cinderella Pumpkin

So where did Cinderalla’s pumpkin come from?
In some countries you can get a pumpkin variety called "Rouge Vie d' Etampes". roughly translated "Red Life of the Times" which turn a deep red when they’re ready to eat.
Supposedly the illustrator for the Cinderella Fairytale used this variety of pumpkin for Cinderella's coach, so that today this pumpkin is better known as a "Cinderella".
They look just like the pumpkin that Cinderella's fairy godmother transformed into a carriage.
Seems like Halloween is catching on around the world, but it was the Irish that first carved turnips and swedes, lit them with embers and used them to ward off evil spirits.
Some say Americans chose Pumpkins because they were easier to carve!
Pumpkin is considered an annual, and comes in all sorts of shapes, sizes, colours and patterns.
Pumpkins can weigh anywhere from 1–600kg. The largest pumpkin on record was grown in the USA, weighing 667kg.
Honestly, for those of us who have a compost heap, one of the most often things to grow out of the heap other than tomatoes, is the pumpkin.
Usually a Butternut or Queensland Blue.
Just as well that Pumpkins like compost heaps because the vines need fertile, compost-rich, well-drained soil in full sun, and are most easily grown as ground-cover plants.
There is a bush variety called Golden Nugget, that can be grown in a pot but all the rest grow way too big for pots.
Vines can be trained over frames provided they can support the weight of the heavy fruit.
When to sow:
Start early, with your pumpkin seed planting, because, before you know it, summer is here and you’ve run out of time to grow it to maturity.
In temperate zones, plant your pumpkin seeds from September until the end of December. Arid zones have from September until February, sub-tropical regions have between August and February, Cool temperate districts have between October and December, and in Tropical areas you can grow them all year round.
Growing Pumpkins
Pumpkin seed needs a soil temperature of 20˚C for germination.
You can either sow them individually in 10cm pots and plant them out when the pots are filled with roots.
Or, sow seed or plant seedlings into mounds of rich compost, with lots and lots of chook poo, made over loosened soil.
The seeds are large so sow them about 1 cm deep.
Plants take 70–120 days to mature. That’s 10 -17 weeks or 2-4 months!
TIP: Pumpkins are shallow-rooted so they need regular watering in dry or windy weather.
It’s no good watering every other day in warm weather because your pumpkin will end up splitting.
Pinch out growing tips of those rambling stems to keep the plants in check, otherwise they may take over you whole backyard!

Fertilising Those Pumpkin Flowers

When I worked at Yates, getting those pumpkins to fertilise was the bane of quite a number of people’s veggie growing.
The complaint was lots of leaves and few flowers or that the embryo fruits and flowers fall off.
In fact, after Des wrote in that his pumpkin vine only had male flowers, I decided to include information about the flowers and fertilisation.
Pumpkins produce short-lived male and female flowers that can close by mid-morning. Female flowers open above the swollen, distinctive embryo fruit and male flowers produce pollen.
If the embryo fruit falls off, that usually means it didn’t get pollinated.

Native and honey bees are normally able to complete pollination, but sometimes ants harvest pollen before this occurs.
High temperatures can affect fruit formation over 30˚C, and here you may need to try hand pollination to improve fruit set.
To hand pollinate, pick male flowers, remove the petals then dab pollen on the stigma of female flowers.
Squeezing female flowers aids pollination in wet weather.
Remember,, sometimes female flowers take two weeks or longer before they start appearing.
This is because the pumpkin vine has to grow to a decent size where it can support fruit, before the female flowers appear.
Varieties of Pumpkin to Try:
There are as many different varieties of pumpkins as there are of tomatoes, except you can’t get the Cinderella pumpkin in Australia.
Golden Nugget is best for small gardens, for a medium sized pumpkin, try Hybrid Grey Crown or Queensland Blue.

Turk’s Turban is an exotic-looking pumpkin (although its flavour is a little dry).
You might prefer the stronger taste of Jarrahdale, from Western Australia.
For those who like something unusual, why not try Pumpkin Marina di Chioggia, with its thick knobbly grey-blue skin, and a rich deep yellow-orange inside. This one takes 100 days to maturity but keeps well.
Pumpkin Galeux Deysines is another unusual pumpkin with whitish salmon-pink skin covered with peanut shell like warts. These warts are caused by the sugar in the skin as it ripens.
Don’t be put off by that, because the orange inside flesh, is sweet, and moist.
Available from www.australianseed.com

Harvesting and storing
Your pumpkin is ready to pick when it’s finished swelling which is when the vine is dying off, and they sound hollow when you tap on the shell.
This is when you remove them with as much of the stalk as possible.
Ripe pumpkins with unbroken skin store very well if kept in a cool, dry, well-ventilated space.
For the seed savers out there, seed can be saved one month after harvesting them.
Scoop seed from the flesh, wash, dry and store in a cool, dry spot away from sunlight.
To ensure seed-grown progeny comes true, save seed from one variety grown in isolation.
Why are they good for you?
The bright orange colour of pumpkin is a dead giveaway that pumpkin is loaded with the antioxidant, beta-carotene.
Beta-carotene is one of the plant carotenoids converted to vitamin A in the body.
They’re also a good source of vitamin C, with Queensland Blue coming top of the pumpkin class for this vitamin.
Pumpkins are a source of dietary fibre and supply (especially Golden nugget and Butternut) a good source of potassium.
One cup of cooked pumpkin has 2 g of protein, 3 g of dietary fibre.
Pumpkins are 90% water and a great for those watching their waistline
Why not make mashed pumpkin instead of mashed potato because Pumpkins don’t have a lot of carbs- just 12 g from 1 cup, but some of it is present as natural sugars, which is why they taste sweet.
Like Zucchini flowers, pumpkin flowers are also edible.
  AND THAT WAS YOUR VEGETABLE HERO FOR TODAY?

DESIGN ELEMENTS

Trees have a valuable role to play in our immediate environment and also to our native wildlife.
A lot of gardeners really care for their trees when it comes to fertilizing and maintenance but when it comes to tree maintenance such as pruning, it’s not that straight forward.
So you have a tree that needs lopping or even a tree that you want cut down.
Who should you call? Not Joe the lawnmower man or No Name Garden Maintenance.
You need to call a professional, but there is a distinct difference between these tree professionals and you need to know what they are?
This series is about arboriculture and managing trees.
Let’s find out who to call by listening to the podcast.Talking with Arboriculture Consultant and Landscape Designer Glenice Buck. www.glenicebuckdesigns.com.au

Want to know what exactly is the industry of Arboriculture?

 As a quick definition, Arboriculture involves the selection, planting and care of trees – an Arborist is somebody who maintains and or manages this process.  It is a very broad field which has many areas of specialization. 

-          Arborists may do the manual pruning and care on trees. 

-          Other arborists may do the specialised scientific studies and research for government departments, botanic gardens and CSIRO etc

-          There are the arborists who specialise in forestry, timber production and growing plantations. 

-          Then there are the consultant arborists who provide technical expertise in managing trees usually in an urban environment.  

People either love or hate trees, but trees have so many positive benefits.
Tree will clear air-they’re the lungs of the planet.
If you have any questions about tree maintenance or have a suggestion why not write in or email me at www.realworldgardener.com

PLANT OF THE WEEK

PASSIONFRUIT Passiflora edulis
This next vining plant could almost be a vegetable hero, because even though it has fruit, technically pumpkins are a fruit as well.
The foliage is very tropical looking and the flowers are an artwork in themselves.
A botanical description of the flower goes something like this: A single, fragrant flower,5 cm wide, at each node on the new growth, 5 white petals and a fringelike corona of straight, white-tipped rays, rich purple at the base. It also has 5 stamens with large anthers, the ovary and triple-branched style forming a prominent central structure!On the downside, vine though almost has as many questions about it as does citrus trees and gardenias when it comes to talkback radio.
Let’s find out about them by listening to the podcast.. I'm talking with Karen Smith from www.hortjournal.com.au and Jeremy Critchley owner of www.thegreengallery.com.au


Almost every garden has space for one passionfruit vine, so try to find a suitable spot against a sunny fence or wall. 
Passionfruit Splash is not a grafted variety so you won't get the suckering of other varieties. Passionfruit Splash is a heavy cropper and suitable for cold climates with minimal protection when still young.
Available from www.transplants.com.au

Same things apply as with other Passionfruits.

 It’s frustrating though when your neighbour’s passionfruit vine is thriving and yours is doing poorly.
Worse still, you don’t have any fruit or they keep dropping when they’re still green.
Passionfruit can be like that, so make sure you’re adding plenty of potassium in the form of potash and keep up the watering.
One thing to remember is that Passionfruit vines don’t flower and fruit straightaway.
In the subtropics they may begin fruiting in six to 12 months from planting, but in most parts of temperate Australia it takes 18 months before flowering begins and fruit forms.

Dig in some organic chook poo pellets before planting,and also sprinkle the soil with 0.5 kg dolomite, and mulch with an organic mulch once the vine’s in place.

All passionfruit like full sun and protection from wind.

You only need two wires along a north facing fence. 

One placed near the top of the fence and another one 50 cm lower.

Passiflora coccinea( Red passion flower) is a fast-growing vine, with edible passion fruits.

Red Passion Flower is an evergreen, flowering vine from South America that climbs by tendrils like all passionfruit vines.

The flower of Passiflora coccinea is a spectacular scarlet to deep orange color and generally reaches a width of 7-10 cm.

Each unique flower lasts about one day appearing in the summer and early autumn. 

The evergreen leaves are obovate in shape and have doubly serrate margins. Fruits of Red Passion Flower are ovoid, orange or yellow in color, and are mottled green.

If you have any questions about growing passionfruit of any variety why not write in to realworldgardener@gmail.com