First Sighting of New Fig Plants For Sale

On a trip to Lowe’s for a new strike plate and an exterior lightbox, I noticed a cart full of Black Mission figs, or alleged Black Mission figs. I also noticed several shelves full of bare root roses.

I have already posted on my experiences with Lowe’s bareroots, but noticed a surprising price reduction this year. Undoubtedly some smart person realized that they would make more money selling most of the roses at $5 or $6 dollars than by overpricing them at first and selling most of them 90 percent off, you know for like a $1. Unfortunately, no old roses this year for the quarantined pots.

I am more interested in the substantial number of Black Mission figs–as in why does Lowe’s sell something that is not really rated for zone 7 when similar if not better figs like Violette de Bordeaux and Petite Negri do so well here–and contrary to what most nurserymen will tell you, can die back to the ground and still produce a good crop of fruit on new growth if given enough sun and care, just like Hardy Chicago.

Thoreau’s “Wild Fruits” (Famous Hobbyist Gardeners/Botanists Post I)

Transcendentalist philosopher Henry David Thoreau is most famous for writing about his back to nature experiment on Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Walden Pond property. And for going to jail rather than paying taxes. But he was also a serious student of botany, particularly the natural fruits he encountered on his walks, which he documented in a notebook published in 2000 as “Wild Fruits.”

Thoreau, perhaps an antecedent to today’s low maintenance edible landscapers, wrote “famous fruits imported from East or South and sold in our markets…do not concern me so much as many an unnoticed wild berry whose beauty annually lends a new charm to some wild walk or which I have found palatable to an outdoor taste.”

Critters Are The Best Garden Ornaments

Umberto Nutkins, kin of Squirrel Nutkins

This week the year’s first flowers have started forming–Plumcott and Pluot buds and one whole crocus–but for the past 2/ 2.5 months the stars of the garden have been the critters, mostly a legion of rumbustious gray squirrels who recently did some demolition on the Christmas gingerbread village.

Until a couple days ago, when I saw HIM–the gi-normous Barred Owl. I didn’t even know owls were in town, but there he was smack in the middle of a rainy February day standing on top of the deer fence’s 10 foot rebar post like some sort of spotted power transformer.

Buying Bareroot Roses

Depending on what types of roses you are interested in, you can start a large collection cheap–but there are some caveats you ignore at your own risk.

Already Time to Prepare for Growing Season

Blizzards may be shutting down the northeast today, but in Central Virginia its already time to start ordering bareroot roses. After 2 years of waiting and hoping, four under performing Hybrid Teas on the north side of the house need to be replaced with hardier, more shade tolerant varieties that still have enough of the “Tropicana” color bling. Hopefully the English rose “Lady Emma Hamilton” will bloom a consistent orange color, which has not been the case with some of the other English roses I’ve grown like “Evelyn” or “Abraham Darby” which often look more pink than apricot or orange, though they both rebloom well with a consistently strong scent and quartered form.