Subtropical Garden in Carmel Valley

I just picked about 25 Satsuma mandarin orange ( Citrus reticulata ) from a dwarf plant today. The plant is only about 3 feet high and 3 feet wide and is laden with fruits on every branch. What a beautiful sight. The golden orange fruits are brightly contrasted with the dark evergreen leaves. The fruits are loose-skinned and easy to peel. It is also seedless. So, it is really convenient to eat out of hand. It is also very flavorful and is not sour at all. In the spring the white blossoms are very fragrant and can be smelled from quite a distance. The satsuma mandarin originated in Japan more than 400 years ago. There are some 100 varieties of satsumas in Japan, about a dozen of which have been released in the United States. You don't often see the Satsuma mandarin in the supermarket, may be due to its limited storage period. It cannot be kept in the refrigerator for months like orange. That is a shame because it is very delicious and so easy to peel and separate the ...

November 14, 2006, drizzle The tropical guava fruits are beginning to ripen now. I have 4 plants, a Mexican guava (lower photo), a Vietnamese guava (upper photo), a pink tropical guava bought at Home Deport and a seedling from a friend. They all have fruits hanging now. I can usually pick one or two ripe fruits each day. The peak time for guava harvesting will probably come in 2 or 3 weeks. There are several clues to tell if a guava is ready for harvest. The color of a fruit changes from green to pale yellow, the fruit becomes soft to touch and the fruit emits a very pleasant guava fragrance. The Vietnamese guava is an exception. It does not become soft or fragrant and is valued for its crunchiness. I usually pick the guava, let it soften further for a few days enjoying its fragrance. The fragrance is very pungent and strong. A couple of ripe guava can fill a room with their fragrance. I eat guava out of hand and devour the whole fruit, skin and seeds includ...

What a beautiful, sweet plant! A friend had a few red sugar canes in his backyard. They were about 7-8 feet tall with reddish purple stem and a bunch of green leaves on top. They were really beautiful. I knew sugarcane was commercially grown to make sugar, but I did not realize that it was quite ornamental. I also did not know it would grow in San Diego. To me, sugarcane was also associated with tropical plantations in Hawaii, and Caribbean countries. My friend graciously gave me a few short stems with 2-3 nodes to me in May. I planted the stems horizontally, barely covered with soil. They all sprouted and have grown vigorously. One of the stem is now a clump of 7-8 feet canes. The stem was covered with leave sheath. I peeled the lower leaves to expose the beautiful purple stem. I cut a stem from the ground in October to see if it is ready for epicureans’ enjoyment. Well, it turned out it is a lot of work to get to the sweet pith. First, I had to peel off the tough purple s...

Today (or early this morning) we have the first rain of this season. The rain was quite heavy, but short in duration. It stopped when I got up at 6:20 AM. The sun was out. The air was humid and refreshing. The leaves of the garden plants were still wet and looked very green and clean. Well, they clearly need the rain to clean the dust and debris accumulated during the 6 months of dry season. This must be a great treat for the plants, as they looked so verdant and happy. The iris (Rosalie Figge from Van Bourgondien) decided to take the advantage of rain and opened the dark blue-purple petals. This is the second time the iris bloomed this year confirming that it is indeed a re-blooming iris. I have another white re-blooming iris (Immortality). The white flowers are fragrant and seem to bloom at irregular times of the years, sometimes in the mid-winter. I have divided the single plant to 4 plants and each plant bloomed at different times. So I enjoy the flowers year round. I will k...

The pomegranates are ripe now and will split open showing off the ruby-like seeds (see picture 1) if not harvested soon. The tree I have is call "Wonder". The fruits are huge (see picture 2 with a quarter for size comparison) with very red skin and dark purple-red seeds. The seeds are delicious although it is a pain to get the seeds out from the white membrane they attach to. I like to put the seeds in a tray and just savor the flavor one by one while watching TV. The seeds have a tangy sweet flavor and they look like a plate of precious jewels. The pomegranate is symbol of fertility and is often used in Chinese wedding as a blessing for the bride and bridegroom to have hundreds of sons and thousands of grandsons. Nowadays, nobody really wants to have a lot of children. So, maybe pome is considered old-fashioned. Not to worry, the pome juice is supposed to have one of the highest amounts of anti-oxidants and have all kinds of health benefits including reducing plaque of...

It is the flower time of Mexican bush sage ( Salvia leucantha ). The velvet purple and white flowers are held high above the slender branches and silvery grey leaves. They sway graceful in the gentle breeze creating a sea of purple flags. The flowers are the favorite nectar source of humming birds. Every morning and evening, the humming birds flitted around flowers drink the nectar or chasing each others. There are always a number of them darting around. When sun light hit the throat, the ruby feathers are iridescent. What a sight! Of course the honey bees are humming around the flowers, too. The plants are easy to grow. They don't seem to mind the clay, alkaline soil here. They are also easy to propagate. Just a few stems with roots and stick the new stems in the soil and in a few weeks, they will have leaves and start growing. If it is done early in the spring, they will even flower. I usually cut the down to a few inches from the soil after flowers are over. The new silvery l...

The Manila mango plant I bought from Home Depot in a 1-gallon pot 2 years ago has several almost-ripe fruits on them. The label from Home Depot indicated it is " Manila " variety. However, They don't look like the yellow Manila mango you get from the supermarket (especially the oriental supermarkets) since they have lot of spots and appear to be more greenish-yellow. I am not sure about the if I should trust the Home Depot label since the plants are often mis - labeled . I am just thrilled that the plant has done well enough to fruit. It was like 2 and 1/2 feet tall when I planted it. Now it is about 6 feet tall. The tree is quite ornamental too. The new leaves are red and contrast very prettily against the mature green leaves. It has a tendency to have too many buds from the joint, so I have to cut a few new growth off to avoid over-crowding. I have not seen any insects or disease problems so far even though aphid, mealy bugs and giant white flies have b...

The fruits of feijoa The fruits of feijoa ( Acca sellowiana or used to be Feijoa sellowiana ) are ripe and falling to the ground right now (see the second picture ). A few are still on the bush (upper picture). The fruits are oval in shape and green in color. It is really hard to tell if they are ripe. So, I just let them fall from the bush and collect the fruits. Feijoa fruits have a very unique fragrance and flavor, kind like tropical guava with distinct taste. Unlike guava, the skin is hard. So, I usually cut the fruits in halves and scoop out the white flesh with a spoon. I have a single bush for 2 years and it is the first year it has fruited, although it flowered last year without fruits. The flowers are quite pretty and edible. The petals are quite sweet, almost like candy. The leaves are grey green on top and silvery underneath, suggesting feijoa is quite drought tolerant and I have seen people using it as a hedge. The plant is facing east with afternoon shade and seemed ...

Plumeria is almost past its peak. Plumeria grows really well here in San Diego. It is so fragrant. Every time I see the flowers, I remember the plumeria leis in Hawaii. The one in the picture is the typical plumeria you see in Hawaii. I also have one that called "Raibow". The flower has pink, yellow and white colors, but it is still small and only have a few flowers. I also have a yellow flowered "cerise" and a red-flowered plumeria that have yet to flower. But they all grow very well and I can imagine the glorious flowers they will have next summer. The "cerise" had 3 branches. So, I cut 2 branches off, let them dried in the shade for a week and put the dried stems to 2 pots. The leaves are starting to growing on the top of the stems, one of the stem actually has several flower buds. So, hopefully this means they have rooted and will grow and flower next year.

The cymbidium Golden Elf "Sundust" is blooming beautifully now. It usually has several flower spikes and blooms more than once yearly. It has a very nice fragrance. Although the flowers do not last as long as other large cymbidium, it is very easy to care and flower reliably every year. I have sub-dividied the plants several time and have 4 plants in pots now (not including the 2 pots I gave to my brother and a friend as gifts) and all flowering now. It is also a miniature so it does not need lot of space. It is one of my favorate flowers.

This is my first blog. I live in San Diego, about 5 miles from the ocean. I have a few subtropical frut trees such as mango, cherimoya, Loquat, guava, wax Jambu (left picture) and Dragon fruit (right picture). The wax Jambu ( Syzygium samarangense " Black pearl") was planted 2 years ago and fruited the first this year. The fruit is crunch, sweet and juicy. The dragon fruit was planted last year and I have only a single fruit that should mature soon. I also have lot of flower plants which I will have pictures in the future.  . I grow vegetables such as tomato, pepper, cilantro, basil, and eggplant and some Chinese vegetable.