Dragon Fruit at Mount Warning

Mount Warning Holiday Park has a massive dragon fruit growing on a palm tree near their swimming pool.

Notice how the yellow flowers are drooping. This is because it is night flowering. The dragon fruit is quite happy to hang itself off this tree and it loves getting all the sun near the pool. It climbed to the very top of the palm tree with ease.

Because the Dragon Fruit is self pollinating it does need ants or bees to pollinate it so sure enough it was covered in ants.

The above pictures are of a Yellow Dragon Fruit and it will still be a while before you can pick the fruit. However they had another Red dragon fruit again on a palm tree which was fruiting.

I notice that in Brisbane at the moment some shops are selling imported dragon fruits (around $4 each yet you can grow your own for $12.90) from Vietnam however after seeing these huge dragon fruit vines there is no reason why in the near future we will be eating commercially grown dragon fruit from Australia hopefully a bit cheaper as well.

Another thing I noticed is that they don't have any roots in the ground. I could be wrong but once they are established they seem to dig themselves into the host tree and I assume feed themselves this way perhaps like a strangler fig however not as aggressive as they rely on the host tree for survival. Am I right?

Fig Black Genoa

The Fig Black Genoa is in our Australia's top 5 most popular plants so when I was down at Daleys Nursery it was on my must have list.

Figs have an amazing flavour but you need to eat them at the right time as they are highly perishable once picked so I am guessing that is why supermarkets and fruit markets have a hard time keeping them on their shelves and charge like a wounded bull for them.

Because I live in the city I am growing it in a pot to keep it dwarfed and also it means that I can move it into the perfect sunny position. I have 5 figs coming on even though it is only a baby. No wonder people like the fig black Genoa so much they fruit from a young age and for a large part of the year as well - October through to March.

Roberto

Roberto from Nomentana who reads our newsletter has contacted us with some amazing pictures from his gardens.

Bouganvillea multicolour

New Plant Tags

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Passionfruit in South Australia

Kieren from Hillbank in South Australia sent us in some great photos of how to go about setting up a passionfruit vine.

A site which receives part sun and shade was selected

The wire mesh was added for the passionfruit to grow along

Bricks were layed to contain the soil

The passionfruit vine was planted

Kieren selected both the Passionfruit - Granadilla and the Panama Red. My guess is that because passionfruit are fast growers the wire mesh will will be covered with the vine in a few months.

The Butterfly Kiss DVD

Below is a short extract from the DVD The Butterfly Kiss which won the Spirit of Woodford Awards this year. You can purchase the full documentary DVD if you enjoy what you see.

Coffee Plants in Pots

After we discussed growing your own coffee plants where many of you wrote in and gave some great tips I got inspired and are now growing my own coffee plants in pots in my Brisbane backyard. I know they don't like too much wind so they are being sheltered and they are also getting as much sun as I can find for them. I am hoping come July and September this year or next I might be able to make some "real coffee" from scratch. It was said you need 30 coffee plants to have 2 cups of ground coffee every day of the year. Just think how many coffee plants there must be in the world. If this all works out and these plants provide the Utopian cup of coffee then in the next picture there might be 10 times as many coffee plants to photograph. I am growing the Coffee K7 variety and because it is grown in a pot it will be naturally dwarfed however there is a new variety called Dwarf Coffee Plant - Catui.

Passionfruit - Fast Growing

The passionfruit vine below is 1 year old and full of passionfruits. Simply by placing a trellace along the fence so that it can grow along the passionfruit will flourish in hot environments such as Queensland. There would at least be a hundred passionfruit ripening on this vine. I find that the large purple flowers appear for a day or two and then they form the fruit. You do need to be patient with the fruit because after appearing it takes a couple of months before they turn from green to purple. This passionfruit is a Passionfruit - Panama Red.

Secondo Avocado

Anyone who loves avocados should have one growing in their back yard and the Secondo avocado is a surpurb choice. The Secondo originates from the hills around Kyogle where it has been bred from a seedling selected by a local Italian gentleman who it is named after. The fruits are truely delicious, they are a large pear shaped fruit with creamy flesh and thick textured skin. They are a cross between a Hass and a Sharwill and are a combination of the best of both these fruits. Trees will crop heavily and are self pollinating although they will benift from being near a B group avocado to maximise pollination and fruit set. They come off at about the same time as the Hass cropping from August through to December to January if you can leave them on the tree that long. The Secondo is the staff favourite amongst the avocados here at the nursery and we are often seen sneaking back from the orchard with our pockets bulging during the harvest season. We have some beautiful specimens in stock ready to be established in your garden.