April,
2011
Farewell spring, ninety degree days have arrived at
Horsetail Haven, Ann Marie’s home garden in Austin, Texas
Pineapples and Patience
After
seeing (and tasting, ymmmm!) pineapples grown at Festival Hill in Round Top, Texas, Ann
Marie just HAD to grow her own. True,
Texas is not warm enough to leave pineapple plants outside all winter, but, if
they bloom in 18 months that means a pineapple top rooted in the spring will
only have to be kept inside one winter….right? WRONG! After 3 years (yes, 36 months) and two
winters indoors Ann Marie finally has her pineapple, now only four inches long
but growing larger every day. It was started
just like an elementary school science project.
The leafy top of grocery store pineapple was pressed into a pot of loose
potting soil. It rooted and was kept in
full sun and fed and watered regularly.
The plant wintered in an unheated glassed in sun porch where its pointed
leaves did draw blood as people passed by.
After two years Ann Marie tried to stimulate blooms by leaving apple
slices in the “cup” formed by the leaves.
No luck. Finally, early in 2011 a
stalk of spiraling purple flowers arose and the horticultural excitement
began.
Pineapples
are known botanically as Ananas comosus and
belong to the Bromeliaceae family. They
are native to southern Brazil and Paraguay but are cultivated in many tropical
and subtropical regions. Christopher
Columbus introduced the plant to Europe in 1493 when he took pineapples from
the island of Guadeloupe back to Spain.
He called them the “pine of the Indies”.
Speculation is that the “pine” refers to the fruit’s exterior
resemblance to a pinecone and the “apple” suggests the interior texture. The fruit we love to eat is formed from the
fusion of many small fruits that develop along the central stem after
blooming. The rough texture of the fruit
exterior is formed by bracts that extend out over the fruit.
Pineapple
plants are drought tolerant and will survive neglect but require heavy feeding
and regular watering to develop fruit.
Experience at Festival Hill and Horsetail Haven has been that they
produce best when grown in pots that “seem too small”. The current plant at Horsetail Haven is grown
in an eight inch pot that is placed in a larger, heavy pot to prevent it from
tipping over. In the past Ann Marie had
tried growing pineapples in large pots but they rotted away.
A
Big Freeze but the Caper continues….
Central
Austin experienced several days of below freezing temperatures in early
February and even saw snow. The big
surprise is that not as many plants were damaged by the cold as expected. The caper plant is sprouting from the stem as
if the freeze had never happened. Freeze
causalities include Dietes in large pots on the front porch. One plant survived but two others are not
showing any signs of growth. The Mexican
olive (Cordia boissieri) had to be
cut way back but is sprouting new branches from along the stem. The blue aloe died back to the ground but did
have new shoots sprouting along the roots.
However, Ann Marie had a large one in a pot and so planted it by the
street rather than wait for the original plant to grow. The hardy aloe suffered a lot of damage but
is putting up new shoots that will quickly replace the leaves that turned to
frozen mush. The biggest surprise is
that the Bougainvillea
, natal plum (Carissa macrocarpa)
and Rangoon creeper (Quisqualis indica)
have all sprouted from the roots. That
was an unexpected gift, Aster
caroliniansus and a red flowering Passiflora
had already been planted as replacements.
And all of the houseplants have already begun their
summer vacation; take a look at how happy this Desert Rose (Adenium obesum) is sun bathing by the
pool…
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