A bit more about the garden

I had the camera out in the yard today, looking to see what was interesting.  (Looking for something to blog about.)  I have three trees in bloom that are interesting.

The Loquat in the front is in bloom.

I planted a Loquat in the front yard to replace some trees I had cut down.  Our neighbor has one that hangs over our back fence.  It's a tropical sort of plant, exotic looking, I think.  Well, we had some bad weather and the Loquat tree broke off at the graft.  There's nothing an amateur gardener can do about that.  I thought it had died, but one day a tree came up from the roots of the graft.  I'm an experimenter in the gardener.  I gave it regular watering and it began to grow bush-like from the root.

This spring I was rewarded with flowers, which may or may not give fruit, and these beautiful red new leaves.  It's quite a sight in my front yard.  It's still small but I have high hopes for it now.

My neighbors Loquat tree hangs over into our yard and so I feel free to harvest the fruit from it.  I often pick a fruit or two and walk across the yard eating.  It has large seeds in the middle.  Apparently I spit some out by the back porch because a Loquat tree began to grow there.  So I took care of it.  It's too close to the house, so I keep it trimmed so it doesn't touch the house or intrude on the walk.  This tree is much more mature than the one in front (and not as pretty).  This year it's put on fruits.

Doesn't the fruit look yummy?

They're not quite ripe and I look forward to tasting them.  They have a tropical taste, sweet, peachy or maybe a bit of almond.  You need to taste one to understand.  I'm definitely going to taste these in a week or so.

WHOAH!  Since one tree is in the front yard and one is in the back yard, I haven't compared them closely before.  Looking at the pictures here in the blog, I am wondering if something else has come up from the root.  I know that nurseries often graft fruit trees on to strong root stock of the same plant family.  I may have a mystery plant growing out front.  I won't know for sure until it puts on fruit.

In the front yard is another tree growing from root stock.  We planted an avocado tree there, but again, it was weak at the graft and broke off in a storm.  This tree is about 10-ft. tall now and is in bloom as well.  It has never had fruit, but it needs time to mature and some avocados need a partner in order to create fruit.  Here's the avocado tree and its blooms.

Avocado tree in bloom.

Of course I've seen avocados, but I've never seen one in bloom before.  This tree has never grown fruit.  Here's another look so you can see the new red leaves that come from the blossom.

The new leaves branch up from the flower.

I don't have to go further than my yard to find nature's wonders.  How's your yard.  Are there surprises there?

Marilynne