Tag Archives: Kiwi

Kiwi, Iris, Bamboo Oh My

Many people are surprised when I tell them I grow kiwi in Kentucky. No, not the fuzzy brown kiwis you can pick up at the local grocery. These are hardy kiwis, specifically Arctic Beauty. They are quite hardy, like the dappled shade and love to climb. A male and a female plant is needed for pollination.

female_kiwi

This is the female, the featured image above is the male.

Notice the difference in flowers between the two. The wind was blowing a bit so please forgive the slight blurriness in the photos. These were the best out of the 20 or so I took.

Both of these kiwi vines are growing on a trellis near the house. This proved rather beneficial when we had scattered frost a few weeks ago. The vines were just starting to put out flower buds but none were open yet. The problem many people have growing kiwi in this area is that often they wake up earlier than they should for the local climate.

iris

The iris are doing great this year. These Autumn Circus iris are preparing to bloom. The Lumilites are on their way out and the old yellows haven’t started yet.

Speaking of iris, I finally got Eric’s iris planted near where Donna’s went. The ones below are from Karen and are drying out a bit before planting. They needed some tlc to get them ready to go. This should be fun as I don’t have a clue as to what these are. Kinda like Christmas.

karens_iris

I recently read that when bamboo is planted it sleeps the first year, creeps the second year and leaps the third year. Guess what year this is.

sleep_creep_leap

Spring

This is the first year that my male kiwi is starting to show signs of the stunning leaf color it is capable of.

fig_cuttings

Last year I started figs via cuttings in two batches. One had a rooting hormone treatment and the other did not. While the treated batch did do better, the untreated batch did well enough that I didn’t treat any of these cuttings. This batch was taken from the plants last fall after they went dormant and placed in plastic bags in the vegetable crisper drawer in the fridge. They are simply stuck into soil and kept in the shade.

I may lose half of them but since I haven’t a clue what I will do with the half that should live I am ok with that. The batch on the left is light brownish fig and the batch on the right is a smaller deep purple fig. Bother were labelled as brown turkey but obviously one is not. I’ll post some detailed pics of the leaves and the fruit once they start producing and maybe someone can help me identify what I have.

hnashiki

Eric’s Hakuro-nashiki willow is so pretty. Last year there wasn’t as much variation in the leaf color as there is so far this year.

I saw a hummer visiting our tulips this morning which reminding me of the hummingbird feeder that I picked up on Monday. Time to get that bad boy out and filled with some sugar water.

I picked up two stevia plants last night while at Lowes getting plumbing parts to fix the broken faucet. One Stevia went on the side of the house and the other went in the herb bed. I am going to try to see if I can get the one by the house to overwinter. I have had it happen a couple of times before and the area where I planted it is somewhat protected. I am going to try planting a fig there too.

ajuga

If half the blueberry blossoms get pollinated I should get a great crop. Typically I see a lone bumblebee doing the pollination but so far this year I haven’t seen any bees of any kind in the yard.

Karen’s ajuga plants are blooming and spreading.