Scorzonera

Scorzonera hispanica is a unique perennial plant that I have been growing for a couple of years. To the untrained eye, it appears to be nothing more than a large dandelion. Scorzonera does have rather dandelion-like flowers, has a deep taproot, and produces a milky latex sap, but is not a dandelion. Scorzonera is used for its edible root, that is sometimes called vegetable oyster (the plant is very similar in appearance to salsify). The leaves are also perfectly edible in my experience. They can be a bit tough when old, but I have never tasted a bitter scorzonera leaf in any season.

I think Scorzonera has high potential for an edible leaf crop.

Variegated Blackberry?

One interesting thing that I found last year was this patch of blackberry plants that lacked pigmentation. I forgot where on the property this patch was, and believe it is still there. If I can relocate it, I will probably try to grow more plants like this if they are still whitish. If I cannot find it, it was probably not a stable mutation.

This is the whole patch of mutated blackberry plants.

Taro Experiment

I have heard on the internet that it is possible to grow taro from store-bought corms. Taro is an edible root vegetable from the tropics in Asia also known as Colocasia esculenta. The has very large leaves that are grown in the ornamental garden and known as elephant ears. Having read some more information on the subject, I headed to the local Asian supermarket and bought a few corms for a very low price. The corms are way hairier than I expected, but that isn't a problem.

These are the future taro plants I bought.

Seeing Red

Right now in the garden, there are many flowers in bloom, many of which have reddish and scarlet hues.

Monarda didyma flower

An Intro to Walking Onions

These are some walking onions in the garden.

One of my recent fascinations has been growing tree onions, also known as Egyptian onions, topset onions, and tree onions. These unique plants form ordinary onion bulbs underground, but have onions on top instead of flowers. The bulbils (little onion bulbs) on top are used for propagation to easily increase plant numbers. The plants rarely set seed, and I was lucky enough to get two seedlings from my whole row of onions. The plants can have varying degrees of flowerlessness (which may not be a word, but should be) and that is what I plan on showing you today. I am not sure what causes some plants to have more flowers than others, but I want to try saving any seeds the plants produce, and growing out the seedlings to see what happens. I will go in order from flowers-a-plenty to massive bulbil production. As a warning, my posts will probably be very picture heavy, as this post will be!

New Blog

I am now starting this blog to have something that allows me to share my adventures. I am currently a teenager seeking a path in the world of plants, a seemingly confusing path full of adventures and learning. Being an avid gardener and wildlife enthusiast, I am always surrounded by plants and will have tons of pictures to share. My garden tends to have many of the ordinary tomatoes, squash, and beans, but with a bit of exotic and unexpected flair. If you are reading this, stick around for some interesting shots!