Finding wild gooseberries + ✉ rare plant shipment ✉ ␘PAWPAW'S & SASSAFRAS!!!!␘

Pawpaw - fairchild/zimmerman

 What a looker.... lol

Ahh well, they're alive.

We just received our order of 5 pawpaws, 1 Cornelian cherry and 1 Sassafras tree. All seem to be alive but time will tell. While we are in the agriculture business to sell food, we are also collectors of rare species, efficiency and economics be damned.

Variety is the spice of life so they say, and I tend to agree with'em.
The sassafras tree is something Ive always thought about since I started gardening. When you enjoy cooking and growing your own food, you inevitably start wandering down the path of potential, and for some reason its always those plants with such a troubled history I crave to own so badly. Im not sure if its the allure or just our nightmarish history of how we treat plants (/things) plaguing me, putting my bulldog determination into high gear, trying to order/acquire every species possible before its gone or screwed up with genetic modification.

The Pawpaws we managed to get our hands on were as follows.

1. P.A Golden
2. Fairchild-Zimmermin
3. O Taytoo
4. Davis
5. Green river

Pawpaw Canada

Rare plants Ontario

Wild gooseberry

I thought I would take a trip around the property and see what I can find since spring is in the air and its never to early for a curious mind. Ive already come across some fossils of bone turning into quartz, dragon fly fossils, ancient crinoid blooms stuck in carboniferous limestone, a massive boulder with a rainbow-like quartz vein some 5 inches in width and 8 feet in length. There are heirloom apples on the hill and beach plums separating the pastures. Chaga lay on the fallen birch tree in the back, and heritage raspberry bushes fill every nook and cranny. An absolute smorgasbord of taste, history and experience.

Red gooseberry - poormans

 (poormans gooseberry potted last year)

You can see on the lower part of the plant where the old growth has weathered and turned a dark brown/maroon. This area will be filled with thorns.

( unless you have a newer variety that is semi-thorn less e.g "captivator")

 

Red gooseberry Ontario Canada

 ↑ This is a red gooseberry ( poor mans ) that I potted up last year.↑

Wild gooseberry leaves

The leaves have almost a maple leaf like appearance and once you know the plant you will be seeing it everywhere. They have a strong stem and will hold the weight of the berries. Sometimes the plant can look intimidating, covered in thorns from stem to berry, but even then the fruit is still edible.... with proper preparation.

Wild raspberry canes

Old raspberry bushes by a drive shed, we will see what they have to offer after all these years.

Wild gooseberry stalk - old growth

 Wild goosebery bottom/middle stem.

Raspberry cane ( heritage )

Gooseberry plant identification

Wild gooseberry bush hidden. By the time the fruit is ready no-one would know where this bush is. Spring is probably the best time to go hunting for things like this

Gooseberry patch hidden

 Gooseberry patch

Gooseberry wild variety

I shot this with my iPhone as I didnt have my camera at the time, but I just wanted to show how mixed in these gooseberries actually are. This is right in the lawn, If I didnt know any better I would just be running this thing over with the mower or letting the goats nibble at it. 

( its the blurry plant in the middle)

Old 1850's double barn

Spring flowers

Purple spring flowers

 SPRING!

mini Rockhound dig Ontario

Old rock pile Ive been going through, found some outstanding specimens but Ive packed them all for now, more on this with another blog.

Catnip

Your cats favorite pastime, The infamous,...... CATNIP!.

strangely, some people find it smells funny, I kinda like it. Ive yet to make a tea from it, curious, as  Ive heard that certain concentrations, in certain people, will actually give experiences similar to marijuana. I have not had the time to experiment with this but since its just outback it seems a good a time as any.

Here goes......

 BOTTOMS UP!

catmint

gooseberries hidden

Allen gardens ⦗⧈⧈⦾⦾⦿⦾⦾⧈⧈ ⦘ ⫷ Toronto greenhouses ⫸

Banana fruit at Allen gardens 

We recently took a trip to allen gardens to see the flowering variegated century plant, with a time span for flowering once every 30 years ( and for Canada its around 70 years ), you can understand why its important to see it while you can. While everything was great, flowers were all in bloom,
I couldn't help but be disappointed by the lack of info on plants, heck.. the majority of the time there wasn't even a name tag, am I wrong for wanting more I thought ?
There was one fruit tree labeled ( kinda surprised there weren't more edibles really, only 6 fruit trees in the whole place ) And surprisingly, a lot of the cacti, bananas, and orchids are very common nowadays.

I don't know, maybe I was expecting to much, Just thought that a place with such history would have some really REALLY rare plants,  maybe being a foodie didn't help either, I was hoping to much for something Ive never seen.
Ahh well...
I should look on the bright side, they had a very impressive set of bananas ( good 30/40 ft ), some were flowering!. there jade vine was stunning, we got to see a turtle, They have a cacti that looks like it came out of mario bro's!, I realized how much I want birds in my greenhouse AND how much I want a waterfall in my house.

My closing statement.
I call for a renegade labeling of Allen gardens, label everything you can!!, if you know a lot about plants lets get this done! WE CAN DO IT!

Musa Banana fruiting at Allen gardens

Strawberry guava fruiting

Some type of datura, Do you know?

Bougainvilla AKA Paper flower tree - (THANKS FOR THE HELP CINTIA!)

Jade vine AKA Strongylodon macrobotrys flowering

Jade vine flower ( I want this plant! unreal looking flower)

Crown of thorn red flowers

Agave filifera AKA thread agave

No name on cacti

Crown of thorns yellow flower

Variegated century plant AKA Variegated agave Americana 

Variegated century plant flowering stalk

Allen Gardens century plant (agave americana) flowering, took roughly 70 years to flower

Mountain aloe

Mountain aloe (base)

No name cacti, If you know what this is please help.

Fig tree with fruit

Fig tree to the left ( can you spot the kale and olive tree?)

If it wasn't for the fact that I grow most of these myself Im not sure how others would know what they were looking at, as nothing here was labeled, shame.

Another pond with a few goldfish

?????what is that blue flowering plant?????

Nothing here was labeled either, but a few I could decipher, there was a Calamondin in the back and a kumquat of some kind beside it ( its the tree with orange fruit at the far left in the back ) Everything else I have no clue ( except for some type of cycad right under the blue flower )

There was no name on around the plant, if anyone knows what this is please chime in

Waterfall display ( is it wrong I want this in my house?, lol ) 

Queen sago fern 

epiphyte AKA areophyte or air plant

Epiphyte flowering ( air plant flower )

Turtle getting some sun on a rock

Heliconia