In Houston it seems like the fruit trees, azaeleas, and vegetables have been blooming their hearts out for weeks now.  Our peaches and apples set fruit in the latter part of February, after putting on quite the floral show.  We had almost 100% of our seeds germinate and our tomatoes already have blooms popping out.  So what the heck is wrong with the Black Mission Fig and especially, the Santa Rosa Plum?  If there was one tree in all of our garden that we were looking forward to, it was the Santa Rosa Plum.  After this and this appeared, I felt like we had no choice but to buy one.  Here we are now in the advent of Spring and it seems like nothing can coax this guy out of hibernation—at least not any blossoms.  Yesterday though, I did notice a tiny hint of green.

Signs of Life-Santa Rosa Plum

Saturday I was determined to plant all of our citrus trees, seeing as how the weather forecast has Houston in the 80’s for the foreseeable future. It was a big task and it wouldn’t have been a huge deal, except for the random bricks that are buried within the first eight to twelve inches of our topsoil—a gift from the previously demolished house.

A few weeks ago, Stacey and I made a quick trip to The Woodlands to visit Nature’s Way Resources. They are producers of some of the best  soil in the greater Houston area. Ph tested monthly, Nature’s Way has several different soilf cocktails mixed specifically for roses, citrus, blueberries, etc. We ended up getting a truck load of their regular garden mix, knowing that we could add the appropriate compost and/or fertilizers to tailor the soil for each particular plant.

Garden Mix, Nature's Way Resources

We spaced each of our ten citrus trees twenty-four inches apart and no closer than eighteen inches to the existing fruit trees making up the espaliered fence. The general rule for planting trees is to dig a hole roughly twice the size of the tree’s root ball. Depending on how old the tree is, the roots may or may not take up the entire container that it came in. If, when pulling the tree out of the container, not all of the dirt comes with the roots, don’t worry. Stake the tree and plant as if it were a bare root tree. To help decrease the shock to the root system that transplanting causes, I like to coat the roots with the powdered version of soft rock phosphate. I’ve read that it is somewhat of a mineral root stimulater. Halfway in filling the holes, we soaked the root balls with Medina Hasta-Gro, a fantastic liquid organic fertilizer made just west of San Antonio Texas. We then added a slower-release fertilizer to the Nature’s Way soil, Microlife 6-2-4 as well as some of our native dirt. At this point, I would have finished by soaking everything with root stimulator, but our bottle was dry. I’ll finish up that task early this week.

New Citrus Trees

Elsewhere in the yard, the peaches and apples are coming along terrifically—at least those that pollinated and set fruit. Our Anna apple failed to set any fruit after being chocked full of blossoms.  Those dern bees must have just overlooked it.

Early Amber Peaches

Dorsett Apples

Now, for some more gratuitous garden porn:

Blueberry Blossoms

Oaxacan Jewel Heirloom Tomato Blossoms

And finally some brand new, tender little Black Mission Fig leaves. He got nipped pretty hard by some chilly weather early in December and I was really hoping he wasn’t dead. Looks like he made it.

Black Mission Fig

More to come.