Gardening in Fuerteventura

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Update on my banana tree:
At long last it has developed a flower/fruit spike 
On the 23rd I saw first evidence:


on the 24th it was quite a bit bigger:


and today, 25th, it measures 40cm:


It's not a Canarian banana, so presumably a Cavendish variety. wiki re bananas

Developing much more slowly are the bloom spikes on my Swiss Cheese plant. There are 2 groups of 3 spikes:

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

My Mexican Petunia is spectacular this year - it responded really well to being cut back to nearly ground level earlier in the year! Each flower lasts only 1 day and it has been blooming like this for weeks! The black and white striped bees love it! And the lizards eat the flowers - they jump up and pull them off 

 

This is a plant that is so easy to propagate - just chop off a bit and stick in water for a week!

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

I thought I'd share another plant with blue flowers that is doing really well in the heat - it does need lots of water though and some feed, to keep it looking good. The flowers are actually a bit deeper blue but my camera phone doesn't do blues very well.
Evolvulus glomeratus (dwarf morning glory):

 can also be grown in a hanging basket but I couldn't keep it watered sufficiently for it to thrive there.

[Emmi Smith]

That is beautiful Tamara.

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Baby bananas forming! 



and the Swiss Cheese plant blooms are eventually emerging:

 

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Hundreds of bananas forming       I actually counted 105 today!



Now I need to create some form of support for the fruit spike 

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Driving through Villaverde yesterday I saw the most enormous spike on an agave. The plant itself was variegated and the spike albino. I estimate the spike to be about 8-10m tall.

 

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

First, a banana update:
The current count is just over 200   and I took an expedition into my jungle today to view it from the other side - there are still sections that could be hiding more! What am I going to do with 200 bananas if they all ripen together?   

 

I had to wade through metre high basil, a Swiss Cheese that thinks it's a triffid, a ballistic honeysuckle, a very happy Drago and an enormous hibiscus.



I've cobbled together a support for the banana fruit spike - Heath Robinson would be proud of me - but I'm waiting for Tuesday when I have a second pair of hands available to try to put it in place. I used an old plank, some expanded foam swim play tubing, webbing handles from old bag for life and a dead anti-slip bath mat! I needed to pad the end of  the plank so it doesn't cut into the plant.

 

While in the jungle I was able to see the Swiss Cheese blooms up close, and touch them - the creamy sheaths are rock hard, reminded me of a conch shell.



I have a fairly large and very vigorous rubber tree in my garden that I have to trim up from time to time to get in to another jungle area. I always put the cuttings in a bucket of water in the shade under the tree, remembering to top up the water occasionally but not worrying about dropped leaves and flies etc getting in (natural fertiliser). Today when I topped up I found a cutting was starting roots so I potted it up and placed it back under the tree to hopefully start growing. The second pic is one I potted up about 3 months ago from the same batch, they can take a long time to get the roots started:

 

and finally for today, a new passion flower showed it's first bloom. It has a darker purple centre compared to my original one and longer frilly bits.

 

This should be the Maracuya passion flower which is edible. I adore the fruit - very healthy and very tasty!

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Banana update:
The support is in place, fingers crossed it does its job.


Some more of the lower petals curled back and have revealed some rows of tiny male fruit/flowers. They dry up and fall off 

[Can the Man]

Congratulations Tamara, looking brilliant