Indigo Rose Tomato

Salem gardener Harry Olson has been a guest on my program several times this spring and earlier this week I visited his garden.  Harry is known for growing superb tomato plants and I was interested in seeing how he was growing tomatoes and also his opinion of the new Indigo Rose Tomato that was developed by Oregon State and introduced this past spring.  The Indigo Rose tomatoes were a very dark purple, the darkest I had ever seen on a tomato.  The fruits were not large, but prolific.  This tomato has a very high amount of anthocyanin, which has been shown to fight disease in humans.  On the day of my visit (October 2), very few of the fruits had ripened which was a disappointment to Harry.  Visually the plants were beautiful with the portion of the fruit getting sun turning purple and the portion that was shaded turning red when ripe.   If we continue to have warm and sunny days, hopefully more will ripen and I'll get a report from Harry on the taste.  Watch for a future blog on his fantastic red tomato plants.

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Iochroma 'Royal Queen Purple'

We have many pots on our deck and I always like to try some new plants each year. This year I planted Iochroma 'Royal Queen Purple' and have been very pleased with it. In June, I started with three small plants in 4" pots and planted them all in a 14" pot. They began blooming in early July and have not stopped. The flowers are tubular and come in clusters at the end of the branches and are a deep purple. I have done some selective pruning to keep the plant from getting too tall and it has branched out nicely and is a nice compact shrub. It is in a full sun location and seems to like the heat. I doubt if it will survive the winter but regardless, it makes for a great summer blooming plant.

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Roots

You can hear my interview with Diane Morgan, author of "Roots" at the 9am hour of September 22. Diane is a local Portland author and has written a marvelous book about the many kinds of vegetables that grow underground. I certainly learned about new vegetables to try and some that I had never heard of. I have had the more common root vegetables like sweet potatoes, carrots and beets but never have I heard of nor eaten galangai, crosnes or burdock. The book not only gives recipes but information on the nutritional value and it surprised me that many of these root vegetables are loaded with antioxidants and other health benefits. Of the 29 roots featured in the book, 18 are grown in Oregon. Diane will be at the Beaverton Farmers Market on Saturday, September 29, from 8am-1:30pm. She will be giving demonstrations and signing copies of her book.

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Container for Late Summer Color

When visiting gardens at this time of year, it is always interesting for me to see what kind of containers people have on their deck or patio and whether the plants are still looking good.  Our recent hot weather certainly provided a test to observe which plants can survive and thrive in late summer heat.  I recently saw this large pot planted with a variety of summer annuals and since all of the plants here respond well to heat, they are all still looking quite good.  This container has two varieties of sweet potato vine, one with very dark (almost black foliage) and one with chartreuse.  Sweet potato vines make wonderful container foliage plants and combined with begonia ‘Bonfire’ and a burgundy leaf Coleus, this is a great example of mixing flowers and foliage to create a variety of color.

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