Last Batch of Juice for the Season

I canned about 10 gallons of juice last night. I still plan to make cider but I have to freeze it as canning ruins it. I made a couple gallons of Schizandra- Aronia with a tiny bit of Dolgo crabapple thrown in. Also, I made my grapes into juice as we've had two light frosts and once the grapes freeze, they are no good for anything--I've tried to juice them after they freeze and no-go.

Martha's Vineyard Vacation

We're spending 10 days on Martha's Vineyard visiting our daughter, Kady. I've volunteered 2 days at the Polly Hill Arboretum where she works; raking leaves (I learned a new excellent 3 person method of picking up leaves after they are raked into a pile: I might be able to convert it to a one person method}, planting Clethra (they are embarking on a Clethra evaluation project: we transplanted 'Ruby Spice', and fencing plants against deer. They have a wonderful collection of oaks at the Polly Hill

The Franklinia is in bloom there

We are going to be here 2 more days: I'm sketching the ocean a lot.

Elderberry Crop Failure

This year many if no most of my elderberries fell off the bushes just before they were dead ripe. I think it was due to dryness. First I thought it was birds eating them even though I did put nets over them, sort of,.... (it wasn't a very good netting job). However there were lots of little - not quite ripe- elderberries all over the ground. I checked the berries for fruit fly maggots and didn't see any, although 2 farms near me had fruit flies ruining their blueberries. I did make one batch of crabapple-elderberry juice which I plan to can tonight. I still plan to make aronia-schizandra juice and grape juice.

Making Juice and Cider

I've been making juices this year with no sugar or other sweetener as i"m now pre-diabetic. Gooseberry and crabapple are quite good the different juices I have made with blackberries are not as good as with sugar. I haven't given up though. I still have elderberries to harvest although they are been ruined by birds and I still plan to make grape juice when my grapes are ready. I made excellent cider last week using Duchess apples and Whitney crabapples which previously I had let all rot.

Sea Buckthorn, Seaberry, or Hippophae rhamnoides

We harvested my sea buckthorn yesterday: they were soft and I guess ripe. They are one of the worst of all thorny fruit to pick: they don't come off the stems easily and the hawthorn-like thorns (little spur branchlets) are wicked. Also, they are downright sour with a tangerine-like smell. I made juice, combining them with blackberries which is one of the worst tasting juices I have made yet. It doesn't help that I put no sugar in. I'll see later about canning the stuff- tonight I'm going to Tosca and my wife Dana is having possibly severe car problems in Templeton, Mass.

Diabetic Juice and Shin-Boku Nursery

I've already harvested my gooseberries and black and red currants and made them into juice with no sugar and canned that. With the black currants, I made the pulp remaining in the jelly bags into diabetic jam by running it through a foley food mill and adding stevia, to one batch and splenda to another: the splenda tastes better to me. I used "no sugar needed" pectin. I seem to have developed "pre-diabetes". I'm drinking the juice with no sugar and it's not too bad, especially the gooseberry. Now, my blackberries are in and I want to make some into juice adding seaberry and/or Dolgo crabapple. So far, I've frozen the berries. I visited Shin-Boku nursery in Wentworth, NH on Saturday, after work at the nursery. Palmer Koelb has amazing huge trees pruning in the "Japanese style" : they look like full-size bonsai specimens.

Palmer Koelb also has a Japanese "Stroll Garden" open to the public any time which incorporates a lot of magnificent specimens of carefully pruned evergreens and some deciduous plants such as Enkianthus and a Stewartia and some summer-blooming deciduous azaleas.

Hemerocallis Breeding

For the last several years, as the result of an article in a gardening magazine, I have been toying with making crosses of my two favorite daylilies which are 'Alabama Jubilee'which is red orange ruffly tet and 'Tuscawilla Tigress'which is a medium orange tet with a prominant yellow stripe. I have taken pollen from one

and put it on the stigma of the other. Then I grew the seedlings for a couple of years and this is the result: 'Kady' Now I am trying to breed for very tall daylilies: after reading the recent article in 'Horticulture' magazine about Ollalie Daylily farm in Newfane, VT. The pictured 'Towers of Eisenkramer'which was both out of stock, according to their website, and cost $150.00. So I'm tring to breed my own with Hemerocallis citrina Vesperitina as the pod parent and 'Ophir' and an unnamed tall yellow as the pollen (sperm) donor. Hope I succeed.