Friday, September 7, 2007

Garden Surprises


A few surprises show up in the garden from time to time....as evidenced in the photos below.



A tomato with a big "shnoze"! :-) I noticed this one back when it was green and made a mental note to get a picture of it, but kept forgetting. It got riper and riper and is now actually over-ripe, as you can see by the age spots. But it does give him a bit more more character, no?




This is half' a sunnie! I have noticed that the flower heads on my multi-branching sunflowers get smaller and smaller after the larger heads at the top start to dry up and they sometimes get a little misshapen, with their centers off-center, petals uneven, etc. But this is the first time I have seen one like this. I think it is kind of cute. This was on my 'Velvet Queen' plant.




Here is what I call a 'Siamese Cucumber'. This variety is called Long White, an heirloom type. It wasn't very good eating as the fruits were rather bitter.




This is a sunflower from my garden last summer. It looks pretty normal here, doesn't it? But if you look very closely on the left side you can see a second set of petals in the back, curving out and away from the front flower petals.




This is the back of the same sunflower. These two flower heads were growing directly out of the back of the larger sunflower head in the previous photo.




A side view of the 'conjoined' Sunflower. I also had one of these show up in this year's garden, from volunteer seed, so wonder if it could be a genetic trait that was passed on to another generation of seed. Some food for thought!

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"Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination, because it fills the soul with an agreeable surprise, gratifies its curiosity, and gives it an idea of which it was not before possessed." ~Joseph Addison


17 comments:

Melissa said...

I get a kick out of mutant tomatoes.

I had sunflowers like that one year. I wonder if you are right? You should save seed from this one and plant them next year...maybe you could start a popular new hybrid and get rich! :)

I've also had bizarre mutant echinea now I see they sell a variety that looks like my mutations.

Anonymous said...

That is one cool sunflower! Can you dry it to preserve it?

Connie said...

Me - Does your mutant echinacea look like what they sell now as Double Decker, with a second set of petals growing out of the center cone? I bought one last year, but it has yet to manifest this trait.

Beth - Unfortunately, it was from last years garden and I didn't save it. I did have one like it this year, but I think the birds have almost cleaned up all the seeds by now...the gold finches and chickadees LOVE the sunflower seeds!

Entangled said...

I had a two-headed chile pepper earlier this summer, but I neglected to take a picture of it.

Your Greek Picnic Salad recipe sound delicious, BTW!

kathy said...

Amazing what ends up growing in the garden! Mine has surprising things too.

Gina said...

Siamese Sunflowers! I love it!

Robin's Nesting Place said...

I love the double sunflower, too bad you didn't save the seed. It probably was just a fluke and wouldn't have happened again though.

Paula said...

Connie,
Great photos - especially that tomato! Read your recipe from the last post and I'll be using that one. Greek salad is my favorite salad!! Thanks for posting and thanks for visiting my blog.
Paula

Melissa said...

Yep. And I've got the one's with the mohawks...

kate said...

Those are the coolest sunflowers ever! I love the way the two smaller ones are growing out of the main one.

Your tomato is a styling one. I love the big snout!

Andrea's Garden said...

I love your sunflower and vegetable mutants. What a fun idea to document those! Greetings from Germany, Andrea

Yolanda Elizabet Heuzen said...

Brrrrr Connie, these pics give the impression that you are gardening in the Twilight Zone. Scary! ;-)

Anonymous said...

I love the post on the anomalies! Makes life interesting when no two are the same doesn't it and it keeps you looking for more!

kris said...

I have some mutant tomatoes too - always interesting! I love the sunflowers - the triple one is very cool. And the half one looks like a big smile instead of the full face you usually get. Very fun!

lisa said...

That's way cool....are you sure you didn't get ahold of some sort of "nuclear test seeds"? Reminds me of that Gilligan's Island episode where the box of radioactive seeds washed up and they grew weird vegetables...it was my favorite episode!

Ki said...

Hmmm, you have so many mutant plants have you checked to see if you don't live in a place that has radioactive soil. Just kidding. Remember all those mutant insect movies blamed on radiation.

SherryBaby said...

i have so many mutant seeds.
I bought mini-sunflower packets from Buzzy seeds. I planting about 8 packets, all minis.
Low and behold, i have at least 15 different varieties of sunflowers.. you name it, i probably have it.
and Ive had at least 3 conjoined sunflowers. and one that was shaped like a heart.swear to ScoodyDoo :) I do!!
i have photos of my garden. if you want to see the flowers ,you can email me and ill send you some photos, ill try and post them on my blog. im very busy today, i have massive cosmos that need to be transferred from this huge pot into the glorious ground :) very excited, they are blooming with vigor.
would love to know what you think of this anomaly?
please email me :)