Solanum Integrifolium or Solanum aethiopicum L. - How to Grow and Use Pumpkin on a Stick or Ornamental Eggplant

Fall decorations are popping up on porches and in front yards. Stacks of square hay bales, pumpkins, squash, corn and sugar cane stalks become fall symbols of the end of the harvest season.

Most of these grow too large for the average home garden. Pumpkins and squash can take up an entire city lot as they sprawl and make fruit.

One of the unique plants gardeners can grow for seasonal table arrangements is Pumpkin on a Stick, which grows upright and has 2-inch fruits. Introduced as “Scarlet Chinese an ornamental curiosity” by Vanderbilt University in 1879, they are still grown to amuse guests and decorating homes.

The Latin name is Solanum Integrifolium or Solanum aethiopicum L. Other names include: Pumpkin Tree, Pumpkin Bush, Hmong Eggplant, and Mock Tomato.

All Eggplants are in Solanaceae or nightshade family. Found in India, China and Africa, 2500 years ago, eggplant fruit was pea sized, orange and bitter. By the 1500s, German plantsmen had developed yellow and purple cultivars.

Today’s gardeners grow the round, purple-skin variety and the slender Asian varieties for eating. In hot climates the plants are perennial but here they suffer when temperatures drop to 50-degrees and die at first freeze.

Eggplant flowers are perfect, meaning they self-pollinate. Insects can cross-pollinate varieties though so if you want to save seeds, plant different varieties well apart from each other.

Whether you contain their size by planting them in pots or in the ground and let them grow 2 feet tall and wide, give Ornamental Eggplants sun and plenty of water. Bella Online calls them a spectacular fall floral because they embody the essence of fall and are exquisite in color and form.

The small blue-ish white flowers grow in clusters and attract butterflies and bees. Early in the season the fruit is green, then it turns red orange in the fall. The stems are dark purple and the leaves are serrated blue-green with purple veins and sharp spines.

Ornamental Eggplant is not an appropriate selection for a children’s garden. Other inedible flowers and leaves in the same plant (belladonna) family include: Potato, tomato, pepper, petunia, Angel’s Trumpet, and Datura.

Botanical Interests (www.botanicalinterests.com) recommends starting the seeds indoors 6 weeks before last frost (March 1 in zone 7). The seeds want 75 to 85 degree heat to sprout. Put the starter cells on a heat mat or on top of the water heater or refrigerator. Check them daily and remove them from the heat the minute they come up. Give them 12 hours of light from florescent bulbs to prevent weak stems

Our plants came from Moonshadow Herb Farm in Muskogee. Owner Sharon Owen bought the seeds online at www.onalee.com where they are called Ruffled Red (Red Ruffles).

In our garden the main problem was brown striped Colorado Potato Beetles. Once they were removed the plant resumed its leaf, flower and fruit production.

Watch for flea beetles, aphids and red spider mites. A little insecticidal soap spray will keep them under control. Or put a row cover on the plants until they flower.

To harvest the seeds, allow one of the fruits to become overripe on the plant.

Dry the fruit for decoration. Remove the leaves and hang the stems upside down. Use the fruit on the stem in a vase or cut them off for a fall wreath or centerpiece.

Many Internet sites say ornamental eggplant is used in Asian cuisine but I found nothing in Asian cooking sites to support that. However, when the roofers were here this week, one of them took a bite of a fruit and said it was sour enough to draw his mouth and had a hot aftertaste.

Gardening Is Part of Muskogee's Wellness Initiative

The Health Department held a wellness event at Muskogee's Arrowhead Mall, yesterday.

To bring potential community gardeners to the table, we put together a little display with plants, freebies, a sign up sheet and a survey.

The box in the back held Osmocote Plant Food samples and informational brochures.

The basket held free seeds from Botanical Interests and Renee's Garden. The papers on the table were coupons for Renee's seeds and seed starting booklets from Botanical Interests.

Muskogee's Wellness Initiative hopes to get more neighborhoods involved in growing vegetables and fruits for their family. The exercise of gardening is a good way to improve health and having vegetables on the table is always a good thing.

Everyone involved considered the event a success. Thanks again to the generous donors!

Seed Starting Class at Muskogee Garden Club

I gave a workshop on seed starting today at Muskogee Garden Club's monthly meeting. .
We had a morning with snow and 12-degrees and still 25 brave souls came.

Daniels Plant Food, Botanical Interests and Renee's Garden Seeds contributed fertilizer and seeds for the participants so everyone went home with gifts. Park Seeds sent 2009 catalogs for everyone. Wonderful generosity. Thanks everyone. It was great fun.

Maybe you can see the blueberry boxes of soil. We filled the bottom two-thirds with moist planting soil. Then, we topped the boxes up with seed starting soil. All the participants chose a pack of seeds and planted them to take home.

Botanica Gardens Wichita Kansas

We went to Wichita to see the Butterfly House at Botanica.
The first photo is of a plant kaleidoscope in the sensory garden. The bowl of plants rotates while you look through the kaleidoscope viewer and it is spectacular.

Notice that everything in the Sally Stone Sensory Garden, including the beds behind the kaleidoscope, is at the height a child or an adult in a wheelchair would need.

These are two shots from the Jayne Milburn Aquatic Collection.

Muskogee Parks and Recreation is beginning to plan a butterfly house for Honor Heights Park and our trip was to gather information since Botanica's butterfly house has been in existence for almost 10-years and they know what they are doing.

Mustard from Botanical Interests, Re-blooming daylily, Fritillary Butterflies

Fall is definitely the busiest season of the year for gardeners. In some ways, it is more pleasurable than spring because the summer flowers are still in bloom at the same time the fall garden is being planted.

In the past few days several dozen new daffodils have been planted. I bought from Daffodil Hunter this year again because everything I bought from her last year came up and wowed me.

The Peruvian daffodils from Touch of Nature gave a great show for two years and grew many new bulbs - the 6 bulbs from my original purchase became 20.

Photo: Seedlings of Mustard Red Giant from Botanical Interests
These are volunteers from a plant that went to seed early in the summer. Red mustard is good picked small for salads and also cooked as a green veggie when the leaves grow bigger.

Photo: This daylily is re-blooming in September!

Photo: The bird bath is the scene of caterpillars becoming butterflies. The Gulf Fritillary butterfly eggs were laid and hatched on plants and the caterpillars somehow made it across the driveway to the birdbath where they are making chrysalis. Look at the top left to see the caterpillar right next to a chrysalis, then 3 more bottom right.

It's almost time to plant garlic so buy a few heads at a farmer's market and start digging the rows.