Beautiful blooms

'Hillbilly' tomato blossoms
Originally uploaded by sassycrafter

My tomato plants are flowering -- yay! I can hardly wait for them to produce fruit.

I haven't seen any bees pollinating the flowers yet. My understanding is that tomato flowers are self-pollinating but require the vibration of bee wings in order for the pollen to shake free from the anthers and pollinate the stigma. Just in case any bees don't come along, I jiggled the flowers with my fingertip. We'll see if this is helpful or if I'm being an overprotective tomato parent. I want my tomatoes!

Also, can you see the water droplets on the leaves in the background? Every morning when I come out to check on my tomato plants there are these beautiful water droplets along the edges of the leaves They're like little jewels the way they catch the morning light. I guess they're the result of the moisture the leaves have accumulated from a hard day of evapotranspiring. I imagine that the liquid makes its way to the leaf margins as the night progresses. Then once the sun rises each morning, the droplets are melted away by the sun's warmth, only to have the cycle begin again. Pretty amazing.

Cross Creek

As part of my Master Gardener training, our class visited Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' home at Cross Creek. The first picture shows the group standing in the vegetable garden, which is located pretty close to the house. Jacque, an Alachua county Master Gardener, volunteers her time to maintain the garden. When we visited, the garden was planted with cool-season crops like turnips, collards, carrots, mustard, lettuce and kale.

We also wandered the grounds and looked at the many citrus trees on the property. This image shows freeze damage. Wendy Wilber, Extension agent for Alachua County, explained that the sap in the tree stops flowing when temperature drop to freezing on cold nights. In the morning, the sun will begin to heat up one side of the branch and thus thaw the sap. The back side of the branch remains frozen, and the resulting pressure causes the bark to split open on the shady side of the branch.

We also saw citrus rust mites on many of the oranges. Wendy said these only cause cosmetic problems and don't affect the flavor of the fruit, so it's usually not necessary for homeowners to treat the problem.

For more photos from the Cross Creek trip, visit the Gardening in a Minute Flickr site.