I love to hear from other gardeners who live in my area about their favorite varieties of different plants . Jerry Parsons, the famous A&M horticulturalist and plant developer, taught a session in my Master Gardener training class. He rated plant variety as one of his top three factors in contributing to successful gardening. Before his class, I paid little attention to plant varieties, After his talk, well of course, I learned my lesson. Especially in our hot-as-the-dickens summers, some varieties thrive, and some varieties fail spectacularly.
Happily, our temps have moderated these last few days and it couldn’t happen soon enough for us, since we have endured what seemed like unending 100° rainless days. Since so many of my plants have struggled, I say they are mostly dead, like Westley in the Princess Bride after he was taken to the Pit of Despair. In fact, I’ve taken to calling this summer the “Pit of Despair” Summer. Now after some nice rainy days with highs only in the mid-nineties, we have the energy to take stock and write a report on how things went this season.
My Favorite Varieties of Tomatoes
I grew several varieties of tomatoes. I got many of them as starts from the Sunshine Gardens Plant Sale which occurs the first Saturday of March every year. I have also added links to a seed source for many of my favorites.
The slicers were Black Krim, Lemon Boy, Purple Cherokee, Celebrity and Green Zebra. I grew one paste tomato which was Midnight Roma. I grew three cherry types: Austin Pear, Sunshine and Sun Gold.
The most productive slicers were Black Krim and Lemon Boy. Both of these two also lasted the longest into the season. I got quite a few Green Zebras, though not enough to match the Black Krim and Lemon Boy. Still, I will grow it again just because it is so unique and the taste is so zesty.
Neither Purple Cherokee or Celebrity produced many fruits, although my Celebrity looks pretty healthy post-“Pit-of-Despair” so I hope it gets its legs in the fall season. I have a couple of Purple Cherokee in the ground for the fall season so we’ll see how well they produce then.
My Favorite Varieties of Cherry Tomatoes
In the cherry tomato category, Austin Pear was the most productive. The fruits are large for a cherry type, and the flavor is strong and tart. My other cherry types just didn’t produce as well this year. I grew Sunshine cherry, and Sun Gold which had been very dependable in years past. They are still putting on fruit though even though they look skeletal, but only one or two a day. I breakfast on them every day as I go through the garden. It’s not worth getting out the harvest basket for that.
My Favorite Varieties of Pepper Report
My peppers have used the spring/summer season to grow plants, not peppers. But mid-August, they started to produce. It looks like the Corno di Toro is going to be a winner by a landslide for productivity. Also, I have a new pepper called Cubanelle that is starting to produce nicely. It is a sweet pepper that I was hoping might perform better than traditional bell peppers in our heat.
My Jupiter bell pepper plant produced a few peppers in the early part of the season, but then took a break during the hot part of the summer. The plant looks very sturdy and healthy and a few more peppers have set now, so I am hoping it will produce a good fall crop.
I am beginning to get a good crop of Impala serranos and Jedi jalapenos which are very large but not very hot. I would like them a bit hotter.
For heat, I have a habanero plant which is possibly in too shady a spot, so I only get the occasional pepper from it. I have trimmed back the tomatillos which were overtaking it, so I hope it will produce better in the fall.
Tomatillos
I renamed my Cisneros tomatillo plants Godzilla after they took over the garden. The joke of it is that the plant label said it didn’t require staking. No, it didn’t require staking because it used any other available plants to grow on. They were incredibly productive, more than I wanted, but I will be making some yummy tomatillo salsa when I get to it.
My Favorite Varieties of Okra
My okra plants are just getting started. I planted Carmine Splendor, and we have already had a meal or two. These okras are very tasty. Read more about growing great okra here.
The okra will continue into the fall producing, with any luck at all, until the first killing freeze. You must keep your eyes on the okra because it gets big so fast if you don’t check them every day, they end up too big.
My Favorite Varieties of Cucumbers
I got my cucumbers in late and they are now covered in aphids. I treated them by spraying a solution of 1 teaspoon baking soda and1 tablespoon dishwashing soap to one quart of water. I hope they can recover.
The winner in the cucumber category is lemon cucumbers. My daughter got her cucumbers in earlier that I did and has had a very nice harvest of them. If you haven’t tried this type of cucumber, make it a priority the next time you plant cucumbers. You won’t be sorry.
Flowers
My flowers haven’t been doing very well this year. I guess it’s because of the heat. I’ll tell you about the worst ones first, and then the ones that did better.
This year my impatiens fit into two categories: dead or mostly dead. I even had some plants I grew from cuttings that I planted out in pots in the front, and they outright died. I was hoping to find some healthy impatiens to replant, so my daughter and I took a little trip to the Natural Gardener. It gave my bruised ego a boost to see that their impatiens looked exactly like my impatiens, which are usually a very dependable source of pretty orange blooms.
My geraniums likewise are the worse for the wear after this summer, and some have completely died, while others are limping along with tiny little leaves and no blooms.
My obedient plant put swaths of big blooms on every stalk, but the blooms fell over just as soon as they had opened. It is disappointing to wait so long for a flower and then have it poop out just as it blooms.
My zinnias haven’t done what I wanted them to do. Although I planted tall ones which I like for cutting, it seems like all the ones that came up are rather short. I have had some very vibrant fuchsia ones that I don’t know what seeds those were, but they are very pretty.
My begonias are also limping along. Some of the pots are half dead, some are mostly dead. I think the flowers are thinking they are in the “Pit of Despair” this summer.
Flowers That Thrived
Happily, there were a few flowers that have survived the “Pit of Despair” summer. The winners in the flower category are my climbing roses, angel trumpets, plumeria, and lipstick plant.
My Westerland climbing rose is doing great, and is not suffering at all from the heat — at least as far as I can tell. I have two plants which are growing up parallel trellises which I installed earlier this year. In between the trellises is a garden path. I wanted to make an arch but couldn’t find any that were cheap enough for my budget. I’m hoping that the rose will grow enough to make the arch out of their canes. I finally got this rose in a microclimate that matches its preferences because it is as happy as can be, and blooming quite a lot.
My angel trumpets are doing well and still blooming on an every-other-day or so schedule. Although they only stay open in the early morning, they are very spectacular blooms that are worth stopping to admire.
Two tropical flowers that are doing well is my plumeria and lipstick plant. Since both are rather tropical, I am surprised they are thriving through the heat, but both have had blooms consistently all summer long. Now my lipstick plant is not a show stopper, but a bloom is a bloom.
Be sure to leave a comment with your favorite varieties from Summer 2022 — our ” Pit of Despair” summer!