Logee's New Fruit Book Launch on Martha Stewart TV

Our fruit book "Growing Tasty Tropical Plants in any home, any where" will air on Martha Stewart TV (Hallmark Channel) this Friday, Nov. 5th. We travel to New York City on November 3rd to tape the show and the fruit plants that we have chosen for the show are pictured below.

First, our Black Olive plant (Olea europaea 'Arbequina'). The plant pictured is two years old and is a 5 foot tree with unripe olives (green) and ripe olives (black). Growing an olive tree is easy as long as you have nighttime temperatures in the winter down to 40˚F. It is the chill down that brings on flowering and ultimately the fruit.

Next, our five year old Dragon Fruit(Hylocerus undatus) plant that is in fruit. The pink fruit when sliced open has a delicious custardy center that can be scooped out and eaten. If you just want to order the fruit and not the plant go to From the Farm, a tropical fruit grower in Florida does a really nice job of growing and shipping the fruit.

Our amazing Dwarf Starfruit (Averrhoa carambola 'Dwarf Maher') is an abundant producer of sweet juicy fruit. When cut in half a five-pointed star is created. Fruit starts forming at only 2 feet in height. Give plenty of sun, and water when dry and you will have your own starfruit in no time.

The Flower of chocolate. The ripe Chocolate pod.

Chocolate is a must and our Chocolate Plant (Theobroma cacao) will be featured on the show as well. Of course, the previous blog just talked about all the in's and out's of growing chocolate. We will be showing how to make chocolate nibs from the cocooned chocolate fruit. Basically, the chocolate beans need to ferment for a week and then roast and dry them. Then, you can eat the beans or use a mortar and pestle to crush them into chocolate nibs. Delicious. From the Farm also offers the roasted chocolate beans for the daring and curious fruit connoisseur.

Our Passion Fruit (Passiflora edulis 'McCann') is slotted to travel to NYC with its golden yellow fruit that is as sweet as they come. Passiflora is grown for its amazing flowers and delicious fruit. It is vining so needs support but is relatively easy care. Passion Flowers in their native habitat grow in poor soil and at time drought like conditions.

Finally the last plant is a pineapple that we will show how to cut off the top of a pineapple and put it in a pot for easy propagation.

All of these fruiting plants and many more can be found in our new book Growing Tasty Tropical Plants, which is available from Logee's or your local bookstore.

Our shipment of books arrived and we learned today that it was voted in the top 10 for the Best Book in Craft and Garden for the 2010 year.

Logee's in Mid-Winter

This morning my thermometer read 24 degrees below freezing. I couldn't wait to get to work today because I knewI could escape the cold just by walking in the front door. Outside of Logee's a blanket of white snow covered the outdoor gardens and I was glad that our hardy banana was fast asleep under the frosted haystack. With a few steps to the front door I left the stark stillness behind me and walked into an alive, pleasantly balmy space. I walked around our seven retail greenhouses, letting the flowers and fragrance guide me.

Our mid-winter flowering plants were everywhere. I couldn’t resist taking a picture of Medinilla Magnifica housed in our “Potting Shed.” This impressive bloomer displayed large umbells of pink blooms that were cheery and welcoming. Of course, it would take 2-3 years to get flowers like this from a seed grown plant but once mature, flowers can be expected from spring through summer and for high light places like the greenhouses, mid-winter gave way to blooms.

Another surprise this morning was the single bloom of a red passion flower (called Passiflora piresii) in the “Long House.” Since passion flowers only bloom for a day, it was amazing to find this bright red flower perfectly happy growing inside the greenhouses on one of the coldest days of the year.

Next, the sweet fragrance coming from the “Big House” drew me into the depths of its tropics. The double ball standard of “Canary Island Broom” (Genista canariensis) was beginning its blooming season (January to April). The Big House is cooler at night, therefore, inducing blooms for many plants in that greenhouse, like our camellias.

My walk continued into the “Extension House” where a single bloom filled the house with an intoxicating fragrance. Gardenia nitidia is a rare gardenia that blooms intermittently throughout the year and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time for flowers and fragrance.