Pineapple

In the summer while visiting a friend he made fresh fruit salad which included Pineapple. I asked him for the top and took it home, After removing the remains of the fruit and also a few of the lower leaves I suspended it in a container with water so that it cover the lower part of the base. Slowly roots appeared and when I thought there were enough I put it into a pot with some soil. In the photo below you can see some months later the resulting plant.

My research tells me that I didn't need to do the water trick but could have just planted it straight into the soil, but for me it was nice to see the roots form.. Pineapple is from the Bromeliad family and to water them it is best to fill the cup in the leaves from time to time.It should produce a fruit in maybe 18 months time and then it will also produce a pup which can be removed and planted up. They produce only 1 fruit a year but if you keep removing and potting up the pups you can soon have a good supply of fruit to enjoy or share with friends.

Orange grove

You may remember that last year I managed to get 5 orange seeds to germinate and get them through the winter indoors. Well during the summer 2 of them decided they didn't want to go on,as is their want. So it is a little over a year later and as you will see from the photo's they have become my little orange grove :) .

Hopefully they are now established enough to get through another winter and in the Spring I will move them on into bigger pots.