Grow some tastes of the tropics at home with sub-tropical plants. Sub-tropicals available for your backyard orchard include loquats, hardy bananas, dragon fruit, curry leaf, nopales, and more. This is only our second shipment of loquats this year and they have been eagerly awaited! We received 'Big Jim,' 'Champagne,' 'Gold Nugget' and 'MacBeth.' Plant them for their tasty fruit and enjoy their large tropical foliage.

Dragon fruit cactus (Hylocereus undatus) is a vining tropical cactus related to night-blooming cacti. It too blooms at night and has gorgeous flowers. Since we lack the bats and moths that would normally pollinate them, pollination by hand may be necessary. The dragon fruits are prized for their delicate sweet juiciness and health attributes. They are high in fiber and vitamin C, but perhaps their biggest benefit is that they help regulate glucose levels. Thus, they are especially beneficial for diabetics.

We're especially excited to have received curry leaf, as they have been very hard to locate. With all the interest in cooking and growing your own, demand has far out-stripped supply. This crop is young but very good-looking, so it won't last long.

Nopales are actually the pads (kind of like leaves) of Opuntia cactus. They are eaten as a vegetable and taste somewhat like green beans. Frequently they are diced (nopalitos) and scrambled with eggs. They're perfect for your low-maintenance edible garden!

Come to Yamagami's Nursery for the best selection of edibles for your own garden of eatin'. We are here to help you succeed...the first time!

Maybe incendiary peppers aren't your thing and you are a little bored with bell peppers?

Try the 'Villancho' pepper, a Yamagami's exclusive. 'Villancho' is a pepper grown for flavor.

This thick-walled pepper roasts up beautifully, is easy to peel and has a medium kick. It makes delicious chili rellenos (stuffed peppers) and works well in a stir fry and in scrambled eggs.

The plant bears prolifically and the peppers freeze well. It's not too late to tuck one in for a tasty fall harvest.

Your shade garden becomes a sanctuary in the summer heat. Fill it with flowers and enjoy your summer outside.

What to plant other than the traditional workhorses of Impatiens, Begonias and Fuchsias? Try 'Mona Blue' Plectranthus. Its spikes of lavender-blue blossoms cool off warm colors, providing a striking contrast. Add it to containers or spot it through flower beds for summer into fall color. In mild winters it stays evergreen and can be perennial. Come walk through Yamagami’s shade garden where you’ll find it blooming away!

Alan's Choice…Well, the big day came when Giant Pumpkin Godfather Alan had to make the final cut. Now there is only one plant left from the 3 seedlings he planted. It is growing like gangbusters. It has a few fruit set already and we have high hopes for a really giant pumpkin this year. Please update us on your own pumpkin patch and email your photos to infocenter@YamagamisNursery.com.

A recent (6/28/10) article by Charlie McCollum in the San Jose Mercury News made us think of the wonderful memories we have of Holly Hayes. She not only shopped here and asked lots of questions, she also participated (as a Citrus Buddy) in the preparing and serving of citrus and citrus treats. Charlie wrote with such tenderness about continuing on with his and Holly’s garden.

We at Yamagami’s enjoyed our relationship with Holly as a garden writer, a Master Gardener, and mostly as someone who truly loved to garden and grow. She was particularly proud of the garden she and Charlie created together. We are thrilled that the garden lives on. We all remember her fondly.

What to do? A nice thick (2” to 3”) layer of mulch is the antidote to these woes. Mulch will beautify while keeping roots cool, reducing evaporation, maintaining soil moisture, and inhibiting weed growth. A really big bonus to mulching is that mulch breaks down, adding nutrients and improving the texture of your soil. Repeated mulchings will change your clay soil into a rich and porous one, over time.

Yamagami's Nursery offers several good mulches. Come in to see your choices, and give your garden the summer treat it really craves, a cool cover of mulch.