#3 Chocolate Scented Garden [In progress]

 

**This went in the Dec '21/Jan'22 Master Gardener internal newsletter**

Like Water for Chocolate

“Mommy can’t help with ice cream because… she’s growing wider and wider?”  quipped my three-year-old, a spoon laden with its precious cargo of Baskin Robbins making another precarious transit to the lower half of her face.  True, my metabolism is not aging gracefully, but with age, I’ve developed a deeper appreciation for my sense of smell.  Perhaps I can take the edge off my sweet tooth by surrounding myself with more chocolate-scented plants?    

Oncidium- Sharry Baby.  Shipped from an eBay seller twenty miles north.  Collectors suggest newbies buy orchids “in spike” for the more immediate gratification.  Perhaps the general reputation of orchids and its price ($52!) drove me to be more attentive to it.  Two and a half months in, my spike bloomed into a delicious floral chocolate-vanilla cascade that wafts across my southern-facing desk as the sun warms it in the morning.  If I squint my nostrils, I could convince myself this cuppa joe is actually mocha… but I find that I prefer the complexity of the orchid’s own notes to a flat more decidedly chocolate bottom-of-the-trick-or-treat-bucket smell and I like that it persists even after I have drained my cup. 

Akebia quinata and Akebia quinata Shirobana.  Encouraged by my orchid success, I bought purple and the more exotic white flowering chocolate vines from further afield in Georgia off Etsy a few weeks later.  Their princely sum of $67 seemed unwarranted for their “invasive” status in several midwestern states.  While they have survived their first repot, most sources list Akebia as hardy up to zone 8 or 9 and Santa Ana is a few clicks higher.  Akebia would flower in May through June, so perhaps it will still be a manageable size to stand in as a fragrant houseplant and “overwinter” the summer indoors despite its reputation for rampant growth.    Sources say the pods and their pulp are edible and akebia fruit is recognized in northern Japan as a sign of autumn.

Berlandiera lyrata.  Chocolate Daisy is coming full circle for me.  Two years ago, Gary’s approbation of the convincing and pervasive scent of these in his newsletter sent me to Laguna Hills to smell for myself.  However, just as the buds were on the verge of blooming, my daughter used her newfound mobility to drunkenly stumble over to its pot and, with an attention to detail I wish she would apply to Lego cleanup, removed every bud from the plant before my questions could be answered.  This time I sprung for a seed packet from Baker Creek in hopes of avoiding repeat trips to the nursery, my sticky-fingered daughter’s favorite place to shop.  

Image: Oncidium Sharry Baby orchid, Akebia quinata Shirobana white chocolate vine, Berlandiera lyrata chocolate daisy seedlings, and a Homo sapiens var F.K.F.  (self-watering).  

**12/5/2021** Sharry Baby second pseudobulb has made a spike!  I have moved the whole thing onto the dryer as I worried that a couple unseasonably hot days in the window might have scorched brown spots onto the leaves.  Or perhaps I was overwatering it?  

2/7/22: new spike started blooming.  It took a few days for scent to develop and is most pronounced in the morning, so it was touch and go with me wondering if I had covid.  I wouldn't say the orchid leaves look super happy-- more spotting and yellowing, but I dunk it in a kelp and fertilizer bucket in mornings and continue topping it up with orbeez when the levels look low.  The side of the container is so algal, it is hard to monitor the roots.  

In other news, the tips of the Akebia look blackened on both plants and the leaves themselves look coated with salt, but I do see some bud swell on both plants, so fingers crossed that was just the cost of transplant shock.  Berlandiera lyrata has been transplanted, so 3-4 seedlings into what was formerly a blueberry clay pot against the south wall of the house.  These look ok with handwatering, but if they are growing, it must be root structure.  I haven't seen any big takeoff in size since the transplant a few weeks ago.  

8/7/22:  I've moved Berlandiera away from the house wall when the blueberry sprinkler failed and under the mister table.  Now it is flowering a bunch, but it is too remote to enjoy its smell.  Akebia has had a couple growth spurts now that their pots are sitting on the back steps and starting to twine up the pipe railing.  

9/12/22:  Berlandiera had a couple months of gang busters growth under the mister table but the heat wave has killed it.  The internet says it is a perennial, so I will hold off renovating the pot and hope it comes back.  The Akebia have taken up position under the shade of the back door banana tree on the steps and have wound their way around the railing in a pretty pleasing way.  Should I run a string to train them to go overhead?  They seemed to do better when I got in the habit of watering them in the same rotation as the indoor orchids.  Chocolate orchids are not in spike.  

10/16/2022-- sharry baby orchid has sent up a spike!  Also learned about other chocolate scented plants (black salsify, Carolina allspice, chocolate cosmos, and chocolate mint)

11/18/2022-- sharry spike is finally open and fragrant!  I tried to enjoy it on the back porch desk but the sun is so intense there that the leaves started showing signs of burning after just a day or two.  So now I've got it in the kitchen, deterring me from starting any very pungent cooking projects... 

11/30/2022 started 6 black magic cosmos (the whole seed packet) in the germination station in hopes of diversifying the chocolatey plant varieties (see: lettuce for days post which has become more of a log of my plate germination station).  I've been using the chocolate mint in my pour over and it is pretty good.