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Fruit Couture—Edible Plants that Look Great in the Garden
Plants & Gardens News Volume 16, Number 2 | Summer 2001
by Scott D. Appell
In an age when space is at a premium, who can afford to cultivate the separate flower, herb, and vegetable gardens of old? Forced to make do with the less-than-capacious confines of the typical urban or suburban setting, many gardeners are combining the three into an American version of the French potager fleuri.
Improved cooking skills, elevated gastronomic sensibilities, and increased knowledge of plant material have led to the coinage of a new adjective: "hortoculinary." I don't know many people who use it, but it seems like a good catchphrase for a horticultural aesthetic that views our food plants not only in terms of their nutritional value, but also for their decorative appeal.
Following is a selection of exciting cultivars of some common food plants that, in my opinion, are as pleasing to the eye as they are tasty to eat.
Stylish Solanums
The Nightshade Family, Solanaceae, includes some of the most agriculturally important yet exquisitely fruited plants on the planet. Perhaps the most familiar of these edible plants are the ornamental cultivars of the pepper, Capsicum annuum. They are available in a wide variety of shapes and colors, from the blue- to red-, conical-fruited 'Filus Blue', to 'Starburst', which bears long peppers that turn from pale yellow to orange and finally red. 'Tri-fetti' is a very striking ornamental pepper with variegated green, white, and purple foliage, and small purple fruits that turn red when ripe. Remember that in this case the word "ornamental" doesn't mean "innocuous"—these peppers are infernally hot, comparable to Jalapenos and Scotch Bonnets. Use them in salsas, sauces, and moles.
The common bell pepper has achieved new artistic heights as well. 'Ariane Hybrid' produces gorgeous blocky orange fruit. 'Chocolate Beauty Hybrid', as the name implies, bears chocolate-colored peppers that are incredibly sweet and delicious. 'Bianca Hybrid' is known for its premium quality ivory-hued bell peppers.
In the same plant clan, the familiar eggplant, Solanum melongena, should also be seen in a new light. It presents pale lavender nodding flowers, which are followed by decorous fruit. The cultivar 'Easter Egg' bears three pure white egg-shaped fruits; 'Violette Firenze', an Italian cultivar, produces large pale-violet eggplants striped with purple.
Even tomatoes, Lycopersicon esculentum, can be incorporated into an attractive utilitarian garden. Select smaller-sized cultivars that don't need unsightly staking, such as 'Fargo', with its 2-inch golden-yellow plum-shaped fruit, or 'Orange Pixie' (18 inches tall!), which produces 1 1/4-inch orange tomatoes.
From the mountains of the Andes comes Solanum muricatum, the pepino dulce or melon pear. Growing up to 3 feet high, it has leaves up to 6 inches long and bears 3/4-inch, bright blue flowers and oval, 5-inch, purple-striped yellow fruit, with a fine melon fragrance and flavor. Melon pears should be chilled before serving and are best eaten fresh. The plant needs a long, frost-free season to mature fruit—northern gardeners might grow it as a container plant and bring it inside in the fall. Cages are required for support. Seeds for the cultivars 'Miski Prolific', 'Temptation', and 'Toma' are currently available.
Belle of the Berries
Strawberries have reached a new aesthetic zenith. Introduced in 1989, Fragaria 'Pink Panda' is familiar to most gardeners. The first pink ever-blooming strawberry (actually a Potentilla/Fragaria hybrid), hardy to USDA Zone 3, it was a breakthrough in its time, but the fruit is rather dry and sporadic (clever chefs can use them in ice creams and semi-freddi). A far better recent development is F. 'Viva Rosa'. A French introduction, this continuously blooming cultivar has larger pink flowers and good-sized, well-flavored fruits that can be eaten out of hand.
Few gourmands realize that their beloved alpine strawberry has a variegated twin, Fragaria vesca 'Variegata'. This comely counterpart has white-margined foliage and comestible fruit. It is a perfect groundcover or edging plant and is hardy to USDA Zone 4.
Fragaria x ananassa 'Variegata' is a bi-colored cultivar of our commercial strawberry, and fares quite well in alkaline soils. It succeeds in full sun or light shade and well-drained ground. It may revert to plain green if the site is too fertile. Be sure to use the attractive foliage of these varieties as garnishes for strawberry mousses, bavarians, and junkets.
Most gardeners relish raspberries and blackberries for pastries and desserts, while confining their errant brambles to the wayward, unsightly berry patch. However, several exceptional, beautifully flowered, delectably fruited Rubus selections are now available. Hardy to USDA Zone 5, 'Helen', 'Sylvan', and 'Veronique' don't have any thorns. They produce attractive pink flowers and tasty blackberries. When intelligently pruned, and kept under control with the help of rustic cages and hand-hewn wattle fencing, they are quite worthy of the border.
Rubus fruticosa 'Variegata' has neatly white-margined foliage with pink stems and petioles (leaf stalks), as well as clusters of good-quality blackberries. Light shade in areas with hot summer climes helps prevent sunburn. Average pH and fertile, well-drained soil is desirable. Try to avoid windy areas that are subject to early spring frosts.
R. spectabilis 'Olympic Double' is the double-flowering form of our native salmonberry. Hardy to USDA Zone 6, it produces fully or semi-double cerise flowers followed by early salmon-colored fruit. Fresh fruit tarts or macedoines show off their color to the fullest.
Flavorful Fuchsias
Most American gardeners are unaware that fuchsia berries are luscious. In fact, because we are instructed by gardening manuals to remove the spent flowers of these floriferous favorites, few people have seen or tasted the green, red, or dark purple, 1/2- to 3/4-inch juicy, slightly acid, refreshing fruit. They are best eaten out of hand and served with clotted or whipped cream, but make fabulous fresh fruit tarts, too. Species such as Fuchsia splendens, F. corymbifolia, and F. venusta produce large fruit, abundant enough to be worth harvesting. F. procumbens or trailing fuchsia is a terrific small shrub with heart-shaped foliage, purple-tipped chartreuse flowers, and delicious, 1/2-inch, red fruits.
Single-flowered fuchsia cultivars are more fruitive (upright selections are best for bedding out) than the double and semi-doubles. Fuchsias prefer compost-rich, well-drained soil and a site with good air circulation. They will not tolerate high summer heat, drought, or high humidity—preferring cooler, less humid conditions. Most are hardy to USDA Zones 8 to 10. Colder temperatures kill the stems back to the ground. With extensive winter mulching, Fuchsia magellanica is root hardy to USDA Zone 6. Although the fruit of this species is less appetizing than that of others, cultivars 'Globosa' and 'Tresco' are heavy producers of sweet, succulent, slightly peppery berries.
A Very Fine Vine
Gardeners requiring an exquisite flowering vine (which produces large quantities of perfumed fruit) to cover a pergola, gazebo, arbor, or length of perimeter fencing, must consider our native hardy passion vine, Passiflora incarnata. Commonly known as maypops or apricot vine, it is the hardiest of all the passion flowers—known to survive in protected locations as far north as USDA Zone 5. They die back to their large fleshy roots every autumn. The lovely, sweet-scented, white to lilac or mauve flowers are followed in late summer by 2 1/2-inch lime-green to yellow fruit. These are best eaten fresh or made into conserves, granitas, or sorbets. Passion vines tolerate surprisingly lean soils, but demand a well-drained site. A sunny location with average soil pH is satisfactory.
Nursery Sources:
P.O. Box 2237
Fort Myers, FL 33902
Phone: (888) 478-7333
Seeds: peppers and tomatoes The Cook's Garden
P.O. Box 535
Londonderry, VT 05148
Phone: (800) 457-9703
Seeds: eggplant
1065 Messinger Road
Grants Pass, OR 97527
Phone: (541) 846-7578
Seeds: pepino dulce Heronswood Nursery
7530 NE 288th Street
Kingston, WA 98346
Phone: (360) 297-4172
Seeds: strawberries,
blackberries, and fuchsias
Although Scott D. Appell hasn't had much chance to cultivate tomatoes
and blackberries since moving to a Manhattan apartment, he still describes his
outlook as "fruitopian." He has grown a wonderful array of citrus cultivars at
home (you can find these oranges, lemons, grapefruits, and kumquats profiled in
the BBG handbook Indoor Landscaping, which Scott edited last year).
He’s also grown pineapple, yams, and sugar cane as houseplants.
Scott is no stranger to BBG publications. Currently, he is editing the fall
2001 installment of our 21st-Century Gardening Series, a handbook on
container gardening entitled The Potted Garden.
Scott is Director of Education for the Horticultural Society of New York and a
member of the Publications Committee of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.
He is the author of three books, Pansies, Tulips, and
Lilies, all published by Friedman/Fairfax Publishers. Scott has a
private consulting company called The Green Man and can be contacted by phone
at (212) 966-4745 or by email: hortny@aol.com