Corset Strings

It was today or never. The rain has been fabulous....but it's been hard to get a break in the weather so that I could lace the prom queens into their cages and take those dresses off! Got it done this morning before 11:00 a.m. - our monsoon/hailstorm commenced about 3:15 p.m. or so, so I'm glad I got everyone sewn in tight!

Greenbush Italian stuffed into her dress and LITERALLY bursting at the seams. If you look closely, you can see that one of her stems has pushed apart the duct tape seam of the isolation barre and is doing her best imitation of the Loch Ness monster coming up for air.

Peacevine Cherry decided to take her dress off in an entirely different way. Rather than forcing the seams apart, she decided to push the whole dress off over her head! The pink isolation barre fit snugly against the ground before the rain hit.

A closeup of Peacevine Cherry with her pink halo in the morning sun. The stems have pushed up more than 14 inches above the top of the cage.

Polish Linguisa showing off her sisal corset. Two of the three elongated French / Italian paste types have so far refused to set fruit because it's been just too hot and dry. The only one of the three (Polish Linguisa, Maruskin's Andes, and Lusignan's Special) to set fruit in the heat was Lusignan's Special.

Everyone breathing a sigh of relief at last....nekkid!

Hartford fruit with raindrops. It's been a hard season for this variety this year, although it seems to be impervious to blight.

Jaune Flammee exhibiting something I've never seen in this variety (this is the 11th year I've grown it): blossom drop from the heat. If you look carefully at the stems on the truss, you'll notice that it looks as though an insect has neatly nipped the blossoms from the stems. However, the blossoms have not been able to set fruit in the uneven weather, so the blooms simply shrivel and shear off at the joint in the stem that supports the flowers.