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Helen Chesnut's Garden Notes: Hamlet seeds produce fine tomatoes

Dear Helen: I’ve been admiring tomatoes sold in clusters, on a stem, in local stores. They’re a little smaller than regular tomatoes, but very attractive.
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Dear Helen: I’ve been admiring tomatoes sold in clusters, on a stem, in local stores. They’re a little smaller than regular tomatoes, but very attractive. Are seeds or transplants ever available of tomatoes that produce clusters of smaller tomatoes like these?

L.T.

Tomato plants in general produce their fruits in clusters, but I know the mid-sized ones you mean. The only variety I’ve grown so far is Hamlet, from William Dam Seeds. It’s a “cluster tomato” developed for the European organic fresh market. The fruits are about eight centimetres across, five or six to a cluster. For several years now in my garden, the plants have been healthy and productive. Hamlet is a staking (indeterminate) variety.

Dam also lists Alegra, described as a “small cluster tomato with exquisite taste. Bred in Israel for the organic market. Deep red, perfectly round, five-cm fruits” on “tidy plants,” which are indeterminate.

Dear Helen: I have heard conflicting advice on whether or not to dead-head expired rhododendron flowers. A friend told me that he’d spoken to a “rhododendron specialist” who advised him to leave the faded flowers alone, that it was better for the plants to leave them on. What do you think?

I.B.

I’ve only heard or read advice to snap off faded rhododendron flowers. One reason given is to help channel the plants’ energies into flowerbud production.

The main reason for the dead-heading, however, is esthetic. Following bloom, the plants look raggedy. Dead-heading cleans them up, but on very large shrubs this is an almost impossible task. I can reach only halfway up my taller rhododendrons, even on a seven-foot orchard ladder.

Until I obtain access to a sky hook or master the art of levitation, there is no way to remove faded blooms entirely from some of my rhododendrons. Still, they flower well each year.

Dear Helen: What has caused light tan patches on the leaves of one of our cucumber plants?

S.D.

The photo you included with your email indicates sunburn (sunscald), a common issue with squash family plants (cucumber melon, squash).

The condition is caused by exposure to excessive heat and bright sun. Sometimes, areas or spots of moisture on the leaves can act as a sort of sunlight magnifier, producing light tan specks or blotches on the leaves.

This is not considered a significant problem. New leaves are usually fine. If a sudden period of high heat and sunshine is predicted, and if spotted leaves bother you, provide some temporary shade for vulnerable plants. Keep the soil adequately moist and, if possible, water at ground level.

Dear Helen: Last year, a neighbour, who has now moved away, gave me some garlic bulbs for planting.

When I harvested the plants, I found that each bulb had many little bulblets gathered around the main bulb. I found hundreds of the bulblets, six to 10 from each bulb.

It’s a very mild garlic. Can you explain?

B.P.

The bulbs must have been elephant garlic, whose cloves look like giant garlic cloves, but the plants are actually more like a leek.

Elephant garlic is a hardy bulb with broad, flat, blue-green leaves. It produces outsized pink or purple flowers. The harvested bulbs consist of five to six large cloves surrounded by smaller bulblets.

The large cloves have a very mild flavour. The leaves grow about a metre high.

Weekend column. I’m taking a break from writing a column on the upcoming holiday weekend. Enjoy the holiday. I’ll be back next Wednesday.

GARDEN EVENTS

Dahlia meeting. The Victoria Dahlia Society will meet on Thursday, Aug. 2, at 7 p.m. outdoors in a member’s garden. The evening’s program will be on Show Quality Blooms and how to achieve them, followed by a demonstration of staging and preparing dahlias for show. The society will be hosting its annual show later this month. For the meeting location, contact vdspublicity@gmail.com. Visitors are welcome with no admission fee for the first visit.

Government House nursery. The plant nursery at Government House, 1401 Rockland Ave. in Victoria, is open for public sales from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays through to Aug. 30. The nursery is located opposite the Tea Room.