Melon Melange

[farmer d]

This was one CV that I was dying to get for the longest time.  The pic for the online store drove me crazy - it was just wonderful.

Well luckily I got one this spring and I thought it would be nice to share my experience so far regarding MM.

After first planting it in April it seemed really unhappy, turning pale and yellow.  After a month I thought it might be getting too much water from a near by sprinkler but that didn't help either.  Finally I started to feed it with the booster and boy did that make a difference.  In fact it seems to have quite the appetite - I feed it more than almost all other cvs and it seems to love it.  It is in a spot that gets sun form mid morning to mid afternoon with the afternoon sun being rather intense till about 2ish.

The plant is a little sparse so far but I'm spraying it with a lot of SuperNova so lets see how it responds over time.  Already have new branch growth so if I can get this cv to become fuller it will look devastating with all those pretty blooms at once.  Also the blooms last for over 2 days so that is really important to me to be able to walk out into the yard and see these colors.








Late day 1 colors really are amazing - watermelon I believe





Farmer D

[davidwood]

Truly wonderful pictures today Darren, for me personally your pics have been an inspiration. Having seen what can be achieved I think I have improved my cv's by about 100% in the year or so you have been on the Forum.
You must get some of these pictures to Cindy so she can do a piece in the World Gardens, I would love to see pictures of the garden as a whole.

I think you are going to have your work cut out with Melon Melange, I know you don't like pruning but without it you will find it gets very leggy and you will find it hard to get a full bush, not sure if Supernova alone will be enough, so we will see.

Here is a picture of my MM which was left unpruned, as it happens it suits me to be that shape as its now visible over the little wall and fits well in that corner, also a picture of it here when its bloooming, Cindy put this pic in the World Gardens and I think its the best MM pic I have.

Interesting you should say about the Path which has a bad reputation for its shape, Magnifique is the same [middle photo], it also gets a bad press but with constant pruning, sometimes quite drastic and a lot of TLC its turned into one of my favourite CV's.

[farmer d]

That is great to hear that we can positively motivate and inspire each other.  I know I have an unfair advantage with my plants being in-ground but it helps to see as well as hear what others are doing. 

It is so important to share pics of the entire plant, I really an get a lot more out of and gauge how I'm doing and where things could improve.

Your plants are always in really good shape and that says a lot as your growing conditions in Vietnam are quite challenging.  I look forward to sharing more as time goes by.

Farmer D

[Charlie]

Nice comments, David. Which variety is the middle photo of the full bush posted above?

Charlie

[davidwood]

Nice comments, David. Which variety is the middle photo of the full bush posted above?

Charlie

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Sorry Charlie, that's my Magnifique, I should have said that, its got 11 buds on it at the moment as well, I will modify what I wrote.