It is good following this thread, and similar ones @ShawnM started, at a time when news is dominated by THE virus. A few months ago, and I cannot even recall when (maybe 5 to 6 months) I put an avocado stone into the almost pure sand (I probably added some compost but as it was so long ago I can't recall - old age!) in the corner of my lot and looked weekly for any growth. I gave up after a while and assumed it had rotted. Today I just happened to look there and to my pleasant surprise I saw a 4 inch plant (patience is a virtue). I would post a pic but it keeps telling me "The uploaded file was not an image as expected." It is a .jpg but this is probably due to my internet being a bit useless currently (although the file loaded very quickly).
I've seen pics of a number of different colors of okra flowers on-line but have only personally seen yellow and yellowish white. I'll have to search on varieties that have different colored flowers; may be cool to try in the future. Not sure why but I enjoy seeing okra flowers more than any other veggie flowers. The wife posted a few pictures on her FB and she had a bunch of family and friends asking for seeds of the red variety. She'll have to let some pods stay on the vines to collect seeds (for us as well) as the season goes on. Shawn
From the pics I thought the flowers look a bit like Hibiscus (Gumamela here) - and have just found out that both belong to the mallow family.
The cantaloupe are starting to put out some fruit...really hope they ripen well on the vine. I do enjoy trying things that I haven't grown in the PI before. From what the wife has told me, not too many issues with cucumber beetles. She's not familiar with cantaloupe so it will be fun to explain when to harvest; family will love that melon. Shawn
My black cherry tomatoes are happy and starting to ripen. I think we can say it's possible... Looking forward to eat'em