I know that I am more attentive to plants in season now because of my art, but I have never before encountered the mixed up growing seasons that are here on the island of Jeju. Part of this is due to the mild climate, wide use of greenhouses and the various hybrids engineered to mature at different times. I would like to share the odd things I noticed that led me to dig deeper into how plants grow on the island.
First, the tangerines: In October many of the trees are starting to carry bright orange fruit, but others are still quite green. Since the island is almost entirely covered in citrus farms, it is probably quite important that they do not ripen all at the same time.
However, I was confused by the big grapefruit size fruit hanging on the same tree with smaller green ones. Apparently the yellow fruit are last years crop that were not harvested by allowed to hang on the trees. Since these summer oranges are not usually eaten fresh but used in jams and jellies, they can be picked when needed. There are other fruit, like the persimmon, that are harvested green for dyes and then later for eating. I am still waiting to see if the tangerine harvest disrupts the island with trucks and fruit stands overflowing with ripe fruit. It could be that a staggered harvest will avoid that.
Coming in second, are the camellias: There are tree varieties, bushes and even the tea plants are in the camellia family. In August they were covered in small hard fruit that turned out to be seed pods. These burst open and cover the ground with black nut-sized seeds. This made sense since camellias flower in the early spring. What didn't make sense is that they are already budding again. A local garden was advertising their blooming for photo visits in December! I find it hard to imagine that the whole island will bloom in winter, or if again the blooming will be staggered. The tea plants are already blooming, but then they are usually pruned so much that I wouldn't expect a seasonal bloom.
Planted annuals are common in the landscaping: However, arriving in August there was little blooming, probably due to the extreme heat and lack of rain. In September one school project was to plant out some of the beds with zinnia, marigolds and cockscomb. A little surprising since most fall beds are being dug up and put to bed for the winter. The gardens came alive in October with flowering lilies and grasses. Tourists were still lining up to have their picture taken among the blooms. The fields that were planted last month are showing onions, cabbages and flowering buckwheat. Some are winter crops, and others are a second growing season.
Flowering trees seem to do their own thing: I was told that most trees do not turn or lose their leaves... "Don't wait for the fall colors!" But there are all sorts of berries popping out. The hedges are blazing with pyracantha, or fire thorn, which is an evergreen in the rose family. The Japanese blueberry displays dark purple fruit and the occasional bright red leaf. The Kousa dogwood does seem to be loosing its leaves, but is giving out those curious red-orange compound berries like bumpy ornaments on a tree. While collecting branches with berries to paint and identify I noticed some curious bumpy bulges on the magnolia seed cones. They were quite ugly and I figured they were galls protecting some insect larvae. Later I took more notice because the protrusion had split open to expose the bright red seed inside. So I did collect the specimen and in doing so identified that there were three fuzzy flower buds on the same branch as the seed pod. I suppose trees here on Jeju don't have to make up their minds to either flower or go to seed, they can do both whenever they want. True Jeju independence.
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