I finally managed to pollinate my cherimoya!
For the uninitiated: Pollinating cherimoyas is a bit tricky, because their flowers only bloom for a single day. During this time, they are initially female and can absorb pollen, but only turn male in the evening to harvest pollen from.
To pollinate them successfully, you have to sacrifice at least one flower, take its pollen and hope that the next flower opens before the pollen is no longer viable.
They also develop large velvety leaves:
Funnily enough, it’s my least troublesome plant.
I got it as a impulse purchase. But the novelty only lasted a few weeks, so I pretty much dismissed it and put it in the bathroom to get more space for plants I liked better. But it endured for a entire year, thanklessly and without a single complaint. No pests, no fertilizer issues, no water problems, no rot or anything. And then it put put it’s first flowers aswell.
This one really clawed it’s way back into my heart and I consider one of my favorite plants by now. It really earned it.
I have some plants that have gone through similar phases of love too. Most of the ones I had been really excited to buy have turned out to be very particular and short lived, but then I have some plain janes that have been so drama free they’ve become my favorites since I got plants to have fun enjoying them, not to continuously nurse a bunch of sickly patients!