Nissequogue River




When you travel the Nissequogue River by canoe or kayak, you do it by the tide. The river is tidal, with fresh water springs feeding it along its banks. When the tide is slack or about to ebb, that's the time to get into the water at the Smithtown Bull boat launch -technically a midpoint, but for canoeing purposes, the head of the river.


One of the first things I noticed, and you will too in July/August, is the abundant brilliant red flowers along the fresh water. I haven't been on the river before, so I've never noticed them. We couldn't take out eyes off of them.


Cardinal flower, Lobelia cardinalis. I would have taken close-ups, but it was quite difficult to steady the canoe while messing with my camera and the tide pulling us down stream.


Our high tide was around 8:30 am, putting us in with a low sun and cooling shadows along the river.


The river is about 5.5 miles long from the launch to the mouth.


It opens up about 1/3 of the way. Its by no means a secluded river, being surrounded by old and new homes along its banks in spots. Local and state agencies are actively trying to manage the watershed.


In 1999 the Nissequogue State Park was created, adding acreage from the former Kings Park Psychiatric Center (which attracts the paranormal types). You can see the infamous Building 93 and power plant stack towering in the back of this photo.


Finally, we reach the mouth of the river which empties into the Long Island Sound. My brother is taking in the lovely spot.


Upland at the mouth.


The shoreline is both rocky and sandy.

Canoeing the Nissequogue takes only about 2.5 hours. Less if you're a speed demon. After your trip, a van will take you back to the headwaters. If you you came via car, plan to use the rest of your day exploring Caleb Smith State Park or Sunken Meadow State Park. You could also hike part of the LI Greenbelt Trail, something I plan to do this Autumn.

For those coming by train, the Long Island Railroad has a Smithtown station, less than a mile to the headwaters launch.

The canoe and kayak rental business lists tide times for the coming months. Fifty bucks rented the canoe and equipment or you can bring your own.

Fort Tilden


One half of the restroom/concession pavillion.

The old handball courts.


Derelict building.

The long concrete walkway.


The ocean viewed from the concrete walkway.


The biggest patches of poison ivy I've ever seen.

A closeup. Notice the berries -birds love them.

There were small, gray leaved trees behind the first row of dunes. Their leaves had a plastic-like film on them that must protect the leaves from salt spray and dehydration.

Yucca.

If you click on the image, you can read the sign -"Do Not Enter Bunkers."

Blooming greenish-white, Tall Wormwood, Artemisia campestris, is native to sandy soils and sunny sites across a large swath of the U.S. Apparently the pollen is a severe allergen.

The rugosa or as we used to call them, beach rose.

These yellow, ray-type flowers were all over.


The specimen.

A closeup of the yellow flower.

Pink and white flower with glaucus, lanceolate leaves and purplish stems. Marie (66squarefeet) IDed this as Soapwort.

Milkweed seed pods.

These 6-legged, red and brown bugs on a milkweed seed pod.


Oyster shell on a algae covered boulder.

Of course, the ocean.

Meet Me in Muttontown

I came to the Muttontown Preserve in the fourth grade. Now that I think of the many nature-oriented trips we took that year, I am aware of the way a teacher can influence a young mind. I thought I might remember these trails, but it was hard to say whether I really did or not. It was familiar, but most of Long Island is to me by now.

Muttontown Preserve is a collection of three Nassau County old Gold Coast estates at the junction of two of Long Island's terminal moraines -let's say it's where geology meets extraordinary wealth. Much of Long Island's northern tier was comprised of these estates from the turn of the 19th century through the Great Depression. The wealth and giant estates of this period helped preserve some of Long Island's most beautiful woodlands from the development of the postwar period. Yet, many have fallen into disrepair and were demolished, many were incorporated into parks, some are still privately held. Of those open to the public, a few examples: the Nassau County Museum of Art on the old Frick property, The Vanderbilt Museum on the old Vanderbilt estate, Old Westbury Gardens at the old Phipps estate, or Caumsett State Park at the old Marshall Field III estate, or Sands Point Preserve at the old Guggenheim estate.

If you go for a hike at Muttontown Preserve and want to make a day of the trip, stop by Teddy Roosevelt's old place at Sagamore Hill and/or the Planting Fields Arboretum, both just down the road a bit. Both old estates and both worth a visit.


The map for the Muttontown Preserve. Click on it for full size. From my experience, the trail map is generally accurate depiction of all the trails and foot paths, with some exceptions near the ruins. The paths in the preserve are well-worn or maintained, but poorly marked. As of this post date, the numbered trails mean nothing when you are out on the trail. I traveled the 2 to the 6 to the 7 to the ruins, then the 5 to the 6 back to the 2. I really wanted to cross to the 4 from the 5 on my return, but I couldn't figure out how to do it.


An example of the old, meaningless trail marking system, and the new, but unfinished one.


From the preserve "house," I took this trail. It was cool and pleasing here, even though it was quite a warm morning.


This has been a wet summer, so the preserve is wetter than usual. Some trails were puddled like this one. Wear sneakers or boots, not open shoes like I did, and you'll be much happier.


Some trails had a lot of poison ivy to the side, but some had it growing underfoot -where the path was mowed. I was careful, despite my open shoes, and I didn't get any rash.


The trails were often wide and inviting, with a romantic glow cast onto its verdure.


In the woods, this berry. The last time I saw it, I didn't forage.


Wineberry, Rubus Phoenicolasius. This time I ate a lot -tart but good.


Here with a late blooming Rhododendron.


Eventually I came upon this concrete wall. There was no way in.


Near the corner of the wall I sustained multiple mosquito bites trying to get a photo of this butterfly.


Although not reminded by the big wall, I was somehow reminded by the old asphalt driveway that I was now traveling through a built landscape.


The woods began to change, things became a bit eerie.


There, what's that in the distance?


The makings of a 20th century ruin, complete with fallen timber.


It's the estate ruins of King Zog of Albania. What a title.


This is the the staircase in the lower right of the B&W photo.


Haunted?


The crypt begins to set the stage for the ritual teenage drama that I easily imagine played itself out here over the years -especially in the 70s and early 80s.


And the proof.


The plants (jewelweed?) growing on the lintel is a nice, ruinous touch.


Have you noticed all the English ivy?


Let's get out of here...


Ahh, sunshine, a field. Whew, glad to be out of the woods. This is a typical old field on Long Island. Lot's of goldenrod, not quite in bloom, but also mugwort, poison ivy, asters, some thistle, some milkweed, and some sumac. In season, lots of chirping crickets.


One goldenrod ready to go.


Sumac berries.

I had a ton of photos from this trip and had to restrain myself from adding them all -especially of the King Zog ruins. There was one spot in the woods that smelled so good, I can't quite describe it, but it caught me off guard. I stood there and inhaled, inhaled, inhaled.


Vinegar Pulled Pork

I'm going to adapt this for oven cooking and less servings. I'll put a 3-4 lb pork butt in a covered casserole in the oven at 300 deg. for 4 or more hours.

Serves 10

Ingredients
  • Pork butt or untrimmed end-cut pork shoulder roast, 7 to 9 pounds
  • Olive oil
  • Salt
  • Freshly ground pepper
  • Hickory wood chips, soaked in water for 30 minutes
  • Vinegar Sauce (recipe below)
  • Carolina Coleslaw (recipe below)
  • 8 plain white hamburger buns if you want to sandwich it
1 .Build a charcoal or gas grill for indirect cooking.
2 .Do not trim any excess fat off the meat; this fat will naturally baste the meat and keep it moist during the long cooking time. Brush pork with a thin coating of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside on a clean tray until ready to cook.
3. Before placing the meat on the grill, add the soaked wood chips. Place the chips directly on gray-ashed briquettes or in the smoking box of your gas grill. If you are using a charcoal grill, you will need to add charcoal every hour to maintain the heat.
4. Place the pork in the center of the cooking grate, fat-side up, over indirect low heat. Cover and cook slowly for 4 to 5 hours at 325°F to 350°F, or until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the middle of the pork registers 190°F to 200°F. The meat should be very tender and falling apart. If there is a bone in the meat, it should come out smooth and clean with no meat clinging to it.
5. Let the meat rest for 20 minutes or until cool enough to handle. Using rubber kitchen gloves, pull the meat from the skin, bones, and fat. Set aside the crispy bits (fat) that have been rendered and look almost burned. Working quickly, shred the chunks of meat with 2 forks and "pulling" the meat into small pieces from the butt. Alternately, you can chop the meat with a cleaver. Chop the reserved crispy bits and mix into the pulled pork. While the meat is still warm, mix with enough Vinegar Sauce to moisten and season the meat (about 3/4 cup).
6. Serve hot, sandwich-style on a hamburger bun and top with coleslaw. Serve more sauce on the side if desired.


Vinegar Sauce

Makes about 3 cups

Ingredients
  • 2 cups apple cider vinegar
  • 1/2 cup tomato paste
  • 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon ground white pepper
  • 1/2 to 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Mix all ingredients together in a large nonreactive bowl and let sit at least 10 minutes or almost indefinitely, covered in the refrigerator.

OR even simpler just try:
white vinegar, cider vinegar, salt, pepper and tabasco


Carolina Coleslaw

Makes about 3 cups

Ingredients
  • 1 recipe Vinegar Sauce
  • 1 medium head green cabbage, chopped

Toss the sauce and cabbage together until well mixed and not quite wet. You may have sauce left-over. Refrigerate. Let sit for at least 2 hours or overnight before serving.

Collect Pond Art


One of the reasons I had to ride my bike over the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday was that I knew I would pass this Public Art Fund project I have been intending to see for a while. Outdoor art projects I have seen involving gardens or plants by the lesser-funded organizations have often let me down. I thought this one would be no different, but I was wrong. It actually looked good inside its walls. One reason may be that its creators actually build gardens and landscapes outside the practice of art.

The project is called A Clearing in the Streets and the artists are Julie Farris and Sarah Wayland-Smith. Collect Pond Park was the context and thanks to the art, I lingered in this space much longer than the park's condition suggests I should. Although the title describes a clearing in the street, I feel that it works set in this park because of the way the trees subtly register the notion of a "clearing" and because this park is in dismal contrast to the bright nature of their project.


The approach from the south.


The cylindrical frame works to objectify the plants within, intensifies our sense of separation from its contents and concentrates the sense of specimen and display.


The plants within the frame.


Printed on the side are the common-name species, although a few volunteers may have sprouted as well.


Click on these two signs for big, readable images.

Weekly Bounty


This week's Cortelyou Farmers' Market bounty. 7 dollars bought four large carrots, one garlic, one regular tomato, one heirloom tomato, and a nice bunch of swiss chard. Not to mention the 14 dollars worth of peaches and nectarines (2.80/lb) I bought from Grand Army Plaza on Saturday, after the bike ride to Manhattan.

When I was in Manhattan, which I rarely am on a Saturday, I rode my bike up Park Avenue like so many others for no-car Summer Streets. On my return I thought I might stop at Union Square market to pick up a peach, just one to eat right then and there. I had my bike, so I couldn't enter the crowd. On the corner was a stand selling peaches -perfect. But these peaches were 4 or 6 dollars a pound, depending on the color of the flesh! To boot, an attendant was acting like some kind of Mr. Whipple asking everyone not to squeeze the peaches. All I heard were muffled sorrys. Too much pressure. So I moved on and waited for GAP peaches.



This is not from the farmers' market. This is from my neighbor, George. He says some of his otherwise ordinary cucumbers are turning orange. He has yet to eat one and asked me to be his guest. Last year a friend's father gave me delectable brown cucumbers, nowhere near this size though. I don't know what's happening in my neighbor's yard. Is it past ripe? I haven't cut it open yet. It's still firm. Usually, a cuke past its prime gets big and eventually turns yellow and soft. This is brown/orange and firm.

Much Strife at City Hall!




Wutz this? A giant Purple Loosestrife at City Hall Park? NYC Parks?!


Wait, there's another one.


Yet another...


Some more in "Millennium Park" across the street; flowers mostly spent.


How 'bout this patch?

What is disturbing about the City Hall Park loosestrife is that they're either willfully planted by professionals or not recognized by professionals. City Hall Park was renovated and re-planted in 1999. And this is odd, NYC Parks website lists it as a blooming plant of July in Manhattan, leaving it out of the other boroughs. Is there a dedicated loosestrife constituency in Manhattan that demands its August purple?

This morning I was thinking that I do not see purple loosestrife much in private gardens; maybe only three times in the last 5 years. As I thought this I walked passed a lovely garden in Ditmas Park where those magenta spikes gave another plant away. Loosestrife looks wonderful in just the kind of casual garden beds that I admire, and it does so in August, when all else seems to be failing. As I've said before, and I think this to be the case for many gardeners, Purple Loosestrife doesn't seem to elicit a gardener's rage. Probably because its an invasive of wild lands, not a weed of gardens. We look at it and at worst say it's too bad we can't plant one.

Its easy for us to deduce that most new wetland invasions will be spread via the wild plants, not those from our garden. Lord knows there's millions of them out there already, having spread all by themselves. I was in the Mohawk Valley last week and saw entire wetlands dense with magenta-purple -an amazing sight. It's also easy to say the noose is already around our necks, may as well be hanged.

I don't get much opportunity to get close to wetland loosestrife, usually seen racing by in a car. But the City Hall Park plantings allowed me total access for these ID pictures. As always, click on the photo for a larger image.


Whorled and stemless leaves.


The stem itself is square. New side stems shoot out from the leaf axils.


The brown seed capsules after flowers are spent. The wetlands aren't as pretty after the magenta is gone.


A few seed capsules.


The capsule broken open, you can see many tiny seeds. It is said that one mature plant can produce a 2-3 million seeds.


Young Purple Loosestrife.

Tomatology


On the left, ripe orange 'Sungold' cherries are giving me a handful each day now. On the right, the 'Orange Pixie' in front of the 'Sungold'. The pixie is most peculiar in form, so upright.


The pixie finally has a bunch of flowers and has begun to produce.


'Milano Plum' has many green fruits now, but none ripening.


I would say its a slow ripening year, even for the 'Bella Rosa'.


Since this year's varieties are not as leafy as last year's, I feel threatened by the possibility of tomato theft. Without the cover of leaves, these tomatoes are just asking for it. This photo was taken from the sidewalk, looking into the side garden. When those 'Bella Rosa's begin to ripen, anyone's easy reach loves my apple before I do.


Parsley, oregano, thyme, chives, basil, sage, mint, rosemary all doing well. Not so much the cilantro, which always bolts, never gets bushy. That's a green bean leaf in the bottom corner -I'm getting a 1/2 lb out of the small planter every few days now, most never make it to dinner.

Thy Plight With August Blight


As with trash pails and Boston Ivy, the New Dawn rose wants to go in new directions.


The Maximilian sunflowers blighty as ever in the front yard -but not so much at the side garden.


Something I have yet to spot has been munching Grandma's rose, and along with that -yellow mottled leaves.


This spot under the New Dawn, always poor at this time -blechhh.


The large (for my yard) aster bed has hit its end. This spot has long frustrated me and this year's cold frame placed here made it worse. And then there's my upstairs neighbor's air conditioner -condensing on this spot all summer.


The poor aster, blighted more than previous years.


Yellow leaves, spots, blackened tips, but somehow keeps on.





Preaching On The Loose



Not long ago I made a post with this photo of what I thought was Purple Loosestrife. Planted near a town center, on a wetland edge, along a road, near a parking lot in a town with many gardeners and less than a quarter mile up river, near the Stony Brook Grist, a preserve dedicated to native plants and habitats.

I grew up on Long Island. I didn't see nor hear of purple loosestrife until I went to college in the Hudson Valley, where I was in awe of its August beauty in the wetlands and roadside ditches. I didn't know what I was looking at. That was 20 years ago.



Without any doubt, it is purple loostestrife -key identifier, the lanceolate leaves whorl at 90 degrees to the previous set. Someone recently planted these -by the looks of it, in the last couple of years along with some catnip.


Long Island has been relatively clear of purple loosestrife, a plant that has been around since the mid-19th century. Why? Some say its because another invasive wetland species, Phragmites australis, outcompetes it in brackish wetlands.


This little planting of loosestrife is about 25 feet from Stony Brook's brackish estuary. Alongside this estuary is a mixture of native plants, but also plenty of mugwort. If you travel a short distance upstream, which is easy to do when the tide is coming in, you will find fresh water and a perfect roost for the millions of seeds loosestrife is capable of producing.

To me, this is not a story about a plant. It's a story about people still uneducated, still planting these plants. That means that information is not getting out. That also means those gardeners who are sick of hearing about invasive plants have not heard the end of it. While we are enlightened and free individuals able to make our own choices, solving big problems requires individual and collective action. To people it's just a plant choice, but to some ecological systems, it's a disaster.

In 2007, Suffolk County government passed a "do-not-sell" list. While many of those invasive plants have a phase-out period, such as japanese barberry -2014, most weedy plants (i.e. plants we don't plant much anyway) have been banned in 2009. Maybe its a poorly updated site, but a quick google search pulled up at least one wholesale LI Nursery still selling purple loosestrife.

I drove out to Bridgehampton to see my brother's place of work. On the way, I passed two, what do you call them -wedding halls, with extravagant plantings and a white fences. Both had masses of purple loosestrife blooming away. It's August, they look gorgeous at a time when much doesn't here on Long Island. So do the happy brides.

Morning Stroll


Prospect's Echinacea was doing well, beautiful.


Sure is a Bee Balm.


This is growing where the Lullwater meets the lake in Prospect Park. Anyone know what is is? Sputnik?


The Jewelweed is blooming.


My favorite bridge over the lily pond has been fenced. No idea why.


This guy was stripping fibers from the wood.


Fortunately my other favorite wasn't fenced.


I've never noticed Jewelweed growing in the water before.


Bull frog.


Rebuilding Humpty Dumpty


This passed weekend I went on a tour of the future Fresh Kills Park. I had lots of questions, or I thought I did, but most of my questions could be better answered by scientists. So instead, I enjoyed the view. You too can go on a tour, so sign up here. It lasts about an hour, but the whole adventure will take you longer. Especially if you arrived via MTA bus.

Funny thing about traveling somewhere new, like Staten Island, you never know when your stop is coming or has gone. Now I've done it, now I know, but there was some anxiety there for awhile. I took the S79 from 4th Ave and 86th Street in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. It seems like a short trip on the map, but it takes about 45-60 minutes with all the stops. It is nice to go over the Verrazano with your monthly metro card instead of paying 11 bucks for the toll. So one bus ride to the Eltingville Transit Center makes Fresh Kills Park a fairly easy adventure for Brooklynites.




We were picked up in this NYC Parks van for the tour. Yes, you're primarily in the van, but you do get out on two mound tops. The roads are bumpy, make for dreams of anti-shake cameras.


Fresh Kills was the 20th century landfill for NYC brought to us by Robert Moses and our unstoppable ability to produce trash. These are shovels left over from its hay day. I hear one will remain for roadside display.


This is one facility amongst several, designed to process and refine the gases produced by the anaerobic breakdown of the trash.

In every way, Fresh Kills is a technological landscape. Its imported skin of soil conceals 50 years of mounded and compressed trash. You can find a description of the cap system on the Fresh Kills Park website. It's as artificial as Central Park, but in a monolithic way. In its current state, it is both ecologically simpler and technologically more complex than Central Park. Settlement of waste, gas production and capture, liquid leachate capture and treatment, water testing, not to mention the capping technology. After 30 years, the time frame for constructing this park, we can show the states that are taking our trash the ins and outs of topping it with a park.


This facility with the two stacks in the distance is the burn-off plant. You've seen them wherever there's petroleum refining -they've got the fire on top. When the gas collection system is down, gas will be rerouted to this facility for combustion.


This photo (click on for larger size) shows the twin stacks of the burn-off plant in the middle ground. Hard to see, but deep in the distance is lower Manhattan and Jersey City. Up close is one of the many gas well heads in a field of weeds and grasses. This view is from South Mound which may be called South Park later on.


Here are many grasses growing around the well head at the peak of the mound. I asked why so many wetland grasses appear to be growing on the sides of the mounds (and in this case, the top) when the information states that everything is designed for good drainage so that water does not collect and permeate the barrier. It's possible I don't know my grass from my ass, so maybe those aren't wetland grasses. Its also possible that the barrier and growing medium are holding water above the trash mound, saturating the soil in spots. But I am just guessing here -scientist needed.


Looking south-southwest towards West Mound. That hill is where the remains of the World Trade Center attacks were taken, further complicating an already complex space. It is said that a earthen memorial will be built there.


On our drive to the other mound, we passed the tidal creek. Our tour guide was eager to point out the Osprey nest.


On the North Mound, looking east, you can see the East Mound still being capped. Imagine how much fill and soil it takes to cover these mounds. To the right is the gas burn-off stacks we saw earlier from the south. Again, click on the photo for a larger image.


To the north is the William T. Davis Wildlife Refuge, a small parcel of tidal marsh and some woods that will essentially be absorbed into Fresh Kills Park. I tried to visit the refuge last year, while locals on the tour and our tour guide suggested it was highly overgrown and in disuse.


Looking west you see the Arthur Kill and industrial New Jersey. But that is rendered lovely as it hovers above a field of Queen Anne's Lace. The previously capped mounds are all to be re-covered by another 2 feet of residential-grade topsoil, so that all vegetation you see will be destroyed. Much of the vegetation I saw at the park, while attractive as a whole from a distance, were weed species like mugwort, knotweed, q.a. lace, and phragmites.

Other landfills have been made into parks, such as Flushing Corona Park -once a dilapidated ash dump, but it's the scale of the systems in this new landscape that make it interesting. It is a laboratory for ecological concerns and brown-field re-development. It is both in-place as a series of large mounds situated in post-glacial moraine landscape and out of place as a series gas well-heads on stepped mounds of unforested expanse.

Most importantly, Fresh Kills Park shouldn't lose its history to it's new park-i-ness. Yeah, sure -it's a great redevelopment of a 50 year eye and nose sore, but if we forget how we got here, while we pay billions to ship our trash to far away states that one day will say no more, we will back into the same old place with garbage up to our ears.

Hiking Avalon


On Long Island's north shore lies a landscape called Avalon Park and Preserve. Its part designed landscape using many native plants, part preserve of native woodlands, and part cultivated fields of native flowering plants. This is the approach from Mill Pond in Stony Brook.


The woodwork is over the top for a preserve. All the decking, furniture, and gate is oiled. You can see how tightly the decking is cut around obstacles like trees.


It's a grand entrance that to a sensitive person might seem to undermine the preserve's mission. The slope is cut into to provide room for the wide walkway. These cuts will be sources of erosion, all the while plants will grow over the walkway and need to be hacked back. That said, I enjoy walking on wooden plank pathways because of the sound it makes and because they generally preserve land adjacent to the pathway.

Eventually the wooden walkway does end, changing to an edged pea stone pathway. Further in, asphalt paths mix with the pea stone paths. The landscape these paths traverse is attractive and completely constructed, despite its naturalistic appearance.

After you explore this landscaped portion, called Avalon Park, you can go on to the much larger Avalon Preserve and East Farm Preserve. Cross over Rhododendron Road (an event during flowering season) and take the red trail to a few miles of woodland and field trails of different color blazes. The yellow and orange trails pass through old farm fields cultivated for massive displays of native wildflowers. All the trails can be walked within a couple of hours with ordinary footwear.


A colony of Joe Pye Weed at the edge of Mill Pond.


The wooden truss bridge (despite the cables) over Mill Pond.


This appears to be an Aster. Anyone?


Coastal Sweet Pepper Bush, Clethra alnifolia, had scented flowers.


This white-flowered shrub was growing adjacent to the pepper bush. Anyone know this one?

Afterward you can walk to the beach at Sand Street (half-mile), or even further to West Meadow Beach (about 3 miles) which has recently been overhauled (finally!!) to be completely open to the public. I have rented a canoe at the marina near Sand Street Beach, across from the Three Village Inn -search the Yellow Pages for Stony Brook Boat Works to find their listing.


This Week In The Side Garden


Things are humming along. Thunderstorm rains have been helpful.


The green beans are producing.


I think I defeated the blossom-end rot that begun a few weeks ago on one 'Milano Plum.'


The Milanos from underneath -determinate, so they're setting over a shorter period.


Even the 'Black Russian' is forming fruit now. Can't wait.


As always, the cherries are producing the earliest. These are 'Sungold,' very sweet and tasty, but the skin is a little thick.


The 'Bella Rosa' is going strong, no sign of the dreaded B.E. Rot. These tomatoes have been enlarging for the longest period, and they seem to keep on getting slowly bigger with no sign of ripening.


And the strange 'Orange Pixie,' now has flowers and is still the most upright tomato plant I have ever grown.