Explosive cucumbers native to the Mediterranean and South America have been successfully grown in a Yorkshire urban garden.<br /><br />Video shows the fruit bursting when touched at at a major flower show.<br /><br />Sarah Rose Collings grew 28 of the exploding cucumbers in the garden of her Sheffield houseshare, in preparation for her display exploring plants’ ability to sense.<br /><br />With the help of her housemates, mum, and neighbours, the amateur botanist nurtured toxic and non-toxic species of exploding cucumbers that squirt out their seed when ripe or touched.<br /><br />The unusual plants are a challenge to find, and designer Sarah had to source their seeds via websites ‘Plant World Seeds’ and ‘Real Seeds,’ rather than plant them once they’d grown.<br /><br />Alongside the small and edible cyclanthera explodens, and poisonous ecballium elaterium, she sewed plants that can “hear.”<br /><br />The evening primrose she picked is shaped like a saucer which lets it pick up sound like an ear - when a pollinator nears, the vibrations prompt the plant to produce sweeter, more enticing, nectar. <br /><br />Sarah has picked out hydrangeas that change colour in different pH soils too, and geraniums that, in the cold, pump more sugar in their cells to make them hardier. <br /><br />She learned about evening primrose’s sonic capabilities in an article by Tel Aviv University, Israel, and went down a rabbit hole that turned into her competition garden titled ‘Plants That Sense: A Living Laboratory.’<br /><br />Flora’s touch was particularly interesting to Sarah, and she was originally interested in Himalayan Balsam. <br /><br />However, the plant is an invasive species and so was not qualified to be entered in competitions at the Royal Horticultural Society show at Tatton Park, Cheshire.<br /><br />Unlike many RHS competitors, Sarah has not been working with top tier gardening conditions and equipment, and has had to navigate living in a shared house.<br /><br />She said: “It’s a shady garden, and I didn’t really have the equipment. I didn’t really have a greenhouse or a polytunnel. <br /><br />“I didn’t have any tools, I didn’t have a hose, so in a way it was gardening but starting from scratch, I didn’t have a basis to start from. <br /><br />“Moving around my housemates needs and negotiating them, and also getting their help, and help from my neighbours as well.”<br /><br />Her interest in the flora and fauna world began when she felt isolated living in London. <br /><br />She said: “I started gardening when I was living in London about five years ago.<br /><br />"I was renting a place that happened to have a garden. <br /><br />“I actually started doing it because I found London quite an isolating place to live, and it was a hobby I can do at home, and it was something I could do when I wasn’t able to meet up with other people. <br /><br />“It was a rewarding way to spend time with myself.<br /><br />“Ironically, it led me into a community because gardeners are very supportive and they love talking to each other and helping each other, and I became really interested in community gardening, just learning from other people, going on garden visits.”<br /><br />Her evening primroses bloomed two or three weeks too early, and the 15 plants had to go to waste.<br /><br />She suspects it was because they were in a polytunnel, but neighbours and the social media-based gardening community pitched in to help out.<br /><br />She said: “I did have 15 and then had to replace them, people have dug up about 20 to give me, but they didn’t all survived that process because they’re a bit sensitive. <br /><br />“My mum brought some up from Wolverhampton, from some friends and neighbours, and somebody dropped some around in a car in Sheffield, in some plastic bags outside the house. <br /><br />“I’d never met them before. It was from a shoutout from the Botanical Gardens in Sheffield, who promoted it for me. <br /><br /> “They’re kind of a wildflower, I think that’s why it’s hard to find them in nurseries, because people often only sell these ornamentals, not just common wildflowers. <br /><br />“They grow on allotments, they grow in a lot of people’s gardens and they self-seed. It’s harder to buy them funnily enough.”<br /><br />She entered the Tatton Park exhibition’s debut ‘Long Boarders’ category, where gardening students, budding lockdown planters, and established designers compete by packing an 11 metre-squared raised bed. <br /><br />This year’s Long Border’s group were prompted by the theme ‘sensory.’
