Here's a photo collage from today. We have several types of grapes along the block walls of the yard, which provide beautiful green color all summer long. In the winter they go dormant and drop their leaves, and are just now breaking dormancy. These photos are (starting clockwise from top left): Frontenac, Thompson Seedless, Black Monukka, and Christmas.
After growing Christmas for several years, finally, today, it occurs to me why it has that name. No other variety we have grown has so much white fuzz, or such dark pink edges on buds and new leaves. So, of course, it must be named Christmas for the green and red and white!
Each of these varieties produce very different grapes:
Frontenac - seeded, red/burgundy color, very high sugar content, excellent pink juice.
Thompson Seedless - seedless (obviously), light green color, eat fresh.
Black Monukka - semi-seedless with astringent skin, dark purple/red, beautiful red juice.
Christmas - large grape, similar to Concord. Apparently does not ripen in our hot climate, although the seller claimed it "is Concord for hot climates." Concord will not ripen in our climate.
Let that be a lesson. We've spent five years nurturing this Christmas vine only to learn that not once has it ripened, or colored. We even bagged the clusters to keep the birds away and left them until they had no acidity, just pure flat sugar flavor, and they never colored. Heat affects a grapes ability to color as it ripens, and apparently this variety in this spot in our yard will never ripen properly. Too bad, since it is such a pretty leaf and much less susceptible to grapeleaf skeletonizer (must be the fuzz).
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