Aline Clement
Spring is finally here! If you’re like many gardeners, you lost some of your tender or tropical plants to the freezing weather in January and February. If you have some space in your garden for new plants, why not select trees that provide delicious fruits you and your family can enjoy?
When purchasing a fruit tree it pays to do your homework up front. Many years ago after we first moved to Florida, I bought a peach tree for our yard. I visualized a lovely tree teeming with scented blossoms in the spring, followed by delicious juicy peaches in early summer. It grew nicely the first year and had many lovely blooms. Small fruits followed, but they never matured enough to provide peaches like I purchased at the roadside stands in Georgia. I thought the tree just needed to mature a little more for the fruit to develop properly. However, this poor growing and fruit production pattern continued for several years, and after the fourth year the tree started to decline. It just wasn’t happy in my landscape! I found out much too late that selecting the correct peach variety for our neck of the woods was critical for proper fruit production.
The University of Florida has done all the legwork to find fruit trees that will work in our area, and you can find lots of choices for a great many “dooryard” fruits in the following document: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/mg248. Armed with the information in this document, you can purchase the plants you want without having to worry about whether or not they will do well here.
There are quite a few peaches that like our climate: Spring Crest, June Gold, Flordaking, Flordacrest, and UFSharp are some varieties to look for.
If you like pears, you might want to try Ayers, Baldwin, Keiffer, or Floradahome.
TropicSweet, Anna, and Dorsett Golden are some apple varieties you might want to try to grow. Check out the following publication for some good information and useful tips for growing apples: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/mg073.
Figs are old-fashioned fruits that have returned to popularity in recent years. My grandmother had a beautiful fig tree planted next to her back door in South Carolina. One treasured family photograph shows me at age four sitting with her on the back step next to that huge tree. In her honor I planted a Brown Turkey fig next to my back door about fifteen years ago. One of the most popular fig varieties in the southeast, it has a lovely shape and the huge leaves provide nice shade. The birds love the figs, and I’m happy they seem to prefer the fruits at the top of the tree where they’re difficult to harvest. Go to http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/mg214 for all the ins and outs of growing figs as well as some other varieties you may want to try.
Planting fruit trees can not only save you money, it can also provide healthy and delicious fresh fruit, giving you the satisfaction of growing your own.
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