Sweet! Gardener grows pineapple on a windowsill

WHEN green-fingered Derick Huish put what was left of his pineapple in a plant pot, it was more in hope than expectation that the Scots climate would allow the fruit to flourish.

So the 74-year-old was not surprised when nothing happened as the plant pot sat in his greenhouse for a year.

But when he decided to bring the pot indoors earlier this winter, he was rewarded with the first green shoots of his own pineapple.

Mr Huish bought the original fruit for £1 from his local Morrisons supermarket in Edinburgh 18 months ago

After reading that they could be regrown from a stalk, he planted the remains – the crown at the top of the fruit as well as a small part of the flesh surrounding it – in an ordinary plant pot.

The plant remained in the greenhouse in the back garden of his Edinburgh home and, despite his dutiful waterings, there was no sign that his labours would ever come to fruition.

But when the cold weather set in this winter, Mr Huish brought the pot into the house and positioned it on the windowsill of his living room.

Just days before Christmas Day – in what he now jokingly refers to as a ‘Christmas miracle – new sprouts began to appear at the top of the plant.

A month-and-a-half later his labour of love has delivered him a fully formed second pineapple perched among the stalks of the original.

Though the pineapple was grown indoors, Mr Huish credits his general green-fingered success with a ‘microclimate’ in his garden in the Silverknowes area of the city.

He has also successfully grown passion fruit, despite the waves of cold and snowy weather hitting the capital in recent months. He said: ‘I’m into gardening – I’ve got figs and apples and plums and everything out back. This is a bit more exotic.

‘I’m fair pleased with it, I really am. I’ve had it in the greenhouse for most of the time and I brought it inside in the winter.

‘Just before Christmas a shoot came up in the middle.’

Once he has harvested the new fruit – which is not yet ripe – he has plans to plant its remains to continue the cycle. The fruit generally only thrives if the temperature is 20-30C (68-86F), making Mr Huish’s harvest an improbable feat.

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh tropical horticulture expert Pat Clifford said: ‘To grow it as an amateur gardener is impressive. It’s about the perseverance of 18 months. I’ve seen the pictures and it’s quite impressive.’