Fresh for the picking Fruit bearers deserve home in ornamental garden
Thanks goes out to all who spent the year’s first Saturday of wonderful weather shopping at the 15th Annual Urban Harvest fruit tree sale.
Houston is now home to over 3000 fruit bearing plants. As a garden designer, I look for plants that bring a lot more than just green to the garden. I consider flower, fragrance, color, texture and wildlife attractions, and if they bear edible fruit I feel like I’ve hit the horticultural lotto.
When most think about fruit trees for the garden they think of citrus, small evergreen trees with sweetly fragrant flowers that attract butterflies and birds or stone fruits such as nectarines, peaches and plums that dazzle the spring garden with their floral displays.
There are others, however, that make perfect additions to the ornamental garden. Here are some worth considering.
Feijoa: Feijoa are commonly known as Pineapple Guava and found in almost any nursery. They are typically used as an evergreen hedge, but also can be grown as small multi-trunked trees. Their foliage is a distinctive blue-green color on top and silver beneath. The bark is shaggy and cinnamon in color.
Its unique flower appears in late spring and has edible petals that have a tropical taste, as does the fruit that ripens in late summer. Some think the variety “Nazemetz” offers a tastier fruit but I find the fruit of the common landscape variety to be equally tasty.
Jujube: In addition to producing a sweet fruit that looks like a date but tastes like a sweet mealy apple when fresh and like a candied date when it’s dried, Jujubes serve as a specimen tree in the garden. They can reach 30 feet in height and have an inconspicuous flower that is lightly fragrant.
The glossy green foliage is deciduous and has a fine texture and a soft draping habit. Popular varieties include “Lang” and “Li.”
Olive: Olives are prized equally for their beautiful gray-green foliage, distinct growth habit and fruit. Olives were first introduced in Texas in the 1930s, and today, the Texas Hill Country boasts a thriving olive market. Perfect for our climate, olives set flower buds during cool winter nights (35-50 degrees Fahrenheit) and mildly warm days (below 80 degrees Fahrenheit). The tree’s coldhardiness is similar to citrus.
Olives contain a bitter compound called oleuropein and must be processed after harvested to be edible. There are several ways to cure olives that can be found on the Internet. They range from fairly easy to a little more complicated.
Good varieties for our area include “Arbequina,” “Arbosana” and “Mission.”
Persimmon: Persimmons are one of the easiest fruits to grow in our area. In the garden, the large, glossy green foliage makes a bold statement. My favorite character of this tree is its display of fruit in autumn after the leaves have fallen from the tree. While temperatures are still a bit balmy and area fall foliage color a couple of months off, bright orange persimmons hanging from the trees like tiny pumpkins proclaiming fall is here.
Many prefer the crisp sweet taste of nonastringent varieties that can be eaten while still firm. I prefer the astringent varieties that are eaten when so soft they have the texture of pudding and a much more complex flavor. Persimmons can be put in the freezer and eaten later like a persimmon sorbet.
Popular non-astringent varieties include “Fuyu” and “Suruga.” The varieties “Hiratanenashi” and “Saijo” are favored by those who prefer astringent persimmons.
Pomegranate: Pomegranate flowers are so stunning that they are frequently found in the ornamental garden. They look a little like big bright orange carnations. I find their large red fruit are also a decorative quality. They have a berry-like flavor and can be eaten fresh, processed for juice or made into wine.
They form a large shrub that can be trained as a multi-trunk tree. If you don’t mind that the foliage is deciduous, they can make a great garden screen and the foliage is only absent for a couple of months.
The best varieties include “Cloud,” “Desertnyi,” “Garnet Sash,” “Kashmere Blend,” “Pink Satin,” “Red Silk” and “Texas Pink.”
If you missed the Urban Harvest Fruit Tree Sale, there will be other opportunities to pick up plants at the Urban Harvest Farmers Market at Eastside Street coming this spring. Check the website, UrbanHarvest.org, for dates and varieties for sale.
Suzy Fischer is a registered Landscape Architect and principal of Fischer Schalles, a landscape design/build firm. Contact her at suzyinthegarden@urbanharvest.org. This column is produced by Urban Harvest. Learn about gardening classes, community gardens and orchards, farmers’ markets and more online at www.urbanharvest.org.