Garden Fruit Production

It's late April and I am very pleased with the progress of my fruit plants and trees.  For Christmas of 2012 I received 1 almond and 3 cherry trees. I know this sounds like the beginning of a Christmas carol, or a fairy tale considering I live in central Florida. However, I found two varieties of cherry trees that were purported to fruit in extreme low chill environments. I followed this up with some research that yielded mixed reports of success, but since I am Super Gardener, I made a Christmas present request for these trees. Therefore I became the happy owner of 1 'Minnie Royal' and 2 'Royal Lee' Cherry Trees, as well as a 'Garden Prince' dwarf Almond Tree. They came bare root and were planted into 15 gallon pots. Then in July I put them in the ground. Anxiously I waited all winter through their dormancy to see if I would have any blossoms this spring. And they did! But only 5, and all on one tree. So I doubt they will result in actual cherries. I am gratified that they received enough chill hours to bloom their first spring in the ground, and will wait patiently for next spring.

The thornless blackberries are doing great and I anticipate having a great harvest. I bought the first one 5 years ago from a nursery that actually specialized in trees. I bought it and never even asked what variety is was, and have been uable to find out ever since. Whichever variety it is, is very prolific. It rooted through the bottom of the pot and has produced 5 additional plants. I have all 6 plants trellised and based on the number of blossoms I'm seeing, I am anticipating a good crop.

Under the blackberries, I planted 'Tri Star' Strawberries, which I rarely get any fruit from between the birds and the dogs (yes, my dogs eat strawberries). But they are doing very well, and I often see small birds, maybe wrens, eating bugs off the veggies in my garden. So if they are the same birds eating the strawberries then we are square.

'Tri Star' Strawberries

The 'Florida Belle' Peach I purchased last year in August has already almost doubled in size.  This spring it produced numerous blooms which were all successfully pollinated. Realizing that the tree was still too small to support all that fruit, I removed all the young fruit except for 2.

'Florida Belle' Peach

Peach tree in front of the garden, the multi-colored blob 

is Callie the Garden Cat

The 'Gulf Beauty' Plum that was also purchased in August 2013 is doing great as well. It has tripled in height and bloomed successfully this spring, but I did not allow this tree to keep any of the blooms though.

The 'Clayton' Mulberry took a bit of a beating this winter as my dogs insist on brushing past it while running through the yard. But it has numerous blooms on it and is thriving.

The limequat is doing great. I wanted a lime type of citrus to utilize in my Corona beers, and found that the limequat which a hybrid of a lime and a kumquat is extremely cold tolerant. And it was fortuitous that I soon came across one at Lowe's a few weeks later. I have it in a pot so that I can move it into the greenhouse in the event of a hard frost and have already harvested several limes from it.

The Kiwi vines 'Vincent' and 'Tomuri' are just coming out of dormancy, but are not very photogenic yet as the leaves are just emerging. I am hoping that the vines will bloom this spring. I also have some 'Sunshine Blue' and 'Missy' Blueberry plants I recently purchased that already had blooms and fruit on them at time of purchase. From my research, these two varieties are the most tolerant of pH fluctuation so I am curious to see how they produce next year.

'Sunshine Blue' Blueberry