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| Daisy holds a handful of recently picked fruit. |
The rabbit eye blueberries have just finished and the blackberries are coming to an end… but the Jamaican cherries are kicking along at a rate of about 6 fruit per day. For one tree, that’s not bad at all.
Of course, I have no idea if it’s going to survive winter here. Also known (like multiple other species) as the “strawberry tree,” Jamaican cherries are a tropical tree. We shall see what happens. I’d really hate to lose it: the fruit taste like a cross between cotton candy and popcorn. Really delicious.
My Illinois everbearing mulberry has also decided to start kicking again with a new crop that should start ripening any day now… and then in another month or so, it’ll be time for Snacky’s Diner to re-open.
For some reason my goumi berries decided not to bear fruit this year. It might be that we’re a bit too far south to get consistent crops. At least the silverthorns bore decently this spring.
On an up note, we’ve got elderberries for the first year here, and they’re doing great.
I do have one northern raspberry plant, too. And it bore me ONE raspberry. Looks like I’ll need to plant 15 to get a handful. Or 1,000 to make jam.
Heh heh.
Seriously… though…
Here are the best berries for Florida (that we’ve found so far)!
Blackberries
Surinam Cherries
Southern Highbush Blueberries
Rabbiteye Bluberries
My top favorite is mulberry, hands down, but we’ve had the others grow for us as well. If you love strawberries, they’ll grow here but I find them to be a pain in the neck.
The great thing about gardening: there’s always next year… we’ll fertilize, mulch, cultivate, and see what happens.
4 responses to “The Best Berries for Florida”
Goumis like it cold… they'll probably do slightly better there than here.
And… invasive? Sounds like my kind of plant! I'd love to have the yard invaded by an edible. I've seen those before but haven't planted them. I have a "Dorman red" in a big pot in the shade. Apparently that's the only way most raspberries do well here: in shade.
Thanks for stopping by.
I wonder how goumi would do up here in Gainesville?I planted a Mysore raspberry last fall. It only gave me five berries earlier in the summer, but the plant has easily quadrupled in size since then, and raspberries fruit on year-old wood. Fascinating stuff. I'm keeping it in a huge pot because the guys who sold it to me told me it was extremely invasive.
I’ve seen the Jamaican cherries growing well here in the Tampa area. They really are delicious! I wish I had enough room to grow them..on my patio :(
Yes, totally amazing. The flavor is one of my favorites.