Pomegranate
Throughout 2010 I took regular photos of a pomegranate tree near my one-room. Boring! Perhaps, but in the UK I have never seen this tree growing except in my garden. I planted this from a seed I took from a fruit bought in a supermarket some 13 years ago. Although the bush has never fruited, it regularly flowers and I’m told that last summer it was covered in a magnificent display of red flowers.
May 3rd 2010
July 20th 2010
July 20th 2010
August 2010
September 2010
September 24th 2010
September 24th 2010
September 24th 2010
Though the fruits were red and shiny, when I picked one last year and tasted the fruit I immediately spat it back out. As delicious as they look, pomegranates growing on street corners tend to be horridly bitter despite their juicy appearance.
October 23rd 2010
My UK pomegranate, January 2010. (12 years of age)
© 林東哲 2010 Creative Commons Licence.
Elwood 5566 
That’s a mighty fine looking pomegranate tree you’ve got there
Thanks, I wish I had a photo of it in bloom.
You’ve inspired me to buy a pomegranate tree, Nick. It seems the Russian Pomegranate will thrive in my climate. I adore the fruit. I’m getting a fuyu persimmon while I’m at it and a Korean pear too.
Now for the elbow grease: deer fencing!
I thought about getting a Korean pear a few years ago but it was complicated because you need both male and female trees for pollination and both trees have to flower at the same time. You need to be very meticulous about compatibility. Good luck!
Thanks for the tip. The fruit trees that I’ve bought in the past have usually had limbs grafted in order to make them self-pollinating. I shall have to check on this before I shell out my $300.
I read a story a few years ago about a gingko tree in Kew Gardens London, that had a different sexed limb grafted on way back in the 19th century, and which was mistankenly sawn off during a pruning in the 1990’s.
My grandparents lived in California and had a beautiful lemon tree. My grandmother’s father got bored and pruned it too hard, and from then on it would produce only huge lemons with unbelievably thick rinds. I guess that was the non-grafted lemon branches coming through.
I got two pears as per your advice, but got free shipping so it was still $300. These fuckers had better not die. Pomegranates and persimmons are self-pollinating.
Last fruit trees a decade ago were mauled by the deer. They used to see me coming to scare them off, and start eating faster. Bastards. They rub the velvet off their antlers on small trees too, killing them. They sometimes stomp my bushes, the ones they don’t like to eat.
I was about to ask if you have deer in Britain, but then I remembered the stories about “poaching the king’s deer.” I met someone from Nottingham once and couldn’t stop giggling because all I could think of was The Sheriff of Nottingham. She allowed that she had never even made the connection before and gave me a very civil courtesy laugh.