Avocado Tree of the Spanish Governer's Palace in SATX

10 years ago

Howdy,

If anyone hasn't seen it, there's a gorgeous avocado tree in the Spanish Governer's Palace in downtown San Antonio. A squirrel helped us snag a couple fruits from the tree. I plan on planting the seed in a pot and seeing what happens.

Has any commercial or scholastic nurserymen contacted them about propagating the tree? Though it's in quite a microclimate that must help it survive, it is still a historic and long-lived avocado tree in the heart of San Antonio, that might be valuable to the home gardeners of the region.

The manager of the facility started a tree from seed that is rumored to be 3 years old, now.

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Comments (9)

roselee z8b S.W. Texas
10 years ago
Yes, I've seen it! It was maybe 6 or 7 years ago that I did a gallery post on the Spanish Governer's Palace including the avacado tree. Maybe the one you saw is a new one, but the one there then was huge and must have been 15 or 20 years old at least.

Fanick's nursery, the fruit tree experts around here, might be able to advise you on hardy avacados. Their number is: 210-648-1303 However, I just looked at their website and they don't list avacado which makes me wonder why they don't. Even the hardiest may be one of those borderline hardy trees in San Antonio. It's worth a try though!
badducky
Original Author
10 years ago
I have one from a different nursery. The tree is about as famous as the building, and is far, far older than 20 years... No one knows when it was planted or how long its been there.

And, in all the research I did for hardy avocados of the area, no one mentioned propagating this famous one. We had the tiny avocado that the squirrels helped us snag for lunch today, and they do have a very interesting flavor, quite different from the classic Hass, but it's hard to tell with immature fruit what it would have been in a few weeks' time!

Does someone know the guy in Devine? Does he know about this tree?
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sabalmatt_tejas
10 years ago
That is interesting. I was at Fanick's in San Antonio on Monday and saw they have a large selection of the cold hardy avocados. I saw: poncho, wilma, fantastic and others.
roselee z8b S.W. Texas
10 years ago
I must be blinder than I thought! I looked again at Fanick's website and see that they have several cold hardy avacado trees listed:
DEL RIO

FRONT

MAY

OPAL

PRYOR

WILMA

Thanks Sal!

Here is a link that might be useful: Fruit and Nut trees at Fanick's Nursery in San Antonio
eahamel
10 years ago
Haas won't grow this far north, it's really tropical.

And before you get one, find out whether that variety needs a pollinator. Some do, some don't. I didn't know there were any in SATX!
cuerno
10 years ago
Here is mine, a mile away from Fanick's Nursery. It's a cold hardy mexician type, pear size and green when ripe.
Vulture61
10 years ago
Cuerno, how about the taste?

Omar
cuerno
10 years ago
Taste as good as the ones at HEB but it takes three to equal one in quantity. It has a very thin skin so you eat it skin and all otherwise to messy to peel. What is great about these avocados is they are free. I have six other Mexican variety that are about 6 foot tall in pots and they all had fruit this spring but each one lost all their fruit except the Wilma variety, it has one fruit still hanging on. We will see which ones make it this coming winter and then they will go into the ground and I will try grafting the tree with larger fruit to my 25 year old tree.
Vulture61
10 years ago
Thank you, Cuero.

Omar

Avocado Tree of the Spanish Governer's Palace in SATX

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roselee z8b S.W. Texas

badducky
Original Author

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Avocado Tree of the Spanish Governer's Palace in SATX

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badduckyOriginal Author

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badducky
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