I had two of the dwarf varity at the other house. I had several come from seed, behind the propane tank.

I bought the original two at Schumachers.

This spring I bought a standard at the nursery down the street.

See the link for planning your harvest. LOL!

Here is a link that might be useful: Brarbados cherry

Your Barbados Cherry might be extra special growing from that "borrowed" seed, Jolana.
I bought my Blue River II hibiscus in 1993 & have hauled it along wherever we moved. The original root is alive, but I've had no luck getting cuttings or divisions to grow or there'd be one in the front yard, too.
If you start a co-op gardening club in Bastrop act like a rock band and think up the name first LOL. Up in Leander~Cedar Park a group calls themselves the Garden Hoes!

Annie

Jolana, I'm jealous. My seed hasn't sprouted! I just got out the little pot I planted it in and watered it with rain water. Maybe there is still hope.

Guess what? I'm stopping by Schu. on my way to Austin today :-)

Knittlin, I'm innocent I tellya, lol

Molly, thank you and I take it yurs isn't a dwarf? That is a bummer you might have to move it
If you do, do it as soon as you can.

K, thanks for the list, after eating one a while back ;)
I came home and researched them real well and if I get a huge bumper crop from one tree my good neighbor said she would help me put them up, lol

Annie, you have had it a while, the only way besides seed for me w/hibiscus has been layering

Roselee, the green I see might be a weed, don't be jealous yet, lol
You stinker, I wish I was *going* by there today.

Annie, Jolana doesn't borrow seeds..... they just jump in her pocket .... I've seen it happen. Honestly !!!!

"...IT was on the ground GT and I have witnesses.."

Sure, you do. Witnesses = accomplices. One of them already confessed. Right, Roselee?

Tammy, did you just happen to have a "jumper" in your pocket too?...Just wondering.....

Omar

Ummm... they jumped from Jolana's pocket to mine and that's all I'm sayin'. And for the record, I fussed at those seeds for all the jumping around they did! They didn't listen, though.

Wow! Go figure...... Yep,I totally believe it.....

Omar

Okay, I am going to say this one more time, it was on the ground. There were tons on the ground and I got one
and then....Roselee and Tammy fought me to the ground to get it. Then the seeds started jumping everywhere and I was trying to get away and one did jump in my pocket and I don't know how many the girls had or how they got them, lol
Okay, there it is

There must a been LSD in them thar seeds.

Either that or they were Mexican Jumping Barbados Cherries, lol.

Roselee can't defend herself at the moment because she is out of town.

Tammy, what is LSD, is that the weapon you held up at me when you first wanted the seeds? LOL

Oh! GASP!! Are your pants on fire? You know I'm the most innocent one of the bunch. You say so all the time...

Hugs, T

HAHAHA, Okay, I put the fire out, lol

Folks, Jolana is NOT telling you the whole story. She ATE the cherry!

And then she insisted me and Miss Innocent take a bite. Then we all ran for the woods!

Earlier I had warned Jolana that a man had been arrested and put in jail for collecting cuttings at the Botanical Center. Honest. My blood ran cold when I saw it on the news. I have never taken cuttings, but with all those seeds zipping around through the air who knows where one might land.

BTW, this particular Barbados cherry was a larger fruited, more exotic, and probably tender variety since it was growing in an indoor area.

Yeah, Miss Innocent, she never does anything wrong, lol
Okay now Roselee, where was the cherry when I got it?
I am leaving to run around town and I will be very curious to see this answer when I get back, HAHAHAHA

That was a different variety, not the one I got?
They weren't marked but I did tell DH that the leaves didn't look like what I thought they were supposed to
oxoxox

O.K. all you innocents, are you talking about the native BC shrub that blooms pink and makes little berries that the birds love, or the BC CHERRY TREE, that puts on edible fruit?

If it is the latter, there is a wholesale nursery in Gonzales that grows them, and they don't grow anything that freezes, because they don't heat their greenhouses. They grow very easily from cuttings. I have 2 of them in my yard.....

If it is the former, those things cannot be killed, and will grow anywhere! I love them all.

Janie

Janie, I think we are talking about the 'native' one, but because of the article below I didn't think it is actually native to Texas, but I could be wrong. I don't know much about them. The 'native' one has small edible fruit that the birds love. The fruit discussed above was larger, sour/sweet, but tasty. According to the article Barbados Cherries are a source of the natural vitamin C in over the counter Vitamin C tablets and juices.

Please tell us more about 'the latter' BC CHERRY TREE that is available at the wholesale nursery. Is that the one you have? We'd like to have a larger fruited one. I'm mainly getting the ones from Schumachers for the birds as far as the fruit is concerned (although it is edible for people too) and also because they are pretty and easy to grow.

Scroll up or down on the link below to read more.

Here is a link that might be useful: Origin and Distribution of Barbados Cherry

Janie, Schumachers has both the shrub (about two to three feet tall from the look of the ones tney have growing along the path to the greenhouse) and the bushy tree, which can be limbed to a single trunk (forgot how tall they said it gets; I think about 10 or 15 feet, or maybe more).

Mine is the one that is a bushy tree, will get 15-18' tall, and has regular sized cherry fruit. It blooms pretty pink flowers like the native, and it blooms in cycles, like citrus. It seems to be always (or almost always)blooming. Mine have already put on fruit this year, and are blooming again.

The one with the many pink flowers that grows in a weeping habit, and has the little red berries are indeed native to Texas. They grow from seeds freely, and are easily transplanted. I have them growing out back, close to the dog's water faucets. They get big too.

How much are they at Schumachers? I can get them for about $9.00. (the bushy trees)

Janie

Janie, thanks for your reply. I would love to have one that produces cherry size fruit! The ones from Schumachers that I've gotten this last week are on sale for the ridiculously low price of $3.00 in one gal. but $9.00 is a certainly a fair price for fruiting trees.

Janie, is this your cherry tree?

Here is a link that might be useful: barbados cherry

"Okay now Roselee, where was the cherry when I got it?
I am leaving to run around town and I will be very curious to see this answer when I get back, HAHAHAHA"

OMG, Miss Innocent says she thinks that *I* picked it off the tree! :-(

In all the hulabalo at finding ripe cherries everywhere I honestly don't remember, or either don't want to. LOL!

Wow -- those are some beautiful Barbados cherries on that California tree. Thanks for the tantalizing link!

HAHAHA, it really was on the ground, it really was, lol

Your welcome, I love that tree

Yep, that is my tree. They come in 3 gallon pots.

Janie

Geez, I'm feeling the bull's eye right between my eyes now.

I don't particularly like that feeling.

It's okay T, I'm not that good of a shot, hehehehe
No, no bullseye.

Thank you Linda for the info on your trees and agreeing it is okay to collect seeds on the ground. I can honestly say I have never taken a cutting without permission
How long have you had your trees and how old are they and when did they fruit? Thanks again

I live in Austin and bought two Dwarf Barbados Cherry from Madrone Nursery near San Marcos about 5 years ago. Both are now about 5 feet tall. They smell terrific, look beautiful, are loved by the birds, and have made it through the ice storms with only minor die back. Usually they hardly loose any leaves.

Five feet tall? Oh my goodness, I see I have some moving to do on the Dwarf BC I planted.

Jolana and Tammy, remember those bushy BC growing outside the Botanical Center? I took pictures of them. They were probably the dwarf one -- ya' think?

Probably, I would be curious to find out how old they are and if the have o *trim* them often or at all

These are the approximately five foot tall bushy ones growing outside the SA Botanical Center entrance:

I was thinking the dwarf variety were more of a ground cover. It probably depends on soil conditions and how much fertilizer and water they receive as well as possibly variety differences. The ones at growing on the Schumachers grounds were not that large, but guess I better move the ones I planted as a ground cover just in case. Thanks for the tip.

I got several at Schumacher's at the beginning of the summer. When I got home and starting reading about them, I wasn't sure what kind I had, so emailed Chip (is that his name?) at Schumacher's and he replied that if they were in 4" pots they're the dwarf kind & get a couple of feet tall. If they were in gallon size containers from his nursery, they're the larger tree form.

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone would be willing to sell me some of your barbados cherry seeds or cuttings. I can pay in cash or postage. Please let me know.

Thanks ~ Bo

Now this thread has me all excited and wanting some too. :(

I doubt they'd work this far north though. :(

I'm wondering how well mine will come back after that last cold snap. Our low of 12.7 degrees was probably the coldest temp we've had since I've been had B. C.'s on the property and I didn't even cover them.

It looks like this last freeze killed to the ground all the Barbados cherry trees that I got from Schumachers. I didn't cover them and they were okay after the first freeze. Some of them were newly planted last year, but some were about three or four years old. I'm hoping they will come back from the roots.

There are many varieties of Barbados cherry trees. What I believe to be a more tropical one that Janie facilitated us in getting got nipped a little on the side away from the wall by the first freeze even though it was covered with a blanket. I then put two thick blankets over it and stacked big bags of leaves around the base before this last hard freeze, but I just checked and the freeze got it too. Oh well ... maybe it will come back from roots.

There are still some seeds hanging on some of the Schumachers ones, so send me an email through my page if you still want some, Bo.

No doubt most of us lost some plants, but it couldn't be avoided. We did the best we could so let's just keep on being happy with gardening anyway.

While picking seeds from the BC tree I found some green leaves near the base -- so it will come back :-) They are usually semi-evergreen.

I hadn't thought about that, but there were seeds on mine also, so if anyone wants some, let me know. No green leaves left on mine. The Anacua Tree, however has some green leaves to go with the other zapped leaves.

So, I have to ask, is this common for BC's to lose all their leaves or do they normally stay green through the winter? I planted a bunch in Oct. I got on sale at Barton Springs and all but one near the house is completely bare.

Will the branches sprout new leaves in spring or will new growth come from the ground? Heck, I hope something sprouts up or I'll be doing some serious plant shopping...

Bjb, in mild winters the common BCs keep most of their leaves. Most of our trees lost their leaves in the recent hard freeze. If you scratch the bark of your BC and it is still bright green underneath it will sprout leaves from the branches. If not it will probably come back from the roots.

Happy gardening, in spite of hard freezes!

I left mine outside two years ago and it died. I think the low was around 30 that night. BC does not do well in DFW area. Pity, it was a fast grower and the cherries were tasty.

There are many varieties of Barbados Cherry trees, some more hardy than others. It's such a nice little tree it would be helpful if the varieties that are hardy would be named so we'd know what to plant where.

I just this minute scratched the bark of the more tropical one with larger fruit that I got from Jolana through Janie and it is bright green at the ground level so it looks like all of them here will come back from the roots :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Scroll around to read more about BC trees ...

Haven't been to this forums lately but I found this question so I thought I'd add to it, because I found so little information on them online when I was first learning about them. I'm in Central Austin in the city and I have 10 Barbados Cherry trees lining our back fence. They were planted at least 15 years ago by a previous homeowner. Some winters they have lost their leaves; in our warmer winters they've been evergreen. Right now they all have dead leaves just hanging off their branches from the freezes this month; this happened overnight, but I'm hoping they return.

In case anyone's curious... these can take a very hard pruning if you want a fuller shape. They can grow quite tall - up to 15 feet - or act more like a 7-foot bushy trees. They make for a nice screen against our fence. I've been experimenting a bit but learned the hard way about pruning. Last spring they'd gotten so overgrown that I went at them with my loppers. I pruned in mid-March and shortly after we had a few frosts. One of the trees, which I pruned back very hard, had begun to put out some new leaves and branches, but the frost killed the tender growth and with it the tree. So they are probably best pruned in the summer or at least with enough time for the growth to harden before any frosts--at least in my zone.

The rest of the trees survived my early pruning and were amazing all summer--full of leaves and flowers, and especially beautiful from September to November. As Janie mentioned, they have a weeping habit, which looks gorgeous against a fence. However, they did need some soaker hosing several times this summer because of the drought.

I wish I knew what variety I have but they are older. In any case, I'd keep them protected until they are established. It seems like they survive quite well here in Austin. North of here they may have some trouble.

Y'all have piqued my interest to the point of visiting my fav nursery to buy one of these. I was told at the nursery that there is two different var's. of BC, one that is basically landscape dressing (std.) and a different vareity that fruits. Anyone have experience with this?

I WANT TO JOIN THE DIVAS FROM BASTROP COUNTY!! please!!! I am just down the road from you I come to bastrop at least once or twice a week! Linda, anyone, will you pretty please spare me some seeds for this tree?I am kind of short on funds right now but by next month I should be o.k. I am willing to pay postage, actually I would love to have seeds for dwarf and regular tree, someone pretty please. E-mail me or just post here, I will be back tomorrow.

Hi Linda, can I please have some seeds? I also sent you an email just in case this thread isn't going anywhere.

Tim

Jolana, did you ever get your seed to sprout? I heard about this tree on the Central TX Gardener and it sounds really nice!

Just for the record, all the Barbados trees except one, the more tropical one that I covered with blankets and bags of leaves, came back from the roots after last winters exceptionally hard freezes. That one didn't make it, but it might have been more from the ground staying wet and cold for so long as much as from the freeze because it was green near the bottom for awhile. I should have dug those roots and let them warm. But the ones I got from Schumachers are blooming now so I should have some seeds to pass around in a few weeks.

Roselee
Please please please add me to the list to get seeds :) thank you

Tim