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Australian Native Plants

Lillypilly; will it fruit in partial shade?

21 years ago

On a whim I bought and planted some lillypilly seeds. They have shot up, and now I have the decision of what to do with them. On one site I read that the lillypilly will live in partial shade; I live in New Orleans (usa) and have a backyard that is mostly under a live oak.

Soooo-should I plant them there when they are of age? There is a dearth of fruiting shadeplants here, so I'd like to know. I've already got two mayhaws and a few Asimina Trilobas growing up there now. (very small though.)

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Comments (5)

pos02
21 years ago
Lilypillies are rainforest plants, and so should grow best in partial shade. You may need to ensure they get adequate water though. Id also be wary of planting them out too young if there were any chance of frost - not sure how they go with that.
Robert_NSW
21 years ago
The only thing I would add is; once they are established, they should not need any extra watering in your climate. They are suprisingly hardy.
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Steve, I meant to e=mail you some pictures of my American persimmons growing here in Michigan, but I couldn't figure out how to do it -- not very good with that aspect of the computer. Anyway, yes, they will grow and fruit in partial shade, don't know about deep shade. My one seedling persimmon that was planted many years ago in the shade of a black walnut and a wild black cherry has fruit every year, but the tree is much more "wispy" or "wimpy" than the two just a few dozen feet away that get more sunlight. It is smaller in every respect -- not as tall, not as full, and not as big of a trunk. Meader is the kind of grafted persimmon I have -- great tree, beautiful fruit. I picked a nice crop last fall, very late, around Thanksgiving. Pulped them and froze them for my sister, who makes a persimmon spice bread with them. I only regret that I could harvest about half of the tree, since many of them were too high to reach, and the branches on persimmons are too brittle to pull down on too much. But, I still ended up with probably 20 cups of frozen pulp. I was hoping that the rest of them would fall on their own at some point when I could get them, but we had too much snow to go back there often, and the animals (probably deer) seemed to have eaten them all off of the ground as they fell.
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I would grow a gooseberry or currant. They are a bush and can be fan pruned. They will fruit less in the shade but will produce tasty fruits. My favorite is the Poorman gooseberry. It is not very productive in the shade but the taste is excellent when left to hang to be a dull purple. Pawpaws are one other option, they are natural shade trees. The production will be limited in the shade but I am fine with limited production since I can't eat too many of them. I tried several other fruits in the shade and did not get good results. Scott
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I would plant fig or blackberries. I tried apple in that little sun ( in a 15 gal can) There isn't enough sun to sweeten the fruit. Thornless blackberries would give you plenty of sweet fruit and you can train them anyway you like on a fun structure. Put christmas lights on first so you can enjoy the lights in winter or for a party. Maybe a banana could fruit well there. Bananas are easy but you have to cut the old stalks down after fruiting and they're big and heavy to move. Nothing beats a fresh sweet home ripened banana. They are amazing. Store bananas are a just a hint of what a banana can be. Some of them have complex mixtures of flavors and perfumes. Everyone should try growing one once just to see how wonderful and rich tasting a banana can be. Likewise for figs. Figs lose the amazing flavor after picking so to taste the magic you really need a tree or a friend with a tree.
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Hi! I don't have any of the cultivars, but we have wild persimmons growing on our property. I know that if you have only one persimmon that you will get fruit, only no seeds. Ours get some shade, but mostly sun.
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wollemia_TC
21 years ago
The previous owner of our high-set house planted lilly-pillies all along the south wall (thats the shaded side down in these parts). They flower and fruit quite cheerfully, but bear in mind that some are shrubs, but most are tall rainforest trees reaching 80-90 metres,so they might outgrow your oak.
Tony
Wooroonooran
21 years ago
Hi Tony, are you coming on April 3rd ?
From Kris
chipperjohn
21 years ago
I live in Toowoomba on 3 acres more or less in town --I recently planted a lot of Lillypillies along boundaries---I used the Select Form type for where we want them to grow to about 4 Metres high, and for a front hedge instead of a fence--an economic decision--we used Little Gem--a type which is supposed to grow to about 1.2 metres high.
We are having trouble with possums eating the tops of the plants at night, even breaking off the branches.
Does anyone have any suggestions to put them off doing this without wire surrounds??
We have been told that putting Blood and Bone around the plants will stop the possums--this has worked on new Geranium shoots for us in the past but doesn't seem to be as successful on the little Lillypillies--which are abour 1 foot high.

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