I have recently become interested in loquats. My understanding is that in some years they might fruit here in southeast Virginia. I am wondering if the time of fruit harvest (early vs. late), and thus I presume flowering, would make a difference. I am having difficulty finding information on when the different varieties flower. I was at first thinking a very early variety like 'Christmas' might work best, but then maybe one that flowers very late and fruits late would be smarter, if perhaps it might flower in February or so. Does anyone have any thoughts as to which (early or late) might be best?

Yesterday for the first time I saw flowers about to bloom in summer on a loquat in central SC. It is in an overgrown garden at the site of a long-gone old house. I had removed a fair amount of muscadine vine growth from it about a month or so ago and thought that might have something to do with it. Last spring it had the biggest fruit I have seen on loquats in this city of many loquat trees, equaled only by my grafted "Big Jim."

Actually Loquat , Pear , Apple , Quince , Cotoneaster , Pyracantha , Medlar , Photinia and Hawthorne are all related - Pome fruits with a distinctive calyx on the bottom - with Loquat being the most " intergraftable " . Years ago I read in a Huge Reference book on plant propagation that Loquat can be grafted onto any and all of the others . I have a very strong suspicion that loquat can also be grafted onto Indian Hawthorne .The book said that quince dwarfs loquat , cotoneaster dwarfs it even more and pyracantha the most dwarfing - like 3-5' for pots .It becomes more precocious and heavier producing the smaller it gets , But the life is shortened as can also be seen with other dwarfs (maybe 10 year lifespan) . I once grafted an apple variety onto loquat seedling and it leafed out and grew about 4-6 inches and then died very quickly killing the rootstock too. It took about 4-6 weeks total . BUT the inverse is said to be compatible .(never tried yet) I have also grafted loquat onto Photinia rootstock but it has never really had much vigor being still small . Another died after about two decent seasons . I love hearing stories about what works and why and also what doesn't work . Tell us all what any of you've grafted together !

In August, andy_m_ch said ''I've seen many many trees in gardens in London where you can get quite prolonged frosts, so the frost doesn't kill them. But I've never seen any of these bear blossoms or fruit," and back in '04, flora_uk said "Believe it or not they grow fine in Southern England but don't fruit reliably." There are some micro-climates in coastal southwestern England where loquats should feel especially at home, but I can assure Andy that loquats can and do also bear fruit in London (even though, as Flora says, they may not do so every year). One July, my husband and I were staying in a hotel on the South Bank, near Waterloo Station. I looked out the window of our room and couldn't believe my eyes -- in a neighboring back yard, there was what looked like a loquat tree full of fruit! I went down to verify my identification, and sure enough. Hadn't seen one of those since we lived in California.