I've seen several of them planted in front gardens here in South London, where it's several degrees colder than central London. We had a long, hard winter this year, with plenty of frosts. The loquats still look in pretty good shape. It's a lovely tree and apparently hardy in most areas, so should certainly do well in Weymouth. Incidentally, have you visited Abbotsbury sub-tropical gardens, just up the road from you?

That's interesting. I will try planting it out but I'm not sure how old it should be. It's about a year now and is developing bark. Re Abbotsbury - I have been there but I never thought to go and see if they have any loquats. Good idea. Thanks.

Perfectly winter-hardy in most of Britain - what it does need to ripen fruit though, is a really hot (Turkish bath style) summer, 3-4 months of 30°C or more. So it is usually only grown as a foliage plant in Britain without any fruit production.

Resin

Hi Burville

Loquats may be hardy in winter. However, they can suffer badly from blackening of the leaves and branches. It looks like fire-blight and seems to be caused by cold and damp conditions. It can totally ruin the look of an otherwise fantastic shrub for a tropical look.

The trees have a long and brittle tap-root, and I have found transplanting the seedlings to be a problem. I recomend planting the seeds directly in their final location. They grow quickly through the winter months and seem to survive a summer draught without irrigation. They may be the plant for global-warming and hose-pipe bans?

We have a large Loquat tree at our tennis club. It grows quite happily on a north facing wall in the South East of England. It is now about 20ft high and a stunning tree.
It does not fruit as I think much hotter conditions are required. When it is cold it does have a tendance for some of the leaves to turn black and drop off. But it never loses all the leaves. I would say that it needs quite a large garden as this is a sizeable tree and because of the dark heavy nature of the leaves it could look oppressive in a smaller garden.

The ones that I see in South London manage to fruit successfully.

That many loquats are growing in south London was first brought to my attention by a Syrian friend. In the South London Botanical Institute, Norwood Road, Tulse hill, there is a mature tree which regularly fruits well in the autumn. I have a plant in a pot from a stone from a bought fruit which is about 2 feet tall. It is in about a 10 inch pot and is immensely hardy, having just survived the bitterly cold December outside in Tulse hill in perfect shape without blackening. New leaves are already growing fast on 19th January 2011. I note that in Asia it flowers very late in year and fruits very early in new year, being eaten on Chinese New Year in celebration. it also recovered from very thoroughly drying out when I forgot to water it. So it is immensely hardy. It is a member of rosaceae family, thus related to apples etc..

I love loquats and eat them whenever I can get them. Being lazy, I throw the pits outside the kitchen onto a narrow north facing strip of soil between the house and the neighbour's wall. I have about 10 self-planted trees. One of them is 12 feet high. The leaves do blacken sometimes, and they never bear fruit. I am thinking of planting one in the sunniest spot in the garden. Either that or a mulberry trees. Any ideas welcomed. Thank you!

To Phillip Harris - Do you plan to transplant your potted loquat into the garden? I am in the process of rooting a cutting from a friend's tree and wonder whether to plant it straight into the garden or to put it into a pot first?

I have a loquat tree in my cold conservatory'it is about seven years old.I lop the top off each spring or it would go through the roof.How can I get it to blossom and fruit.
It was grown from a cutting.

How much luck would I have if I try to grow this wonderful fruit tree in Michigan? It grows abundantly in Florida and Malta. Would it handle 0*F or below?

Hope members don't mind if I 'bump' this back into currency

@ burville: I have grown loquats successfully as far north as Cleethorpes, Lincs, so you should have no prob. down there in Dorset. I've also had a tree producing fully ripe fruit for several years here in SE London before it started to flower in autumn. That's right - my tree started flowering in spring in around its 7th year, and continued to do so for several years before suddenly and inexplicably going 'native' on me some 5 years ago. Whilst we had spring flowering, we had the most amazing fruit - unbelievably juicy, with just a hint of tartness that made it a really tasty and refreshing treat. It's been a totally different story since it started autumn flowering - the setting fruit was always destroyed by our winter frosts and snowfalls, but the tree itself always survived. This autumn I'm taking 'special measures' for the first time to try to get the fruit thru our winter unscathed so we can enjoy ripe fruit again next spring/early summer. If I succeed, I'll update the forum with my method. If I fail, I have another plan that I believe will have a better chance of success, but if that also fails, I shall probably give up trying.

@ Vincent: If I'm not mistaken, 0F = around -17.8C, which is quite cold for a loquat tree. I doubt it will survive those kind of temps, but you could consider growing one in a large pot which can be overwintered under cover. You would obviously need to control its size with some judicious pruning, but it should still make one handsome tree. We absolutely love ours, and we have several of varying sizes, but all are 'grounded'. Hope that helps, even if a bit late.

@loquat1: It's strange that your tree changed its flowering pattern - I'm surprised that it flowered in Spring in the first place.

I planted a loquat seed when I was about 13 years old and the plant thrived for several years in a succession of pots, initially indoors, then outside in my parents' W. London garden.

Around 5 years ago (some 22 years after its germination), it was in a large pot in the front garden but, owing to its top-heaviness, was getting blown over by every gust of wind. Around that time, the next door neighbours had a hideous pre-fab extension stuck on the back of their house (They're a lovely family and probably have no idea, to this day, how ugly it is from a short distance away.). This, however, turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the loquat: not wanting to spoil good neighbourly relations, my mother decided that the best solution was to plant high shrubs along the part of the fence nearest the house. So the loquat tree was planted in the ground, next to the cherry laurel and, for the first time in its life, was able to spread its roots unchecked. Within a few months, it went from being a spindly, overgrown pot-plant to being a small tree, sporting something worthy of the name 'trunk', new branches and new rosettes of glossy leaves over a foot long.

Ever since, I've been inspecting each new clump of leaves as it unfurls, in the hope of seeing some flowerbuds nestling there. Finally, in autumn 2013, it flowered for the first time. Not only that, but owing to the mild winter, it has managed to set a few fruit - about 4 or 5 that I can see, but it's hard to spot them among the leaves when they're still green. I very much doubt they'll ripen, but here's hoping.

Unlike yours, loquat1, it has never shown signs of flowering in spring.