Bradybb: sorry but we do not grow A. alnifolia where I work. I cannot comment on any alnifolias except Regent since we do carry it but do not grow it ourselves. Just an FYI to everyone that running serviceberry only grows about 4' tall but suckers like crazy creating a solid stand of serviceberry. Great flavor to the fruit. This species is hard to find and I do not know of anyone growing it commercially for fruit. Usually any commercial places I hear about grow one of the alnifolia types so popular on the prairie states of Canada. My favorite grandiflora types to eat are 'Cole Select' and 'Autumn Brilliance' although all the selections and even plain grandiflora species are quite tasty. A local lady came to the nursery I am at one year and asked if she could pick the serviceberry fruit on the young trees in the field. She made jelly and won a ribbon at the local county fair with it. The local newspaper had a big article on it. She did this for several years. I do plan to try my hand at serviceberry jelly if we have a good fruit crop this year. I have read that the seeds can be poisonous if too many are ingested. Strange as I eat more than my share of serviceberry fruits when in season and never had an issue. I did find that eating too many fresh had quite a laxative affect.

I planted a couple of Mexican plum trees. Small trees that produce lots of small sized plums that are delicious. It took, I think, about 2 years to get a decent sized crop on each tree. They don't need to be sprayed with poison, and they don't need pollination. They do great in the Dallas area, with the heat. Pretty small white flowers in the spring. But the trees don't live a long time. I did everything to make the fig trees live. I planted them in various places in my yard (which faces south), up against a building, behind a huge shrub, on one side of the yard and on the other. I carefully watered, dug the holes properly as far as I can tell. Several died separately at different times, then the last 4 or so all died at the same time. I think they may have gotten the one disease that fig trees get....I forget what it is. The leaves shrivel up and turn brown and die suddenly. I don't have much soil, and the soil is awful hard clay that doesn't drain well. I added some amendments when I planted, but you're not supposed to add a lot, or the roots will go into shock when the reach the real soil. They lasted long enough to produce a few figs (a couple of years). It's just too hot, and the soil is too bad, and the winter too cold. This is really not an area conducive to subtropical plants, which is what a fig is. You are lucky. You may have unusual soil in your area. There are a few areas with better soil. I also had a dwarf magnolia tree die, as well as several Foster Stevens shrubs, gardenia, roses (I even used an axe to dig out the rock to create an 8X8 rose bed, to no avail). Bear in mind that I'm no idiot. I've successfully grown many trees, some citrus, vegetables, watermelon. I guess it's my yard.

I live in East Milton Florida. Several years ago we decided to try a grow fruit trees on our property. We started with apples, peaches, pears, fig, grape fruit, orange, & lemon tree. Apple trees consisted of one Anna, one tropic sweet, and one Dorsett. All were attacked badly by blight after the 2014 spring rains. Anna faired the best after a couple of cuttings had a truck and some limbs remaining. The Tropic sweet and Dorset both required cutting back to about a foot above the original tree graft with no remaining limbs. Since all have survived but have been slow to recover. Due to this experience decided to try a Joy and Smith Apple from Just Fruit & Exotics. These are varieties which were recommended as being more desease resistant and self pollinating. Will let you know later how these work out. The tropic snow Peach we purchased from Home Depot turned out not be a tropic snow seeing as the peach flesh is melting and yellow/orange. Not sure of the variety but it produces well but had a severe gumosis issue summer of 2015. Appears healthy and full of peaches this spring. Pairs were pineapple and keiffer, also purchased from Home Depot. Neither have produced any fruit since we planted in 2013. Due to this we decided to try a southern Bartlett and carrick pear from Just Fruit & Exotics. Both are recommended for disease resistance and produce well for our region. Will let you know how these work out. All citrus died during the 2014 freezes. Trying satsumas from Just Fruit & Exotics now. Recommended for being more cold hardy as a citrus.

Welcome oregontejano, I have lived in Texas most of my life and I LOVE the coast here. You can grow many tropicals on the Lower Coast (from Corpus Christi southward), even coconut palms from North Padre Island southward, and they are becoming quite popular in the Brownsville/South Padre area. I would suggest that you move to the Corpus area or southward, because this area is Zone 9B/10A, and there are so many neat things you can grow in this region, and the fishing and snorkeling/scuba diving is pretty good too, especially in the summer and early fall. Last July, while snorkeling at the jetty at South Padre Island, I saw 10 sea turtles in an hour and a half! Anyway, for palms (my specialty), you can grow queen palms, Medjool date palms, Canary Island date palms, pygmy date palms, Senegal date palms, pindo palms, Mexican fan palms, California fan palms, Texas palm (native to the Rio Grande Valley), the dwarf palm (native to East Texas and the Upper Coast), Mediterranean fan palm, Chinese fan palm, lady palm, various Chamaderea palms, and I am sure several others that I forgot to mention. You can also grow my two favorites from North Padre Island southward to the Rio Grande Valley, and those are the coconut palm, especially the Mexican Tall (the coconuts of which wash up on our beaches from spring to the fall, and yes they will sprout), and the royal palm, though the royal does better with some protection from salt spray. The coconut however, loves salt spray. As far as flowers, try: hibiscus, bougainvillea, mandevilla, oleander, ixora, bird of paradise, etc. The croton does well here too, especially with some protection from winter winds. For flowering trees, the ordchid tree does well here. If you move to the Rio Grande Valley, you can grow large beautiful royal poiciana trees, and they produce a lot of beautiful red blooms in the summer, and even seed there. For fruits, you can grow: sea grapes (close to the coast), mangoes, avocadoes, papayas, pineapples, guavas, pineapple guavas, coconuts (the coconut palm will produce coconuts in the Brownsville/South Padre Island area), lemons, limes, oranges, tangelos, grapefruit, etc. Welcome to our own little tropical paradise. Just be advised that every 10-15 years the area gets hit with a really hard freeze, but some tropicals will recover afterwards, and the others grow so fast, that all you have to do is replant the following spring! And remember to be willing to provide extra water, since as it was stated above the area is semi-arid. But other than the occasional hurricane (the Lower Texas Coast has the least incidents of hurricanes of any part of the Gulf Coast!), it is a really great place to live and much more reasonable cost of living wise than many coastal areas of the U.S. If you have any questions, just email me at: mr.coconutpalm@yahoo.com John