If there’s been one positive outcome from the pandemic sheltering it’s the returned focus many home gardens have received. Perhaps, having finally completed that horticultural honey-do list, you now find yourself with a perfectly packed landscape. And maybe, just maybe, you’re itching for your next challenge. If so, let me introduce you to Garcinia mangostana, or mangosteen, as they are more commonly known.
While mangosteens are a tropical plant, natively grown in rich soils close to the equator, Bill Whitman did successfully first fruit one in Miami in 1977. Mangosteens occasionally make appearances at Miami-area fruit sales, but it’s not without a herculean effort.
The well-drained, alkaline soil of south Florida Read More
Saturday, March 14th, 2020 was field trip day for members of the Rare Fruit Council. We ventured south, deep into Monroe County, and landed at Big Pine Key’s Grimal Grove with the intent to plant some rare fruit trees.
Grimal Grove is an interesting place. Adolf Grimal established the grove in 1955, the same year we established our club. It was Adolf’s exotic journeys and fruit collecting trips that helped us establish southern Florida as the place in the continental US to cultivate rare fruit species. We are thankful for Adolf’s lifelong membership.
Today Grimal Grove is owned and directed by Patrick Garvey who, as a member, maintains the Grove’s Read More
Now is an excellent time of the year to join a horticultural club in your area. We, at the Rare Fruit Council International in Miami, are gearing up for peak fruit season.
As the warmer months approach, our gardens experience renewed opportunities to welcome new plants, and enjoy new fruits. Take a look around your neighborhood, we bet you will see many trees flowering; mango trees are in full bloom right now. Come summer, they – along with sugar apples, avocados, and mamey – will be covered in deliciously delightful fruit.
While you wait for the fruit to bear, plan to attend members only workshops and field trips; through the council Read More
Do you know anyone who has just one orchid? Personally, I know many people who have precisely zero orchids, and, among my friends in the rare fruit council, a great deal of people who care for quite a few. But I can’t think of anyone who owns just one orchid, and Dr. Alan Chambers – the RFCI’s most recent guest speaker – bets that you can’t either.
Dr. Chambers considers orchids to be one of those plants that quickly become an obsession, and they certainly did for him. As an assistant professor at the UF Tropical Research Education Center, Dr. Chambers focuses on identifying economically viable crops for southern Florida and Read More