Exotic shopping spree...

[ameno]

I may have gone on an exotic tree-buying bender...
I ordered myself a satsuma (not mandarin or clementine, an actual satsuma) last week, and I just ordered a yuzu and a persimmon.
I've got my eye on two apricot trees, too, but they're not in stock yet.

Wish me luck, I guess.

[Snoop Puss]

Loquats are nice too... Attractive tree as well.

[ameno]

They won't fruit in this country, though, as they bear their fruit over winter.
All the ones I bought, on the other hand, should fruit, with proper care and a little luck.

[veggiechicken]

I have a Persimmon - bought a couple of years ago. I think a few of us bought them on a special offer from Suttons..

[ameno]

My satsuma arrived two days ago.
Bigger than I was expecting, and it even has four unripe fruit on it. It did have nine, but five of them clearly fell off in transit, and were sitting in the bottom of the box. I'm thinking of making a small jar of marmalade out of them.

[DannyK]

Loquats do fruit here. I had four last year and it only took 24 years!

Someone from the Ravens Court area of London brought us a carrier bag full.

I've ordered a persimmon and a cornelian cherry from these people, their site is very interesting.
http://www.agroforestry.co.uk/

[ameno]

Loquats do fruit here. I had four last year and it only took 24 years!

Someone from the Ravens Court area of London brought us a carrier bag full.

Really? I guess in London they might. They bear their fruit over winter, though, and I had read that if they get even the slightest frost then they'll just shed all the fruit.

[Snoop Puss]

^Interesting comment. In the last place I lived, we had frosts from time to time and considerable snow on a few occasions. There was a níspero tree growing wild and it seemed to do OK. Very popular with the wild boar. I assumed the trees were fairly hardy.

But I've just looked up information online and seen that thought they're described as moderately cold resistant, they're grown commercially here mainly along the east coast and down south in Spain, where temperatures are more moderate, though frosts are not unknown on the east coast.

One thing I did see is that people in places where frosts are frequent cover the tree after it has flowered (around November) to ensure that the flowers don't just drop off but do go on to form fruit.

[ameno]

The trees themselves are perfectly hardy. My next door neighbour has one, and it's a very handsome small tree.
But the blossoms and developing fruits are apparently not hardy, so although you can grow the tree perfectly well in the UK, getting them to fruit is another matter entirely.

[ameno]

Well, I made my unripe satsuma marmalade. Boy, was it an ordeal.
There was barely any volume, so I put it in my smallest pan. It filled it to a third of the way up. It boiled over. Put it in a bigger pan, filled it to a quarter of the way up. It boiled over. Put it in my biggest normal pan, filled it a fifth, it boiled over.
In the end, I had to wash my 6L pressure cooker pan (I had just made loganberry jam, which filled it nearly halfway and didn't boil over) and use that.
Then, presumably because the liquid in the bottom was so shallow, being in too wide a pan, it caramelized and burned to the bottom.

I now have one jar of brown satsuma marmalade. It does actually taste quite nice, though. Despite the brownness, it only tastes faintly of caramel, and it's very fruity and slightly bitter. Bit thick and treacly in texture, though.

Turned out better than the shequasar marmalade I made from fruit brought back from Japan last year, at least. That one I definitely boiled too long, and it tastes quite caramelized, and is also very bitter. I think shequasars probably need more water in the mix.

[ameno]

My yuzu arrived yesterday. Fairly small, but it looks healthy.
My persimmon arrived today, and it was much bigger than I expected. About 5 feet tall including the pot.

[ameno]

My "Harlayne" apricot arrived today. It's a late flowering variety. It's a good size and looks healthy.
I still have another late flower variety,"Kioto", to go, but it's not in stock yet.

[carolefu]

You have a good variety there, ameno

[ameno]

I've still got some "normal" fruit to buy this winter, too: a dwarf pear (probably Williams), a dwarf plum (Marjorie's Seedling, as it's a late one), and an Invicta gooseberry.