Cherimoya

[hamamelis]

I actually found durian for sale in the local Chinese supermarket a few months back. Unfortunately, it was a tenner a fruit, as well as smelling like an open sewer.

Not a very practical plant to grow here anyway.

[Ranger Smith]

I probably should have stated what I said better, as I was already aware that your mistake is a common one. Pawpaw and papaya are two different species, but due to the similarity in spelling, people frequently think that they are the same thing. But they're not.

Of course papayas are those yellow, pear-shaped, tropical fruits that have a center full of rough, brown seeds. But pawpaws are entirely different.

Pawpaws are deciduous plants, native the the eastern U.S., and can grow outside as far north as Pennsylvania. Pawpaws are in the Annona family, along with cherimoya, soursop and guyabano.

The reason I mentioned pawpaws to a British audience, is because it's quite possible that they could survive outdoors, year-round in Britain. Pawpaw is the only cold-tolerant member of the Annona family. I have not actually grown it, as it requires a male and a female tree for fruit. But I have eaten cherimoya here in Hawaii and guyabano in The Philippines and I have a two-year old cherimoya tree now.

Oh vinceG, I could find a durian I'm sure....but I'm just not into fruit that smell like vomit

I like pawpaw (or papaya as the brits usually call it) it's nice chopped up with a salad.

[yummersetter]

I planted a pawpaw a few years back, when we thought global warming meant it would be increasingly warmer in SW England. Of course, the following winter it was bitterly cold and the plant, which hadn't been enthusiastically growing anyway, decided death was preferable

[Ranger Smith]

Well, I'm sorry to hear that a pawpaw didn't survive in SW England. It was just a suggested substitution on my part, for those who were hoping to grow a cherimoya. Well, since pawpaws are the most cold-tolerant member of the Annona family, that certainly shows that cherimoyas have no chance in England. But maybe there's hope for someone growing a pawpaw in a coldframe in England. And for those of us in the USA, a coldframe is just a greenhouse without built-in heating and ventilation. I hope that you are over your fears of global warming, and that you have realized that Al Gore is mentally unstable.

I planted a pawpaw a few years back, when we thought global warming meant it would be increasingly warmer in SW England. Of course, the following winter it was bitterly cold and the plant, which hadn't been enthusiastically growing anyway, decided death was preferable