A quiet scene-stealer
There’s a little, green, egg-shaped fruit at Whole Foods selling for $1.99 apiece. It’s a feijoa, also called a pineapple guava, and it’s delicious. You slice it open, scoop out its pale, juicy flesh with a spoon, and enjoy. Your first bite reveals a tangy flavor that combines, not surprisingly, pineapple and guava, but also strawberry and lemon, with a creamy yet somewhat gritty consistency. One more bite, and you’re done. You could splurge for another, or you could try a different approach: Pop for a whole tree.
The Feijoa sellowiana (recently renamed, though rarely called, Acca sellowiana) grows wild in the mountains of southern Brazil, northern Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay and does quite well here in Southern California, especially along the coast. A member of the myrtle family and a distant cousin to the more common guava (Psidium guajava) and the strawberry guava (Psidium cattleianum), the feijoa is remarkably disease- and insect-resistant, although its fruits will attract squirrels in the fall.
Bent Petersen, green goods buyer for Armstrong Garden Centers, extols the plant’s many virtues: “It’s hardy, drought-tolerant and grows well in all types of soil. They don’t need babying.” Some varieties, he notes, are self-fertile; others require cross-pollination to fruit. He likes the ‘Nazemetz’ variety for growing fruit near the coast, and the ‘Coolidge’ for areas with more extreme temperatures. The ‘Beechwood,’ ‘Edenvale Supreme’ and ‘Trask’ are other good, self-fruiting varieties.
Although some people plant the feijoa specifically for the fruit, top garden designers have other reasons. Tina Beebe, for one, finds the tree pretty and has planted 12 of them, in two rows, in her Malibu garden. They form a charming allee with a cozy scale. “The tree has a lovely branch structure, and the height is nice. It’s just right to walk under,” says Beebe, who makes agua fresca with the fruit, blending the pulp with water, lemon juice and sugar.
Landscape architect Esther Margulies loves the “fuzzy quality” of the feijoa’s gray-green leaves and finds it pairs well with blue plants such as Senecio mandraliscae, blue fescue and oat grass. She likes the feijoa pruned as a tree, she says, but it also makes a great, dense hedge. “We’re always looking for diversity in hedge material,” Margulies says, speaking for herself and business partner Mia Lehrer. “The flowers and fruits are a bonus.”
Pamela Burton concurs. “It’s a fabulous plant to have in my back pocket,” the landscape architect says. “It’s reliable, uncomplaining and really satisfying. It performs well in hot and sunny conditions and in partial shade. It’s versatile and reliable.”
Gorgeous flowers, with bright red stamens tipped with yellow pollen and surrounded by velvety white-and-purple petals, start blooming in late spring, emitting a delicate scent. “I just pick off the petals and eat them,” Burton says, “It’s just a wonderful thing. It’s like a little snack, and it always surprises people. They’ll ask, ‘You can eat that?’ And then they’ll try it.”
By late September or October, the fruit starts to drop, letting us know it’s ready to eat. Years ago, my grandmother would bribe my sister and me with the promise of all-we-could-eat guavas, as we mistakenly called them, if we helped pick them up off the ground. We’d agree, of course, then sit on the sun-warmed concrete, slowly making our way through entire bags of our harvest, always starting with the biggest specimens. Had I known then what I learned at Whole Foods, we might have set up a fruit stand on the sidewalk.
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It’s a slow grower -- but reliable
Santa MONICA-based garden designer Lisa Moseley is a fan of the feijoa as an in-ground tree, an in-pot tree, hedge and espaliered screen. “It always performs -- sometimes more than you want,” she says. “It’s one of the hardiest tropical fruits.”
It doesn’t matter what time of year you plant a feijoa, she says. Or in what kind of soil. Or how little you water it. But if you want a good crop of fruit, a weekly soak during periods of flowering and fruiting is recommended.
The feijoa, however, is a relatively slow grower, so you might want to start out with a larger plant if quick height is important. But even 5-gallon plants are likely to produce some fruit quickly.
If you plan to create a hedge and don’t want to bother with fruit, choose a non-fruiting variety such as ‘Bliss’ or ‘Triumph.’
Feijoas don’t require much care, Moseley says, but an occasional hit of fish emulsion will make them happy.
-- Christy Hobart
