League City Area News Online: Gardening

Gardening: Oranges imsge The much sought after Republic of Texas orange produces a heavy crop of tasty fruit during the late fall season. A wide variety of fruit trees will be available at the upcoming Master Gardener Fruit Tree Seminar & Sale on Saturday, February 5, at Carbide Park in La Marque. Photo credit: Heidi Sheesley, TreeSearch Farms

When the mythical Greek gods wanted something wonderful to eat, they would pluck an assortment of perfect, fresh ripe fruit from their trees and make "ambrosia": a fruit salad so delicious its name became synonymous with "heaven."

The Olympian gods would feel right at home in Galveston County. Our climate and rainfall permit us to grow a huge variety of the most succulent fruit. This fruit is worthy of being included in any ambrosia: juicy peaches and nectarines, luscious figs, scented pears both soft and crisp, sweet plums, flavor-bursting citruses, and grapes that would make the Greek mythology gods faint. And they didn't even know about the persimmons, blackberries, pecans, and pluots we can grow here either!

SATURDAY, February 5.
Fruit Tree Seminar & Sale to be held Saturday, February 5 from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m at Carbide Park in La Marque.

Sale
The fruit tree sale will be from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Seminar
Before the sale starts, Heidi Sheesley of TreeSearch Farms will provide a Fruit and Citrus Varieties seminar from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m., highlighting the star varieties.

Location
The sale and seminar will be at the Community Center in Carbide Park. Carbide Park is located at 4102 FM 519 in La Marque. (To obtain a map and directions, contact the County Extension Office at 281-534-3413, ext. 6.)

HARD TO FIND VARIETIES

This year's Galveston County Master Gardener Fruit Tree Seminar & Sale will be featuring an enormous selection of the best fruit trees for our area. Many of the trees are exclusive to the sale and not available in mass-market gardening stores. The sale will be held from 9:00 a.m.- 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 5, 2005, at the Carbide Park Wayne Johnson Community Center (4102 FM 519, La Marque). A talk featuring the stars of this year's choices will be given prior to the sale by Heidi Sheesley of TreeSearch Farms from 8:00 a.m.-9:00 a.m.

NEW AND WONDERFUL

New among the selections this year is the Flavor King pluot, a fruit we're becoming familiar with in our grocery stores. The pluot is a complex cross between a plum and an apricot. A pluot is also predominantly plum in its parentage. However, the sugar content and juiciness of pluots tend to be much higher than either of their parents. This is why pluots are sweeping the nation as a favorite summer fruit. Though most pluots require a colder climate than ours to grow, the Flavor King is the exception. Thus, the Flavor King pluot is the best option for our area. The Flavor King pluot will require another plum to pollinate it. Many great pollinating plums are in the sale: the prolific Beauty Plum, the delicately-flavored Mariposa and the old standby Methley. The exciting spectacular "Gulf series" of plums developed by the University of Florida for Gulf Coast growing is also available: Gulf Blaze, Gulf Beauty, Gulf Ruby and Gulf Rose.

Also new is the Bloomsweet grapefruit, a cross between a pummelo and a sour orange. The Bloomsweet grapefruit is juicy, big and pear-shaped. It is a grapefruit/orange flavored fruit which can be peeled and eaten like a navel orange, in luscious, mostly-seedless segments.

TASTE TEST WINNERS

When the Galveston County Extension Office held its pear tasting last summer, the Asian pears ranked very high on everyone's tasting tally, with 20th Century and Hosui at the top. In previous tastings, Shinko and Shinseiki did very well. All four will be for sale along with the top-taste European pear variety winner, Tennessee.

ALWAYS IN DEMAND

Galveston County's best peach, the sweet-tasting and white-fleshed Tropic Snow, will be making a return engagement. But not to be overlooked are some excellent newer varieties of peaches. These peaches ripen somewhat earlier than Tropic Snow. EarliGrande is an improvement of the old Early Amber variety. TasKing is a variation of the old Galveston County standby, TexStar. TexStar will also be for sale.

WIDE VARIETY

We are especially pleased to be able to provide our widest offering to date of citrus varieties, including the highly sought after Republic of Texas orange. A large number of Mexican Thornless limes have been ordered for the margarita maniacs in our county, along with the ever-popular Meiwa kumquats which you can eat right off the tree, peel and all, or make into the best marmalade and preserves on the planet.

The finest fig, the Celeste, is ready to pop in the ground too. Celeste produces its first harvest in only a year or so. By request, there will be several Pakistani mulberry trees along with a large assortment of berries, grapes, pecans, pomegranates, nectarines, apples, apricots and even exotic fruit like jujubes and pawpaws.

Finally, the four finest persimmons in the world will make their appearance for the first time in many years: Suruga, Giombo, Fuyu, and Matsomotowasefuyu.

Gardening

Fruit Trees Of The Gods Featured In February 5 Master Gardener Plant Sale

HARD TO FIND VARIETIES

NEW AND WONDERFUL

TASTE TEST WINNERS

ALWAYS IN DEMAND

WIDE VARIETY

SPONSORED BY THE GALVESTON COUNTY MASTER GARDENER VOLUNTEERS