Wednesday, July 9, 2008


Plants look very healthy and don't look stressed at all! They even took great care to place wet recycled newspaper on the soil & carefully double wrapped the entire thing in 2 plastic bags. Packaging is obviously done assuming the worse could happen during shipping.

They are not the absolute cheapest, but they definitely are not the most expensive. Although, if I consider some of the nightmares I have been trough with mail orders, this turns out to be inexpensive as no time is wasted trying to revive a stick (I am referring to actually sick, dying plants, not the ones that are mailed while dormant) and making countless unreturned calls. I will order all the live plants in my wish list from them from now on.

Initially I was going to place my order with someone a bit less expensive; but red lights turned on when they were not helpful (let alone polite) when I called to ask a few questions, so I figured, if they are not helpful when they have a potential sale, how helpful will they be if something goes wrong with the plants? Another thing is that I never, ever, order from companies that don't have a phone contact number on their site.

If you have not been to their site I highly recommend it as they have a large variety of plants suited for Central Florida. http://www.tropicalfruitnursery.com/ (their name is actually Pine Island Nursery, but for some reason their site is under Tropical Fruit Nursery).

If you are having a hard time finding info on Grumichama (I only found out about it because it was in one of my books) here is some info taken from the University of Florida site:

"Grumichama. Large evergreen shrub or small tree which may grow to a maximum height of 20 to 25 feet. It is very attractive in appearance with an upright, compact growth habit. The leathery leaves are oval to obovate, about 3 to 4 inches long by 2 inches wide, reddish when young, becoming glossy, deep green. The showy white flowers, up to 1 inch across, are borne in the leaf axils and are produced in large numbers on flushes of new growth in early spring.
The fruit is globose to oblate, ½ to 1 inch in diameter, has persistent green sepals at the apex and is borne on long, slender stems, often in clusters. The thin, delicate skin is scarlet to purplish black. The soft, melting flesh is sweet with an excellent flavor. The seeds are round, hemispherical, or angular, depending on the number present. The fruit matures in April to May, about a month after flowering. It takes 2 to 3 years to bear fruit from seed."

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2 comments:

Wicked Gardener said...

Cool- I'll have to try them!

Anonymous said...

I am sure you'll love the grumis too. The only reason why they are not commercially viable is that the skin on the fruit is very delicate, too delicate for transport and all that handling that accompanies most of the supermarket fruits.

Montoso Garden Nursery sells them a tad cheaper, but once you add up the price for S&H, and the additional $15 or so to have the plant shipped (some Puerto Rico law) to you the price is about the same.

Last thing: in my research most people regret not having purchased multiple plants after they tasted the fruit...heads up: with Pine Island Nursery the shipping is cheaper if you get more than one plant. Good luck!