Last month I made a trip out to see Frankie's Nursery in the island of Oahu, Hawaii. The entire trip out there in Hawaii was a blast but of course being a fruit enthusiast made visiting the nursery a highlight. I was on a mission to add Limau Limo lime, the Halawa (up to 16lb fruit!), Ben Hu, and Jubilee pumellos to my citrus collection and some named varieties of Santol, Wax Jambu, Mabolo and a few other tropical fruits. Frankies Nursery was impressive with the sheer variety of tropical fruit trees available and because of all the mature plantings. After getting aquainted w/ Frank he took time out to give me a tour of the sprawling nursery.



The nursery was basically a forest of tropical fruit trees.

Longan:


Mabolo:


Jackfruit:




Mamey Sapote:


Malay Apple:


Pepper:


Santol:


Sapodilla:


Ambarella:


Wax Jambu:


Whichever fruit is in season is offered as a pick on your own and sold by the pound. This a wonderful way to sample new fruits that you may have never tasted before. The Burmese Grape was my absolute favorite on this trip. It tastes similar to lonzones with its balace of tart and sweet flavors.

Burmese Grape:


Here's some of the Burmese Grape fruit:


Some others:

Mamey apple


Kasturi


Wax Jambu


Mamey Sapote



Hawaiian agriculture laws are pretty strict even for exporting plants. Frank ships plants to the mainland but I opted to do it myself since I was staying pretty close to the Dept of Agriculture office. It was quite a site barerooting about 3 cubic feet of soil in the hotel bathtub but I got it done.



The folks at the Dept of Agriculture office really didn't hastle me at all. Just a quick look at all of the plants and we sealed up the box and I got my inspection sticker.



The box ready to go w/ my lovely Fruit Tree Specialist trainee:


One more inspection at the airport and off we went


The plants potted up after the trip and recovering back here in VA:

Nice pictorial Eyeckr. Thanks. I wish I had know you could do that when I was in Hawaii.

Nice haul dude! I've ordered from Frankies a couple of times and have not been disappointed with the plants yet. Shipping and handling from Hawaii is a jolt but otherwise no complaints. Thanks for the pics. What were the plants you sent home?

Wow, it's been soo long since I've seen a picture of some jackfruit. The fruit tastes just like candy, but it's stickier than glue. Great pics!

Eyeckr, we should have had your place on the tour when we were in Virginia. You have a lot to see, now you have even more to see. - Millet

Thanks guys Ohiojay I remember your posts about mail order dealings with Frank so that's one of the reasons I went to check his place out.

Here's what tropical fruits I got:
Tamil Seedless java Plum, Cabeluda, Araca Boi, Bangkok Santol, Inyen Wax Jambu, Seedless mabolo, White Jaboticaba, Burmese Grape seeds and numerous other seeds

Citrus:
Limau Limo -much like the Kaffir lime but the actual aromatic fruit juice is used in cooking instead of leaves or grated rind
Ben Hu & Jubilee pummelo -overall good quality pummelos
Halawa pummelo -fruit is known to reach up to 16lbs in weight

Here's the link to his website:
http://frankiesnursery.com/

And a few articles:
http://starbulletin.com/1999/09/08/features/story1.html

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Jun/22/il/FP706220332.html

http://www.spiritofaloha.com/features/0504/apple.html

Eyeckr,
looks like one heck of a trip and haul! I'm off to google Burmese Grape, great, another plant I might need now. Hmmmm, maybe I can convince the wife we need to go to Hawaii again, for uhhhhh...........our second honeymoon, or something trivial like that. Not for more fruit trees, I swear.

-Ethan

MMM!!!!! Got my mouth watering!!! every thing looks yummmy..

please be sure to give us updates on how well they grow.. and the taste of the fruit grown in different climate than it's normal..

Gina *BabyBlue*

My wax jambu from Frankies is also an Inyen. Received it last fall and it fruited this spring! Didn't hold onto all the fruits and really didn't get to try one that was all the way ripe. Good potential though.