Took these pictures this past weekend, thought you might enjoy them.

Cattley Guava



Brewster Lychee



Surinam Cherry



Passiflora Edulis


Now a couple from last year....


Tamarillo (now gone to tropical fruit-tree heaven)



Emperor Lychee


Sri Kembangan

Thanks for the pictures, I enjoyed them. Is Lychee self fruitful, or is a second tree required? - Millet

Wow, you have a lot of nice looking tropical fruits!

Millet, the Lychees don't require a pollinator. My Emperor Lychee has been in the ground for nearly 4 years and is only ~4 feet tall! Extremely slow growing, but a really nice looking tree, and the fruit is very good. I finally yanked that Tamarillo last fall...it produced tons of fruit, but I didn't find them very good. The Surinam Cherry trees have been in the ground ~ 6 years, but don't make a lot of fruit. I keep them around because they are a very nice looking tree/shrub. The carambola...as everyone who owns a carambola can probably attest to, 1 tree is plenty, as they tend to overproduce. I, of course, have two, one a grafted sri kembangan and one seedling, both ~ 10 or so feet tall.

I've been trying to push the envelope here in the New Orleans suburbs, and had amazing luck until this past winter. We got down to 28 degrees for a short period of time, and it killed my 3 large Papayas, 2 Sugar Apples (annona squamosa), a Cherimoya, and a 7 foot tall Mango seedling.

The only bright side...I get to pick new trees to replace them.

David

David, thank you for the information. I have wanted a Emperor Lychee for some time. I will have to order one on line, as absolutely Colorado nursery would sell Lychee. - Millet

Hi David, What kind of protection did you provide the Lychee to get it through the winter?

David
When you say you get to pick new trees, do you mean that you buy them in the New Orleans area?
I have been thinking about the Star fruit and Lychees trees, but I didn’t know if they would survive our winter. Did you have some die back on those? Like Skeet, I am curious as to how you protect from freezes.
Karl

Thanks for the replies guys-

Skeeter, believe it or not, I've never protected my lychee trees, and both survived (with no damage) brief exposure to 28 degrees. A longan I have planted near the Emporer Lychee has suffered fairly significant die-back over the winters, whereas the Lychees are fine. I can honestly say that of all my tropicals, the lychee performs the best in my area.

Karpes, I used to mail order trees from Pine Island Nursery, but one day i was astounded to see a nice selection of tropical fruit trees at Bantings Nursery in Bridge City, and surprise surprise, they all had Pine Island Nursery tags. I talked to the owner (Beth, a really nice lady), and now I call her early spring, and she will custom order anything that PIN has for me, to be shipped with their order. This spring the only thing I added was a Cherry of the Rio Grande, which is really taking off. I'm probably going to put in a request for one more Lychee cultivar the next time she orders. I was at Bantings this weekend, and they still had a few Mangos, White Sapotes, Miracle Fruit, and Cherry of the Rio Grande.

David

Sorry Karpes, forgot to answer about the Star Fruit. No real die-back, but when we got to 28 they dropped all of their leaves. I'm happy to report they both are fine.

Oh, one more word, please don't let it discourage you, but based upon my experiences, attempting to grow Mangos outside here in New Orleans is fools gold! I've lost 3.