Is anyone growing them or is there any interest . They are not cold hardy but I like them.

I'd keep one myself if ever I came across one that did not taste awful. They were a fairly common hedge plant down to central Florida when I was a boy. Never found one fit to eat though.

I have a Cherry of the Rio Grande that a fellow board member gave me that I hope will fruit next year now that it's more than five foot high. It's a Eugenia species as well.

.....Alan.

Cherry of the Rio Grande is very slow to bear fruit. And when it does the amount is not worth bothering with. I cut down my 9 year old specimen as a few dozen dodgy tasting "cherries" wasn't worth it to me! I keep selling the several dozen seedlings I grew as no other "cherry" will grow here.

I got a cherry of the Rio Grand from the same person just to add to my collection. I do have a few seedlings of the surinam cherry if anyone wants them. they are tart unless you let them get completely ripe. I will heve plenty of seed in the fall if I have a normal crop.

We grow 'Zill Dark' Surinam cherry -- a black-fruited one with very low levels of eugeniol (the chemical that makes them taste like floor wax). I like it. We also have a collection of seedlings of 'Zill Dark', one of which is even better flavored. They're very easy to grow from seed, but the seedlings are highly variable, so that's not really recommended, if you're looking for good flavor. And they're virtually impossible from cuttings or air layers. So that leaves grafting, onto seedling rootstocks. We've done some of that, and found that a veneer graft about 2-3 inches long works reasonably well.

Griffis J. L., McDonald T. G., Smith V. E., and Manners M. M. 2009. Eugenia uniflora ― a Nutritious, Easy-to-Grow Fruit for the Tropics. Acta Horticulturae ISSN 0567-7572. vol. 806, pp. 277-284.