At my new home, the former owner was not into fruit, but into flowers and ornamentals.
He planted three Bonfire Dwarf Ornamental Peaches. They were specataular this spring with their lovely long lasting pink flowers.
However, the leaves on these trees are super long, and overlap one another, and for free years since we moved here they have had bad Peach Leaf Curl which I have tried to fight unsuccesffully.
Despite lots of spring frosts, the trees are making baby peaches, but to date I have never gotten even one to mature which I could eat.
Does anyone get peaches that they can eat off of these trees? Appreciate it you can let me know, becasue I am tired of fighting all of the issues with this tree and getting little out of it. I have also planted some more peach trees and think it good to get ride of these Bonfire’s before they pass on problems to the new trees.
By the way, I did try that Italian Dressing treatment reccommended by one member to knock out the Peach Leaf Curl. At least here in Kentucky it was a total failure. But then we do have lots of wet spring days.
I think I tried the peaches from Bonfire, it was terrible. It was a purple or red leafed plant. It may have been a different ornamental? But the peaches were completely inedible bitter, dry flesh that was very bitter. More like an almond, I think it split open.
You can buy edible dwarfs, most are just OK, with one or two exceptions. At least they are bred for fruit not looks. The Spice Zee Nectaplum has nice red leaves and the fruit is amazing, although it needs a few years of fruiting for the best fruit. A little bland here, the first couple of years. The Hollywood plum is a beautiful red. The fruits are a little tart though. So you can have both ornamental and edible qualities in one plant.
I asked this a few years ago here. Most told me that the best one was a nectarine. I forget the cultivar name. Most nursery claim this cultivar needs to grow in zone 7 though. My zone was moved to 6A but I was 5b before. I personally tried 7 dwarf peaches and nectarines last year. Of those 7 only 2 or 3 appear to have lived. Bearwithme seems to have the heat but suffers from your problem where the rain gets to them. So the dwarf seem super finicky with not liking the rain but not liking the cold which is most of America. Many people told me to just buy a regular peach tree and just prune it if I wanted a peach tree. That has been the most successful as well. Though late frosts have taken off any potential buds due to them fruiting so early.
Honey Babe is rated to zone 6. Other DWN dwarfs may be rated to six too. They make quite a few. I have found DWN pretty conservative with its zone ratings l. I would be surprised if it died in zone six.
I bought a honey babe from One Green World last year but it never came out of dormancy. I requested a credit in August on my pawpaw that never came out and the honey babe peach. I replaced it with a few chestnut.
I wanted to try one but never pulled the trigger. I lost a couple trees that didn’t come out of dormancy. One was old Mixon Free and now it’s no longer offered anywhere. That nursery went out of business. Never got a replacement.
In my case my replacement chestnut got cancelled so I asked for cash and got it. I then bought from Burnt Ridge. I hate it when they only offer credit.
I know I am late to this party. I hope you still have your bonfire trees. We have just one, came with the house. I harvested about 100 peaches the size of tennis balls last summer. They are fantastic cooked. I made pie filling with them and froze ziplock bags full. We have enjoyed pies and cobblers all winter. They are delicious!