Do you fuzzy kiwi growers out there have an opinion about this variety from Raintree catalog? The fact that they fruit at Raintree makes me want to consider.
“Exbury Fuzzy Kiwi
This early ripening fuzzy kiwi from England regularly produces huge quantities of delicious fuzzy kiwis for us here at Raintree, often ripening around Thanksgiving, 1-2 weeks before Saanichton. The sweet fruit is smaller than store bought kiwis but has the same classic flavor we expect from a fuzzy kiwi. In England it is reportedly self fertile but we cannot verify that. We recommend a male fuzzy pollinizer.”
My lowest temp is 18F, but I do not have high heat units in summer.
for your weather vs. raintree’s you can load up their page here for morton, wa which is mostly usda zone 8a, I didn’t look up their exact location. their weather is similar to seattle/portland/salem/eugene (puget sound or the willamette valley) but a few degrees colder, which actually adds up to a lot fewer heat units over their typical growing season which might also be 30 days shorter from freezes. I hadn’t checked myself till just now and I assumed it was basically the same.
I have visited their nursery in Morton, way out in nowhere! At one time I thought I would save on shipping charges -but turns out it’s a LONG drive east from I-5. Their site is a bit colder/winter and warmer/summer than my maritime location.
With a little web research I see that this Exbury variety isn’t really something new. Members on this site who were previously on Houzz have made comments pro/con in the past.
Oh, well, I’ll go for it and add it to my iffy plantings that I force to hang on… e.g. my 4-year-old Lisbon lemon which is producing 5 prized lemons a year. Afraid to calculate energy cost of holiday lights!