That was my description. I bought one from Ison and one from bottoms nursery. One was called Russian #8 I believe and the other salvatski. Neither place sells ornamental pomegranate but it raised a red flag to me to see the double blossom.
@PomGranny you sent me Granada cutting of yours a couple years ago. I put them in ground at my house and a relatives. One at my house is 4 to 5 ft wide made lots of flowers this year most are dropping. If it can survive a third winter with no dieback I’ll probably get some fruit next year
I am getting some pomegranates setting it looks like, for the first time in five years or more. We had a couple years in a row of dieback.
It looks like Surh Anor, Nikitski Rianni, and Kaj Acik Anor may hold on to a few at least. Lots are dropping but some seem to be getting beyond drop now.
I have never heard of ‘El Paso #1’ before, as far as I know the only places that it might exist without the name ‘Faye’s Paintbrush’, is in ‘Austin, Texas’ and in ‘San Antonio, Texas’. Yet the person who told me has only sighted trees with flowers, they were not in fruiting stage, so that person does not know if they fruit. The flowers seemed identical to the person though.
@ alanmercieca Here is what was posted on the Alabama Pom Assoc’s facebook page in June 2017. I knew that I saw this info somewhere - about El Paso #1 and Faye’s Paintbrush being the same variety. And El Paso #2 is mentioned in their previous list of tested varieties.
" Faye’s Paintbrush El Paso #1 - Ornamental and fruiting variety. A simple description of the fruit is a brown, slightly yellow fruit with a beige interior. The bloom looks like the standard crimson bloom except it is peachy with about 2-3 mm of light cream, as if it had been slightly dipped in paint. It is a very full, showy flower. My fruit color has more brown and green tones, more towards a Bosc pear. Heirloom from El Paso Texas."
"El Paso #2 - Ornamental with a double Red bloom that Fruits. Heirloom from El Paso Texas.
El Paso Red - Heirloom red fruiting variety from El Paso Texas. Said to taste very good."
FYI - Here is the facebook page URL. Other varieties are named, as being tested in Alabama - but not proven to grow there, yet.
I don’t think that GeorgiaGent meant that his pom was actually named ‘Russian Hardy’ . . . just that it was listed as a Russian pomegranate . . . and hardy. ?
And what I meant is that if a seller does not bother to put a variety name, they either don’t care about the tree or don’t care about the customer (or both).
BTW, no such thing as Russian pomegranate. Pomegranates do not grow in Russia.
I agree. It is not ‘kosher’ to mislabel - or inaccurately label - what is sold to a customer. I certainly like to know more than ‘It’s a Pomegranate’.
As to the ‘Russian or not Russian’ question.
Of course pomegranates do not grow in Russia. However, they have been named so. ‘Russian #8’, etc. Perhaps the accuracy as to the origin of each pomegranate variety is a point to take up with the people who introduced the variety, here in the states. I just use the names they have been officially given. If they had named one ‘Canadian #10’ - then that’s the name I’d use.
And people who did this have done a huge disservice to the community. All these varieties have their original names which should have been used.
How is that official? There is nothing official about this terrible mix up. Look at the U.S. National Plant Germplasm System’s list of pomegranate varieties — not a single one of them is named “Russian”.
Oh that is right I forgot, before it was named ‘Faye’s Paintbrush’ it was named ‘El Paso #1’, the person who named it ‘El Paso #1’, renamed it ‘Faye’s Paintbrush’, and to my knowledge he never renamed ‘El Paso #2’ to anything else. ‘Faye’ is the name of the tree owner’s grandmother.
I heard that the person who named them all Russian pomegranates, all the trees got mixed up. That the person had no idea what each tree was, yet I heard that all of the so called Russian varieties used to be at the Turkmenistan Experimental Station, Turkmenistan was under control of the ‘Soviet Union’ in the past. So that probably motivated the mixed up varieties to be called Russian. They are all getting identified one by one, one day we should all know the real names of all of them.
Thanks for the variety suggestions and for sharing what is working well with your plants… very helpful information! The link you share is also very comprehensive and well appreciated.
My poms are in 4ft x 4ft raised beds that are a foot tall because my clay soil drains pretty poorly during our wet winters. I am in southern Oregon very near the California border, zone 8b, so it rarely gets in the 20’s here. We do at times get wet springs which can cause fungal problems for some plants, and I would assume poms as well, but it’s nowhere near as wet for as long as the more northern parts of the state. I haven’t gotten any fruit trying to form as of yet (just year 2 in ground), but there are tons of flowers setting right now, and I’m watching for any fruitlets. The eversweet seems to be very vigorous while the Parfianka has a much weaker growth pattern. I read somewhere that it’s a natural dwarf, so I guess that makes sense. I’ll be sure to take some pics of the plants as the season goes on to post here. Thanks again for the encouragement!
Different varieties of pomegranates have different levels of fungal disease resistance, and sensitivity. Right now one of our potted ones has what looks like ‘Leaf spot disease’ on some of the leaves. Yet the plant is very healthy and does not seem any bothered by it. Pomegranate flowers look healthy and are growing fast.
Yes! I am learning that this spring. I have damage on the new shoots of some - and not others. And blossom damage on some - and not others.
I have not seen leaf spot, yet. But blossom and ‘calyx’ damage is very apparent on several of the varieties. I’ve not experienced interior rot on the fruit of my mature Wonderful and Grenada. But, am watching for it on some of the other varieties. Plus . . . Japanese Beetles are attracted to some, much more than others. And THEY have arrived!
I have one that the bark is just peeling off on all but two of the many trunks. Not sure what it doing that, yet I suspect that it has to do something with all the rain we have been getting. So much rain that the ground almost never fully dries out, and if it does then for maybe a day or two at the most.
My Afganski was in ground in 2018. It did not flower in 2018 and 2019. But this month it bloomed with hundreds of flowers. I am hoping it will produce a few fruits at least. It is still a young tree, so I won’t blame it if it won’t fruit. The other one in ground since 2018 is Crimson Sky. For whatever reason, one 1 of the 3 branches set flowers. It’s weaker than Afganski in my opinion because it always suffers some damage during winter. The third one is Salavastski, in ground last year. It has grown really well. I am keep all three of them even if they won’t fruit well. All that flowers are worth it.
Me too. Most of the peeling is happening at the base. I had to remove half of the trunks of my Kaj Aacik Anor. They split and peeled and then all of the leaves began to shrivel and turn yellow. We cut off the damaged trunks - and the other half of the tree looks OK. I have no idea what caused this. But, as you said in a previous post - the different varieties show different sensitivities to disease, etc.
My ‘Crimson Sky’ is doing very well. Afganski looks good, too. I have 2 Salavatskis and those are in good shape - lots of blooms. And - I agree . . . the flowers are so beautiful that waiting for fruit is worth it! However . . . the pics below are from Lyubimyi ‘Favorite’ - and show lots of blossom ‘rot’. ? Japanese beetles have arrived and are trying to cause havoc.
The Japanese beetles seem attracted to only certain varieties. I found them burrowing in some of the blossoms - and munching on leaves. But most of the varieties seem to be unattractive to the JBs. Are you having a problem with the beetles?
We have a new ‘hobby’ - a sport called ‘Bop the Beetle’.
We go around in the evening, when the beetles are more lethargic, and bop them into open jars containing about an inch of isopropyl alcohol! Just holding the jar under a leaf with a beetle or two, and shaking it a bit - they fall right into their last bath! Dead on contact! Our plum trees offer lots of ‘playtime’!!! LOL (Doesn’t take much to entertain us these days!)
Things are looking very ‘fungal’ out in my pomegranate orchard.
The Austin has shriveling new growth, as do several others. Caused, apparently by Colletotrichum pathogen.
Some of the others have damaged fruit, already . . . also fungal related. Blackened calyxes. Also what looks like ‘blossom end rot’ in pomegranates - in the blossom stage.
I found a couple of helpful articles published by the extension service at University of FL - ‘IFAS’. I used to work there, coincidentally . . . as a graphic designer - when I was in school. I feel that I’ve gone full circle - as now I am looking to them for answers as to how to deal with these fruit diseases. They are doing studies and trying to come up with cultivars that will resist the problems brought on by trying to grow pomegranates in the Southeast.
I think that if I get through a couple more years with the varieties I have - I’ll have certain ones left ‘standing’ and others culled out due to disease. This has been an extremely wet spring - but never the less . . . it is probably way too humid here, even in a dry year, for many of the varieties I’m trying to grow.
I’ve made a chart - to record the problems each variety is having - and whether it will hold onto any viable fruit, etc. I’ll be reporting my experiences, here . . . for those who are interested.
