I had Black Boy, too. So similar to Indian Free in look and in taste. My Black bBoy had bitter after taste. I had a pic comparing them somewhere in the forum.
Please wait 4-5 years before you declare your peaches are disease resistant if you live in the east coast.
I do not want to hijack @disc4tw ’s thread about what he is looking for. If you want to talk peaches, please look up peach threads. There are tons. We can talk there.
I saw some responses here that may not have taken Ryan’s friend’s zone and location into consideration. I assume Ryan’s friend also lives near him in zone 6a PA.
If you go Rose of Sharon, definitely try to get a sterile cultivar. I spend more time pulling Rose of Sharon seedlings than I do pulling Norway maple seedlings that come from my neighbors’ trees (which I didn’t think was possible!). There are lots of lovely Magnolias in our east coast 6a area, but that might be a bit bigger than your friend is looking for.
Prunus mume, or Japanese apricot, is a beautiful ornamental with pink flowers (though I think there are also white flowered cultivars). I’ve never had fruit on mine - they flower in January here in NC, but they are a welcome sight and smell very nice too. I’ve never had any disease problems, but the lack of fruit might be part of the reason for that.
That tree sounds really nice! At that growth rate it would be perfect for an attractive and sustainable firewood supply! assuming there’s no toxins that prevent it from being burned?
My Indian free peach in Oregon has not had any signs of peach leaf curl or other ailments yet. The fruit is clean, no pests, no disease. It is late blooming and late fruiting. But the blooms are the largest brightest blossoms in my yard.
Yes, I started looking into it. More valuable than firewood! Now I want to grow them! I’m tempted to start one in a pot if I can, just to see what happens. I wouldn’t plant in my current yard, its too small. Though, I dont know how it would do in 6a
Invasive honeysuckle. (tatarian honeysuckle) I had one in the yard as a kid growing up…it has red berries on it toward the end of the summer that look a lot like red currants but even more delicate and squishy.
