My cold climate experience was limited to my one attempt to grow a 'Wonderful' pomegranate in a pot. It made the first winter in great shape buried pot and all into about 18" of dry straw and oak leaves. It then grew profusely the next summer. I started off with a large bareroot mail order plant probably about 2 feet tall, and it was close to 4 1/2 feet by the end of the second growing season. It didn't bloom the second season, but sure grew well.

It didn't make the second winter buried in the mulch. It became a tasty snack for rodents.

I think a lot of new varieties mainly of Russian origin have come onto the market in the past few years, and many of them are specifically said to be good for cooler climates, with both better winter hardiness and less summer heat needed to ripen them

Check out the offerings of places like Raintree Nursery, One Green World, Edible Landscaping, Just Fruits and Exotics Nursery, Burnt Ridge Nursery to see what they have that may work better in cooler climates.

If pomegranates can make it zone 6. I'll take em.
I have some growing in Greece in alkaline soil....they are thriving. Anyone know if the ph should be adjusted?
they look good.

Hmm... I was hoping for something a little more helpful.

I'll try again - I know pomegranates can grow in cold climates, I doubt they can produce quality fruit. Is there anyone who has ever gotten a fully ripened and sweet pomegranate off of a tree grown in a cool summer climate? From what I've heard they will be tart and inedible.

Here is a quote from the Raintree website about their Wonderful Pomegranate: "a beautiful ornamental which grows to 10 feet tall. Hot summers are needed to fully ripen the large fruit."

The only home grown pomegranates I've eaten were grown in Bakersfield. I know that people grow them elsewhere with success.

I had pomegranate bushes in San Diego County, but they never set any fruit.

My mother grew up in N.Texas and she brought an heirloom variety to Corpus Christi where they thrived in the summer heat. When I moved to the upper Texas coast area I tried to grow them and failed. Our summer days are mid to hi 90's and that isnt hi enough for that variety which I assumed was of Middle Easten origin. "Wonderful" doesnt grow well here either.

If you can get a Russian variety I would try that.

Larry

They grow well in nor cal. Seen a lot of them around. Planning on getting one myself.

Yes they grow well in northern California and bloom beautifully, if you are in the inland valley you should also get fruit. If not, you may be disappointed with trees that consistently drop their flowers without setting fruit. I am now growing a new variety from UC Davis that is reported to do better than Wonderful. Al

Yes, they grow well, but they won't produce edible fruit.

I actually wasn't planning on planting one myself because I already checked into it and learned that I couldn't get a pomegranate of the same quality that my grandma got in Bakersfield.

I brought the question up because I've seen so many pomegranates growing around my area where I know they shouldn't produce good fruit, and I've heard of and seen people from even colder climates planting them because they know they will 'grow' without realizing that they won't 'fruit.' I was wondering if there was someone out there who could prove my wrong by saying from personal experience: 'I have a tree in a climate cooler than yours and it produces sweet and delicious fruit.' But that doesn't seem to be the case.

Although I hadn't known that there were Russian cultivars, if any would be more able to ripen in cooler weather it would definitely be them. But I'm sticking to trees that are proven producers in my climate, I'll admire the pomegranate flowers I see everywhere but it would just frustrate me to have one that didn't produce good fruit.

My "sweet" poms taste good a month before they're totally ripe; unlike my wonderful, parfianka, & russian (edible landscape)which are sour before completely ripened

oregonwoodsmoke...Somethinng is wrong if the trees weren't producing in San Diego. My friends had one in Mission Hills ( overlooking airport,so coastal area) and it bloomed and produced prolifically. And it was shaded for part of the day by bigger trees. It was 15-20 ft tree. I know cuz I was about the only person who ate them!
I live in Silverton Oregon now and would like to plant one too. So am researching! LOL Love them and persimmons! OK and Kiwis too!

I live in Olympia WA and have just planted an Ambrosia in a the ground in the hottest part of my yard and put a 'Wonderful' in a pot and will keep it in the greenhouse all year to extend the season. Fingers crossed.

A member on another forum gets sweet ripe fruit in zone 6 . It is potted and comes inside for winter.

"Wonderful" is not wonderful in Texas heat, it is insipid.

There's nothing like fresh squeezed pomegranate juice. It tastes so much better than the pomegranate juice sold in supermarkets.

Make sure you use fresh pom fruits, because many times the pomegranates you will find in the stores in colder areas have been sitting around for a few weeks and are not really fresh. Pomegranates have a shorter shelf life than apples or oranges, but apparently many supermarkets do not realize this. With pomegranates, it can be hard to tell from the outside whether the fruit is still good. The inner arils will start going bad even though the exterior is very hard and durable. This I suspect may be one of the reasons pomegranates have not become more popular in the U.S.

Many people tried pomegranate once or twice in their life, and had a less than wonderful experience. (pun intended)

People living in Southern California are more lucky. The pom fruits in the supermarkets often come fresh from the orchards there.

The reason why people associate pomegranates with warm climates historically has to do with geography. Pomegranates are thought to have originated somewhere in the Zagros mountains, in the Northwestern part of present-day Iran, or possibly in the South Caucasus. From there they took three paths: one lineage was brought to India, one lineage went North into the Caucasus, and the other lineage went West to the Mediterranean. Pomegranates were well known in the time of the ancient Greeks. Some of the pomegranates were gradually taken North into Russia and bred into cold-hardy lineages. But in mainland Europe all the pomegranates stayed around the Mediterranean and were never bred to be more cold-hardy.

Pomegranates also tended not to grow well in the Northwestern part of Europe because of the wet cool summers, whereas the Southern region of Russia has a drier continental climate with hotter summers (despite the bitter cold winters). It has only been in the last 3 decades that these Russian pomegranate varieties have begun appearing in America.

In case anyone was wondering, the Indian pomegranate varieties tend to have very deep dark colored juice and be very tart and flavorful.

What about zone 6 Louisville? Hot summers and cold winters.

problem is they will die back in winter if not outright killed In zone 6. you Might have luck with Chicago hardy fig it can fruit same year from dieback

I live about a mile from the beach - warm winters and summers that only crack 90° for a few days. My Ambrosia gets as sweet as grenadine, but I had to mail-order it. All the nearby nurseries only stock Wonderful even though it’s completely wrong for us.

What zone Kelly?

USDA 10b, Sunset 24. Tree’s supposed to be hardy to Zone 7, though.