i talked to some lady that was a member of a local herb society about pomegrantes in this area at the fair. don't recall her name, but that may be a lead for you to ck into. she said good cultivars will definitely set fruit in our area, and within a yr or 2, at that. the one i have hasn't set flowers or fruit in several yrs and i'm ready to chuck it. the blooms are gorgeous. there was one at mordecai garden when i used to volunteer, but it's anyone's guess if it's still there. it would set fruit, but i don't know if they ripened. oh, the herb lady mentioned the dwarf selection- nana- sets decent sized fruit that generally ripen up. i think that's the direction i'm going to try next. the dwarfs are widely available. if you get a good lead on a full size one, let me know. thanks, tammy

There's a pomegranate at the JC Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh that bears a lot of fruit. It's well over 8' tall.

However, I'm not sure if the fruit ripened or not.

there's some good pomegranate info on the link below. i've been considering giving it a try myself, even though everything i've read about growing it in nc suggests the best chance for fruit production & ripening is in areas south and east of raleigh.

Here is a link that might be useful: nc state fruit site

My friend Trina (a garden webber) has grown them from store bought fruit's seeds! And her tree was a decent size. She told me how long it took but I don't remember what it was. I was impressed & may just have to eat some to get the seeds.

i saved the seeds from the ones we snacked on over the holidays ... john, did she actually get ripened fruit?
if so, that's exciting news.

My son meets a lot of people with his work and one day he was at someone's home and saw all this fruit laying on the ground and the tree just loaded with fruit. He didn't know what it was but ask the lady about them. She offered him some and well, he's not my son for nothing (lol). Anyway, I have several laying on my back deck. I still need to clean it, it's nice and squooshy looking, but if you would like to try some from seed, I should have plenty. She didn't know the cultivar, but it seems to be prolific as far as fruiting and has thrived in the High Point area of NC.

Well, forget that idea. I just went out and cut one open and they're one of the seedless cultivars.

oooh- was the fruit good tasting, debra? a seedless pomegranate sounds good. i know it'd do no good for the poster, but i didn't even realize there was such an animal out there. if there's no fruit w/o seed, i wouldn't be interested, though. i want the goods! :) tammy

This thread is really old, but has anybody located any pomegranates that bear fruit around the Raleigh area? I know of two...right in front of Neomonde bakery on Beryl Road. I was there in September and the trees had quite a few nice-sized fruits on them. Any more around here?

Love to read all your ideas. I am a garden lover too. Could you please let me know good and safe place to grow pomegranates in NC. Also Can we grow Guava plants there? Since i am new to NC, so many questions lingering in my mind. I appreciate your valuable inputs.

Hey @Bernie Williams, I am a student at NCSU in tree fruit production and I'd love to hear about your process in growing / training / harvesting your pomegranate tree. I'm exploring niche / experimental tree fruit for NC.

Hey @Swapna Ar welcome to NC! We cannot grow guava here as it gets too cold for the tree to survive our winters. NC State Extension service has all the information you could ever want growing all kinds of crops: https://www.ces.ncsu.edu/

Swapna, yes, some guavas grow here, but not true ones. But they can be grown as (big) houseplants. Pineapple guavas are hardy here.

There are lots of pomegranates that grow & fruit here. Just go by the zone listed and you'll be fine. They take a few years to get established before they will fruit successfully but you'll likely see blooms before that as they can bloom all summer but really only set viable fruit on the first blooms (which sometimes gets frozen). Nana is the one exception, since the fruits are small it'll set as late as midsummer. But they are SOUR! :)