Where is Ed? He's the expert on exotic fruit trees. If you can grow it here he'll know and he'll know where to find it.
Try JRN nursery 1-281-495-5450 or
Cabrera 1-281-313-2000
They both carry excellent selections of all sorts of exotic stuff and are full of good information.
Tally Ho!

Thanks. I already have the arbutus unedo and have found a source for berberis. I hadn't heard of JRN or Cabrera - do they have webpages or showrooms?
I was on Galveston 2 weeks after the storm, helping the love of my life clean out her house. It was a mess and will be months before she can get back in, and the bills are mounting. How did you fare? If you need some seeds or cuttings to rebuild, let me know. I have quite a collection of tropicals.
Nick

I looked into Darwin Barberry a few years ago, but opted to not try one due to its reputation for disliking humidity. I would have liked to have given it a shot, but I am dealing with very limited space and went with a Barbados Cherry in its place.

If you do give these a try, let us know how you turn out (and if you think that the Strawberry Tree fruit is palatable at all.

JRN Nursery (no website that I know of):

4809 BREEN DR
HOUSTON, TX 77086
281-448-4127

Here is a link that might be useful: Chronicle JRN

Thanks, John. I had never heard of JRN - I am going to try to visit them today or tomorrow. I wonder how the darwin barberry would do indoors in Houston? Lower humidity and cooler, more similar to Argentina/Chile mountains. According to what I read the strawberry tree fruit is used to make a wine in Spain; but I'm more interested in the visual appearance.
Nick

I am not really familiar with Houston soil conditions(myself,Texas Hill Country) but judging from my mothers complaints from when she lived there and my experience with the Madrone tree, An arbutus relative, I would be concerned that the strawberry tree would be resistant to your heavy soil and hot humidity and rainfall in Houston. Arbutus do like a lot of drainage and not much hummidity with the heat. I hear that Strawberry trees are a bit more forgiving than the Texas Madrone. How much I can not tell. The info points to mediteranian climates, but I see mention of them growing in Florida and native to southern Ireland. Go figure. I know that west of Austin is the Eastern extreme of the Texas madrone. I have killed more plants trying to find the right one. Maybe a raised bed Addressing drainage. Yuccado (Of Hempstead, Tx.) has a design for building raised beds for cactus and drainage loving plants on their website. Good luck- Mara

Hi Wantonamara,

I have raised beds and I have a partially shaded spot. So, I'm going to give it a whirl and see what happens. I didn't realize that it was related to the madrone; so that is a good tip. I'm going to try it out and see what happens.

Nick

Madrone was doing well, small, but it drowned along with everything else.
We had 4' in the yard but it came 1" from the house! So we lost most of the garden, shingles off the roof-waiting on windstorm. We all left, kind of last minute.
I plan to make a trip up to JRN soon, trying to replace all the lost plants. What a mess!
Tally HO!