Can We Really Grow That Here? Exotic Fruits in My Trinidad Garden

One ripe fig… and the rest are still keeping me waiting. 😂

“Every seed tells a story. Plant it with hope but let the garden write the ending.”

One of the things I love about gardening in Trinidad is that every now and then, a plant comes along and makes you stop and say:

“Wait nah… you can grow that here?”

My garden has had quite a few of those surprises over the years.

I have Mediterranean figs. I have miracle fruit. I used to have strawberries and grapes. My longan flowers quite nicely and does give me fruit, although the fruits are small and the bunches are never as full as I would like.

And then there is my rambutan story.

Oh, the rambutan story. 😂

When “Growing” Doesn't Mean “Fruiting”

Sometimes we gardeners use the words “I can grow it” rather loosely.

A plant may grow beautifully.

It may get big. It may flower.

And then… nothing.

That has certainly been part of my experience with some of these less-common fruits.

The longan was putting on quite a floral display — and apparently, I wasn't the only one who noticed.

There was a wasp hovering around the flowers, doing whatever wasps do when they're investigating a garden buffet. 😂

My longan is a good example. When it flowers, it can put on quite a show. With all those flowers, I was already imagining a bumper crop…

But as every gardener knows, flowers are only the beginning of the story.

So I have learned not to get too excited just because I see flowers.

And here they are — a few tiny longans beginning to form. 

After all those flowers, I was hoping for a little more generosity from my tree. 😂

It does produce fruit, but the bunches are usually small and the fruits are on the smaller side.

Still, I can't complain too much.

A few fruits are better than none — and I'll take them!

Flowers are promising. Fruit is the real report card.

And even that isn't always as simple as it sounds. Fruit production can depend on the plant, pollination, weather and other conditions. So a tree covered in flowers isn't necessarily a tree covered in fruit.

My Eight-Year Rambutan Experiment

Then there are my two older rambutan plants.

I grew them from seed.

I waited.

And waited. And waited.

Eight years later, they finally flowered.

You would think I would have been doing my happy garden dance.

Well, I was… until I discovered that the first plant was male.

Never mind, I thought.

I'll keep it. Perhaps the second one will turn out to be female, and we'll have ourselves a little rambutan partnership.

So I waited for the second plant to flower.

And guess what?

Male.

Both of them.

Two rambutan plants. Plenty of flowers. No fruit.

At that point, a sensible person might have decided that perhaps rambutan wasn't meant to be.

But gardeners aren't always sensible people. 😂

I planted five more.

I'm still waiting to see what that little rambutan army has planned for me.

And that's the funny thing about growing fruit from seed. You don't always know exactly what you're going to get, and some fruit trees can take years before they reach maturity.

Just ask me about my abiu.

Ten Years for an Abiu

Ma planted that abiu seed.

And I waited ten years.

Yes, ten.

By the time that tree finally started producing, I had almost forgotten how long I had been waiting for that first fruit.

But when it finally came, it was worth the wait.

Ten years of waiting… and this is what I was waiting for! A platter of abiu from my garden.

And that is one of the things I enjoy about growing fruit from seed. You plant a little seed, nurture it, watch it become a tree, and then one day it finally decides to tell you what it has been up to all along.

Of course, the abiu itself is another story.

And this is what’s hiding inside an abiu

That soft, jelly-like flesh is part of what makes this fruit so unusual. It's sweet, creamy and definitely not what you might expect when you first cut one open.

Just be warned — it can leave your lips feeling a little sticky afterwards. 😂

After waiting ten years for my first harvest, though, I wasn't complaining!

But that's part of the fun of growing fruits that aren't part of the usual backyard collection.

You don't just harvest a fruit.

You get a story.

The Fruits I Didn't Expect to Have

My Med fig is of those plants that makes me smile because it is just not the sort of fruit people automatically associate with a Trinidad home garden.

And this is what’s hiding inside a Med fig. 

The outside may not look like the fruits we usually associate with a Trinidad garden, but cut one open and you get this beautiful, soft interior.

It's one of those fruits that makes me stop and appreciate just how many different things our gardens can surprise us with.

Who says a tropical garden has to be predictable? 😂

Then there is miracle fruit.

Miracle fruit growing happily on its branch. 

These little berries may not look like much, but they have quite a party trick.

Eat one, and for a while, sour foods can taste surprisingly sweet. It's one of those little garden surprises that makes growing unusual fruits so much fun.

Small fruit. Big personality. 😂

It's certainly a conversation starter.

I also used to grow strawberries.

Yes, strawberries.

They actually grew here for me — until the "Bachac" (leaf-cutting ants) decided that my strawberry patch belonged to them.

That was the end of that experiment. 😆

I also used to have grapes, another fruit that some people might not immediately expect to see growing in a Trinidad garden.

So my garden has taught me that the word exotic can be a funny thing.

Exotic to whom?

A fruit that seems unusual to us may be perfectly ordinary somewhere else.

And sometimes the real question isn't:

“Can it grow here?”

It's:

“Can I get it to fruit here?”

And What About Blueberries and Blackberries?

This is where things get really interesting.

I've been seeing people bringing blueberries and blackberries into the conversation too, with claims that they are actually fruiting here.

Now, I'm not about to tell you to rush out and plant a dozen blueberry bushes because somebody on the internet got a harvest. 😂

But I do find it fascinating.

It makes me wonder how many fruits we automatically assume belong to cooler climates might be worth experimenting with here under the right conditions.

That is one of the things I enjoy about gardening.

Someone tries something.

It works.

Someone else tries the same thing.

It doesn't.

And then we start asking questions.

What variety was it?

Where was it planted?

What was the weather like?

How old was the plant?

Was it grown from seed or propagated from a known variety?

And, perhaps most importantly…

Did it actually fruit?

Because there is a big difference between posting a photograph of a healthy plant and posting a photograph of a plate of fruit you actually harvested from it.

My Take

I'm not suggesting that every gardener in Trinidad should start collecting exotic fruit plants.

Lord knows, I have enough plants already. 😂

But I do think it is fun to look beyond the usual list of tropical fruits and see what else might have a place in our gardens.

Some will surprise us. Some will struggle.

Some will flower and leave us waiting.

Some will fruit beautifully. Some will take ten years.

And some may give us an eight-year lesson in patience before revealing that we have been raising two males.

But that's gardening.

We plant with hope, we watch, we learn — and sometimes we plant five more.

I haven't given up on my rambutan yet.

So tell me…

What unusual or “exotic” fruit are you growing in your garden?

Have you managed to get something fruiting that people told you wouldn't grow here?

Or do you have a plant that flowers beautifully and seems to be playing a long game with you?

Tell me about it in the comments. I'd love to hear what other Trinidad and Caribbean gardeners are growing — and what is actually making it to the fruit bowl!

And when that first fruit finally comes after all those years?

That's when you do the happy garden dance. 💃🏽🌱

Keep growing — your garden (and your confidence) will follow.

And whatever you're growing, waiting for, or wondering about…

Stay grounded!

 

Grey hair, green thumb and proud of my roots.

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