Plant for Later

Apricots ripen sweeter off your own tree than anything shipped, and the pink-white spring bloom arrives weeks before the rest of the orchard wakes up.Apricots are the trickiest stone fruit for the Deep South: most standard varieties want 700-1,000 chill hours, and the ones...

Blackberries are the easiest fruit you can grow in Alabama - a short row of thornless canes yields gallons of berries by early summer.Modern thornless erect varieties like 'Ouachita', 'Natchez', and 'Navaho' were bred for Southern heat and humidity and need no trellis, just...

Grow the melon a grocery store cannot sell you: vine-ripened cantaloupe cut at full slip, dripping, perfumed, and sweet all the way to the rind.Cantaloupe is a heat-loving sprawling annual vine that wants long hot days, which Alabama supplies generously from June onward. The...

Strings of jewel-bright berries in early summer, tart enough to make the best jelly you have ever had and impossible to buy fresh locally.IMPORTANT: Ribes species are restricted or require a permit in some states because they are an alternate host for white pine...

Elderberry gives you creamy summer flower plates, dark berry clusters for syrup and jelly, and a native shrub pollinators and songbirds work all season.American elderberry is a fast, suckering native shrub that tolerates the damp, heavy spots most fruit refuses - ditch edges, creek...

Figs are the most reliable backyard fruit in central Alabama - no spray schedule, no pollinator needed, and honey-sweet fruit by midsummer.Common figs are self-fruitful and thrive in our heat, with Southern standbys like 'Celeste', 'Brown Turkey', and 'LSU Purple' fruiting on well-established wood....

Harvest handfuls of smooth grape-sized kiwis you eat skin and all, sweeter than the fuzzy supermarket kind and ready by the bowlful in fall.YOU NEED BOTH A MALE AND A FEMALE PLANT. Hardy kiwi is dioecious, and a lone female will flower beautifully and...

Mulberries crop heavily within a few years, feeding your family and every songbird in the county with sweet berries through late spring.Mulberries are practically carefree in Alabama - fast growing, drought tolerant once established, and unbothered by the disease pressure that plagues stone fruit....

Nectarines are peaches without the fuzz - firmer, more aromatic, and ripening right in the heart of Alabama's summer fruit season.Nectarines grow like peaches here and want the same conditions: full sun, fast drainage, and a variety matched to our roughly 600-800 chill hours,...

Pears are the low-maintenance fruit tree for Alabama yards - long-lived, heavy-bearing, and productive with far less spraying than peaches or apples.Fire blight is the one thing that kills pears in the Southeast, so stick with resistant Southern types: 'Kieffer', 'Orient', 'Moonglow', and 'Warren'...

Persimmons hand you honey-sweet fruit in October after everything else is done, on a tree that needs almost no spraying and glows orange in fall.Asian persimmons are the ones to plant for eating fresh: non-astringent 'Fuyu' and 'Jiro' can be eaten crisp like an...

Pomegranates handle heat, drought, and poor soil, then repay you with flame-orange summer flowers and leathery red fruit in fall.Pomegranates are well suited to zone 8a heat, though our humidity and late-season rain can cause fruit splitting and less than perfect skins - flavor...

Raspberries deliver a delicate, aromatic berry you rarely find fresh in stores, on compact canes that fit a small sunny corner.Be realistic about raspberries in central Alabama: they evolved for cool summers, and our July heat and humidity bring root rot, spider mites, and...

Satsumas are the one citrus that genuinely fruits outdoors in central Alabama - seedless, zipper-skinned mandarins ripening right before Thanksgiving.A mature satsuma on trifoliate rootstock is the hardiest edible citrus available to us, taking brief dips to roughly 18-20F once established, but it still...

Grow the melons no store carries: Charentais, Galia, Canary, and Piel de Sapo, picked ripe and perfumed enough to scent an entire kitchen.Specialty melons are the same species as cantaloupe and want the same conditions, but the ripeness cues differ by type and that...

Strawberries fruit their first season from a small bed or a few containers, and homegrown berries taste nothing like the firm shipping types.In Alabama the traditional method is an annual planting: set June-bearing plants like 'Chandler', 'Camarosa', or 'Sweet Charlie' in the fall, mulch...

Grow a real Southern watermelon: crisp, dripping, deep-red flesh cut warm from the field, the way a shipped melon has never once tasted.Watermelon is a sprawling heat-lover perfectly suited to Alabama summers, and it needs full sun, warm soil, and serious space to run....