Captain Bucklew’s California mango trees

Captain Bucklew’s California mango trees

Captain L. L. Bucklew began planting mango trees in Encinitas, San Diego County, before World War II. By 1956, he was up to 172 trees. Bucklew’s grove was the first commercial planting of mangos in California, and today, fourteen of these historic trees are still...
How avocado trees flower

How avocado trees flower

Bloom season is the most exciting for me when it comes to avocados. First, I look at the buds on the branches of trees to try to predict how many will become flowers. Then I observe the bees and flies visiting the flowers. Are there enough? Are the flowers getting...
Eating pineapple guava flowers

Eating pineapple guava flowers

This week I was in the kitchen while my three kids were at the dining room table and I overheard this conversation. Miles (six years old): “There are lots of edible flowers, like pineapple guava, broccoli . . .” Reeve (four years old): “Broccoli is...
The GEM avocado tree: a profile

The GEM avocado tree: a profile

“I believe that 15 years from now we’ll be standing here and we’ll be talking GEM. We won’t be talking Hass. People will go, ‘What is Hass?’” said Mary Lu Arpaia to a room of California avocado growers in 2017. Arpaia knows avocado varieties. She has been the director...
Your favorite citrus

Your favorite citrus

April is a great time of year to plant a new citrus tree, but which kind to plant? Take a cue from these Yard Posts readers who share their favorite varieties from their Southern California yards.  Lavender Gem tangelo Bob started gushing to me about Lavender Gem...
Avocados for sale

Avocados for sale

I always wished there were a way to taste the fruit of an avocado variety before deciding whether to plant that kind of tree in my yard. I also wished there were more places to buy avocados of varieties other than Hass. I know that some of you also have these wishes;...
Pinkerton avocado tree: a profile

Pinkerton avocado tree: a profile

No less an authority on avocado varieties than Oliver Atkins wrote in 1978 that Pinkerton “appears to be the best variety we have come up with for California since the Hass.” Why then, over the ensuing 44 years, have most of us in California never eaten a Pinkerton...

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