Pomegranate pondering!

Hey all!
I was perusing in the shop today and curiosity got the better of me. I noticed what looked like a shrub, it's supposedly a pomegranate. Well it won me over, it only cost peanuts. Of course 80% of me is saying..you do not live in the mediterranean how do you think you can grow this..but why not give it a go? So i was wondering who has attempted these and if so had any success? To me it looks to be a shrub, reading up online, they grow to be trees any advice greatly welcomed. Have I gone totally mad?

 

I grew a few from seed(easy peasy) in a sheltered part of the garden during the mild winters of the 2000's. 2009-10 killed them off...and the ones in the greenhouse, not a long term project. Must try again next time I have a pomegranate, with better winter protection!

 

I'm totally in awe. How did they fare before they died back. That's one of my main worries, the winter protection. I was planning to put it in at the allotment but it wouldn't have anywhere to hide come winter!

 

I grew them in a pot in the greenhouse, had a few flowers but no fruit. The ones in the garden were flowerless. I think it's well worth the effort once they're at flowering size. They're as boring as bath water without

 

I think i'll aim to just get it flowering then maybe should have gone for the tayberries instead haha!!

 

I've grown pomegranate plants outside for at least 40 yrs, they are surprisingly hardy and only remember them getting cut back to the ground, by frost, on a couple off occasions.

There is a smaller version which is often described as Punica "nana", its smaller and flowers more readily in my experience.

But the species does flower here, but I've never had edible fruit, the summers are just not long enough.

 

Pomegranates tend to get fatal injuries when temperatures reach from -12C to -10C, based on cultivar. We hit much lower temps in February (-18C) and all the ones I have seen in the neighborhood are in the "intensive care unit" or already dead. But everyone is keeping them well watered and giving them extra time to leaf out.

 

Thankfully, I've never seen minus 18c and not sure I ever want to.

That must have been a killer for lots of plants in your area.

 

Here here, think my veggie patch would be dead and buried in those temps

 

The intensive care unit this made me chuckle given my nursey background! Hope my pomegranate doesn't end up there!!!

 

Do I put informative? agree? like?
Where is the button for jealous as hell!

 

I've got three of the double, ornamental ones and they seem pretty hardy here. All planted facing south and on a slope, so not exactly in a frost pocket, but they got through -17C and 30cm of snow in 2009/10. If you can give it reasonably well-drained soil, Emily, it should be OK. Saying that, we don't know whereabouts in UK you are?

 

Were they killed down to the snow level.
Sometimes snow can be the difference between survival or death.

 

I can recommend the 'nana' version, having had one of these now for about ten years. It lives along with various other plants in an old cold-water tank in the front garden. That's a sunny sheltered spot but even so I was quite surprised to find it shrugging off hard winters with no problems. The soil in the tank is poor, but well-drained. It has grown into a dense, attractive bush; both the flowers and the fruits are pretty and the latter cling on until the following spring.

 

What is going on? Everybody has hardy pommies except me?