Plant guide
73 fruit trees, vegetables and herbs: how to grow them, the varieties worth planting, how to eat them, and which parts are toxic for people and pets.
Fertilizer guideGranular vs water-soluble, N-P-K, nutrients and common products.Tropical and subtropical fruit
Mangoes, avocados, lychees, sapotes, annonas and more.
- AckeeBlighia sapidaA West African tree, now Jamaica's national fruit, with red pods that split open to show creamy arils topped by shiny black seeds. Properly prepared arils are delicious, but unripe or mishandled fruit is poisonous.
- AtemoyaAnnona × atemoyaA hybrid of sugar apple and cherimoya, first made in Florida in 1908. It combines the sugar apple's heat tolerance with cherimoya's richer flavor and fewer seeds.
- AvocadoPersea americanaA fast-growing evergreen tree with buttery fruit. Varieties come in three groups: Mexican (most cold-hardy, small fruit), Guatemalan, and West Indian (large, lighter fruit suited to hot, humid places like South Florida). Many popular cultivars are hybrids of these.
- BananaMusa spp.Not a tree but a giant herb: each stalk (pseudostem) grows from an underground corm, fruits once and is then cut down while new pups take over. Fast, rewarding and easy in warm climates, with dozens of dessert and cooking types beyond the supermarket Cavendish.
- Barbados cherryMalpighia emarginataA bushy shrub or small tree, also called acerola, with glossy red, cherry-sized fruit that is one of the richest natural sources of vitamin C. It bears several crops a year and makes a good fruiting hedge.
- Black sapoteDiospyros nigraA persimmon relative with green, tomato-shaped fruit whose flesh turns soft and nearly black when ripe. It's called the chocolate pudding fruit for its look and texture more than its taste.
- CanistelPouteria campechianaA tough, easy sapote relative with glossy yellow-orange fruit and dense, sweet flesh, often called eggfruit for its egg-yolk look and texture. It thrives in poor, alkaline soils and ripens in winter.
- CoconutCocos nuciferaThe iconic tropical palm, grown for refreshing water from green nuts and rich white meat from mature ones. Dwarf types fruit within a few years and stay within reach longer than the classic tall palms.
- Dragon fruitSelenicereus undatusA climbing, night-blooming cactus with huge white flowers and vivid fruit: pink or yellow skin with white, pink or deep magenta flesh. It's drought-tolerant, quick to fruit and easy to grow on a post.
- GuavaPsidium guajavaA tough, fast-growing small tree with fragrant fruit that ranges from white to deep pink inside. It fruits young and often, and is easy to grow in warm climates, where it can also spread from seed.
- JaboticabaPlinia caulifloraA slow-growing Brazilian tree that bears grape-like purple-black fruit directly on its trunk and branches. It fruits in flushes several times a year and makes a striking, shrubby ornamental.
- JackfruitArtocarpus heterophyllusThe largest tree-borne fruit in the world, often 10–40 lb and growing straight from the trunk. Ripe pods are sweet and fragrant, while young green jackfruit is cooked as a savory, meat-like vegetable.
- LonganDimocarpus longanA lychee relative with smaller, tan-skinned fruit and sweet, translucent flesh around a shiny black seed; the name means 'dragon eye' in Chinese. The tree is larger and a little hardier than lychee, and fruits later in summer.
- LycheeLitchi chinensisA handsome, dense evergreen tree grown for clusters of red, bumpy-skinned fruit with juicy, translucent white flesh. It needs a cool, dry spell in winter to flower well, which is why crops in South Florida vary from year to year.
- MacadamiaMacadamia integrifoliaAn Australian rainforest tree with rich, buttery nuts inside very hard shells. Most cultivars are smooth-shell (M. integrifolia), rough-shell (M. tetraphylla) or hybrids of the two, and grafted trees bear for decades.
- Mamey sapotePouteria sapotaA large evergreen tree with football-shaped, rough brown fruit and creamy salmon-orange flesh. A beloved fruit in Cuba, Mexico and Central America, it takes over a year for each fruit to mature on the tree.
- MangoMangifera indicaA long-lived evergreen tree grown for sweet, fragrant fruit. There are hundreds of cultivars, from small fiberless dessert mangoes to big juicy ones, and many of the best for home gardens were selected in South Florida.
- Miracle fruitSynsepalum dulcificumA slow, compact shrub with small red berries that contain miraculin, a protein that makes sour foods taste sweet for about half an hour to an hour. It needs acidic soil and is usually grown in a pot.
- PapayaCarica papayaA fast, short-lived plant that looks like a tree and can fruit within a year of planting. Plants are male, female or bisexual, and the sweet orange or red fruit grows in a ring around the trunk.
- Passion fruitPassiflora edulisA vigorous evergreen vine with showy flowers and round fruit full of tangy, aromatic pulp and seeds. Purple types are sweeter and handle cold better; yellow types are larger, more tart and suited to the hot lowland tropics.
- PineappleAnanas comosusA low, spiky bromeliad that grows a single fruit atop a central stalk, then sends out side shoots for the next crop. It's easy to grow in a sunny garden bed or a pot, even from a store-bought crown.
- RambutanNephelium lappaceumA lychee cousin whose red or yellow fruit is covered in soft, hair-like spines. The sweet, juicy flesh is a favorite across Southeast Asia, but the tree needs a hot, humid, truly tropical climate.
- SapodillaManilkara zapotaA slow, tough, handsome evergreen tree with brown, fuzzy-skinned fruit that tastes like brown sugar and pear. It handles wind, salt and poor soil, and its milky sap (chicle) was the original chewing gum base.
- SoursopAnnona muricataA small, fast-growing annona with large, spiny green fruit full of soft, white, tangy-sweet pulp. It's the most tropical of the annonas and is prized across Latin America and Southeast Asia for juice and ice cream.
- StarfruitAverrhoa carambolaA small, bushy evergreen tree with waxy, ribbed fruit that cuts into star-shaped slices. Sweet types are eaten fresh, tart ones are cooked or juiced, and the tree bears heavily, often more than once a year.
- Sugar appleAnnona squamosaA small, semi-deciduous tree with knobby, segmented fruit that falls apart in the hand when ripe. The creamy white pulp is very sweet, and the tree grows well in dry, rocky soils.
Citrus and temperate fruit
Citrus, figs, stone fruit, apples, pears and berries.
- AppleMalus domesticaApples are the classic temperate fruit, but most need 500–1,000 hours of winter chill, which Florida doesn't get. A handful of low-chill cultivars, led by Anna and Dorsett Golden, fruit reliably in Florida and along the Gulf Coast and ripen in early summer. Nearly all apples need a second cultivar nearby for pollination.
- BlueberryVaccinium spp.Blueberries are shrubs that need acidic, sandy soil rich in organic matter, which much of the Southeast has naturally. Southern highbush types, many bred at the University of Florida, need little chill and ripen in April and May; rabbiteyes, native to the Southeast, are bigger, tougher and ripen later. Planting two or more cultivars of the same type gives bigger crops and larger berries.
- CalamondinCitrus × microcarpaA small, cold-hardy citrus, probably a cross of kumquat and mandarin, that bears tart little fruit for much of the year. It's a staple of Filipino cooking, where it's called kalamansi, and one of the best citrus for pots and patios.
- CherryPrunus aviumSweet cherries need cool winters and dry summers, so they're hard to grow in the humid Southeast; tart (pie) cherries are tougher but still need real winter cold. Newer low-chill sweet cherries like Minnie Royal and Royal Lee have widened the range, though they rarely crop well in Florida.
- FigFicus caricaFigs are easy, fast-growing shrubs or small trees that fruit within a year or two and need little winter chill, so they thrive from the Carolinas into Central Florida. The common figs grown in gardens set fruit without pollination. Many bear a small early crop on last year's wood (the breba crop) and a main crop on new growth in summer.
- GrapefruitCitrus × paradisiGrapefruit is a natural cross of pomelo and sweet orange that appeared in Barbados in the 1700s and became a Florida specialty. The trees are large and vigorous, and the fruit needs long, hot summers to sweeten. Red and pink kinds have largely replaced the old white ones.
- KumquatCitrus japonicaKumquats are small citrus eaten whole, peel and all: the peel is sweet and the flesh is tart. The trees are compact and ornamental, flower in summer, and take cold better than almost any other citrus.
- LemonCitrus limonLemons bloom several times a year, so one tree often carries flowers, green fruit and ripe fruit at once. True lemons like Eureka and Lisbon are cold-tender; the Meyer, a lemon hybrid, is sweeter, hardier and the most popular backyard lemon in the South.
- LimeCitrus aurantiifoliaTwo very different limes are grown at home: the small, seedy, intensely aromatic Key lime and the larger, seedless Persian (Tahiti) lime sold in stores. Both are among the most cold-sensitive citrus. Makrut lime is a separate species grown mostly for its fragrant leaves.
- LoquatEriobotrya japonicaAn evergreen tree with big, leathery leaves that blooms in fall and ripens sweet, apricot-colored fruit in late winter and spring, when little else is in season. It's tough and easy in Florida. Many seedling trees bear small fruit, so grafted cultivars are worth seeking out for larger, sweeter loquats.
- MandarinCitrus reticulataMandarins are the easy-peeling citrus: smaller and sweeter than oranges, and usually ready earlier. The group includes satsumas, clementines, tangerines and many hybrids. Satsumas are the most cold-hardy citrus with good fruit, which makes them the pick for North Florida and the Gulf Coast.
- MulberryMorus spp.Mulberries are fast, tough trees that bear blackberry-like fruit in spring, often in huge amounts. In Florida many cultivars fruit within a year or two of planting, and some bear in flushes for months. The fruit is too soft to ship, so a backyard tree is the main way to taste good ones.
- Muscadine grapeVitis rotundifoliaMuscadines are the native grapes of the Southeast, with thick skins, big seeds and a musky, fruity flavor all their own. Unlike European bunch grapes, they resist Pierce's disease and thrive in heat and humidity, which makes them the most dependable grape for Florida. Bronze types are often called scuppernongs.
- OliveOlea europaeaOlives are long-lived, silvery evergreen trees grown for oil and for curing. They love heat and drought but need a cool winter to flower, and humid summers bring leaf and fruit diseases, so Florida crops are often light and irregular. Arbequina and Koroneiki, which need relatively little winter cold, are the most planted in Florida and Georgia.
- OrangeCitrus sinensisThe sweet orange is the most widely grown citrus. Juice oranges like Hamlin and Valencia fill Florida's groves, while navels and blood oranges are mostly eaten fresh. Citrus greening (HLB) now makes healthy trees harder to keep in Florida, so buy certified disease-free trees from a registered nursery.
- PeachPrunus persicaPeaches are fast, short-lived trees that fruit within two or three years. Classic cultivars need 600–1,000 hours of winter chill, but the University of Florida has bred low-chill peaches that ripen in April and May, weeks before the Georgia crop. Most are self-fertile, so one tree is enough.
- PearPyrus spp.Pears come in two main groups: European pears like Bartlett, which are picked hard and ripened indoors, and crisp, round Asian pears, which ripen on the tree. In Florida and the Gulf South, low-chill sand pear hybrids such as Hood, Flordahome and Kieffer bear reliably; they're firm and best for cooking and canning.
- PersimmonDiospyros kakiAsian persimmons are handsome trees with glowing orange fruit in fall, and they're among the easiest temperate fruits for Florida and the Gulf South. They come in two kinds: non-astringent types like Fuyu, eaten crisp like an apple, and astringent types like Hachiya, which pucker the mouth until they're jelly-soft. The native American persimmon is a separate, smaller-fruited and much hardier species.
- PlumPrunus salicinaMost plums grown in the South are Japanese plums: juicy, round, red or yellow fruit on fast-growing trees. European plums like Stanley, the source of prunes, need far more winter cold. In Florida, the UF Gulf series and Methley are the low-chill choices.
- PomegranatePunica granatumPomegranates are tough, drought-tolerant shrubs or small trees with bright orange-red flowers and leathery fruit packed with juicy seeds (arils). They need little winter chill and love heat, but humid Florida summers bring fruit-spot fungus and splitting, so soft-seeded and disease-tolerant cultivars tend to do best there.
Vegetables
With planting months for warm-winter and colder climates.
- BeansPhaseolus vulgarisSnap beans (green beans) are picked as tender pods; dry beans like black and kidney beans are left to dry on the plant. Bush types bear in a burst; pole types climb and bear longer. Beans add nitrogen to the soil and need little feeding.
- BroccoliBrassica oleracea var. italicaA cool-season cabbage relative grown for its green flower heads. After the main head is cut, most varieties keep sending up smaller side shoots for weeks. In Florida, plant in fall so it heads up in cool weather.
- CarrotDaucus carota subsp. sativusA cool-season root crop that rewards loose, stone-free soil with sweet, crunchy roots. Short, stubby types handle heavy or shallow soil; long types need deep, sandy ground. Fresh-dug carrots taste far sweeter than store-bought.
- CollardsBrassica oleracea var. viridisA big-leafed Southern green in the cabbage family. Collards handle both heat and frost better than kale, so in Florida they can grow most of the year, and a single planting yields for months.
- CucumberCucumis sativusA fast vining crop grown for crisp fruit to slice fresh or pickle. Slicing, pickling and Asian long types all grow well; in Florida they do best in spring and fall, before mildew and pests build up.
- EggplantSolanum melongenaA heat-loving relative of tomato grown for glossy fruit in purple, white, green and striped shades. It handles Florida summers better than tomatoes and peppers.
- GarlicAllium sativumPlanted from cloves in fall and harvested the next summer (late spring in the South). Hardneck types need real winter cold and send up edible scapes; softneck types store longer and suit warm climates. In Florida, softneck and Creole types are the best bet.
- KaleBrassica oleracea (Acephala group)A tough, leafy cabbage relative that keeps producing for months if you pick the outer leaves. It's one of the most cold-hardy vegetables and tastes sweeter after frost; in Florida it grows best fall through spring.
- LettuceLactuca sativaA quick, easy cool-season green for salads. Leaf lettuces can be picked a few leaves at a time; romaine, butterhead and crisphead types form heads. Heat makes it bolt and turn bitter, so in Florida it's a fall-to-spring crop.
- OkraAbelmoschus esculentusA tall, heat-proof relative of hibiscus with pretty yellow flowers and tender pods. It thrives in the long, hot summers that stop most other vegetables.
- OnionAllium cepaA staple bulb crop grown from seed, small transplants or sets. Bulbing is triggered by day length, so choosing the right type matters most: short-day onions for the South, long-day onions for the North, and intermediate types in between.
- PepperCapsicum annuumSweet and hot peppers are grown for colorful, crunchy pods, from blocky bells to fiery habaneros. They love heat, and in Florida they often keep bearing for many months and can live through mild winters.
- RadishRaphanus sativusThe fastest crop in the garden: small spring radishes are ready in under a month. Larger winter radishes like daikon take longer and store well. Radishes are a great first crop for kids.
- SpinachSpinacia oleraceaA fast, cool-season leafy green with tender, dark leaves. True spinach bolts quickly in heat and long days, so in Florida it's a winter crop only. Heat-loving substitutes like Malabar spinach are different plants.
- SquashCucurbita spp.Summer squash like zucchini are picked young and tender; winter squash and pumpkins are left to harden for storage. Squash vine borers and mildew can wipe out plants in the Southeast, so tough, long-vining types like Seminole pumpkin are worth growing there.
- Sweet potatoIpomoea batatasA heat-loving vine grown for sweet roots and edible leaves. Despite the name, it isn't a potato: it's in the morning glory family, not the nightshade family. It grows well in sandy Southern soils with little care.
- TomatoSolanum lycopersicumThe most popular home vegetable, grown for sweet, juicy fruit from tiny cherries to big beefsteaks. Determinate types grow to a set size and ripen in a burst; indeterminate types keep growing and bearing until frost or heat stops them. In Florida, small-fruited and heat-setting types do best.
Herbs
Kitchen herbs, how to grow them and what's safe for pets.
- BasilOcimum basilicumThe most popular kitchen herb: a fragrant, tender annual that loves heat. Pinching the tips keeps it bushy and leafy. In Florida it grows most of the year except in the coldest weeks.
- ChivesAllium schoenoprasumA hardy, clumping perennial onion relative with hollow, grassy leaves and pretty purple flowers. It comes back for years with almost no care. Garlic chives, a different species with flat leaves, grow better in Florida's heat.
- CilantroCoriandrum sativumA fast, cool-season herb grown for its bright leaves (cilantro) and seeds (coriander). Heat and long days make it bolt quickly, so in Florida it's a fall-to-spring crop. Sow small batches every few weeks for a steady supply.
- DillAnethum graveolensA tall, feathery annual herb grown for its leaves (dill weed) and seeds. It sows easily, bolts in heat, and attracts beneficial insects and swallowtail caterpillars. In Florida, grow it fall through spring.
- LemongrassCymbopogon citratusA big, clumping tropical grass with a strong lemon scent. It thrives in Florida's heat and rain, and in colder places it's grown in a pot and brought in for winter. Grocery-store stalks with a bit of base often root in water.
- MintMentha spp.A vigorous perennial herb that spreads by runners and can take over a bed. Grow it in a pot, or a pot sunk in the ground. Spearmint is the cooking mint; peppermint is stronger and cooler.
- OreganoOriganum vulgareA tough, spreading Mediterranean perennial with pungent leaves. Greek oregano has the strongest flavor. Cuban oregano and Mexican oregano, also common in Florida kitchens, are different plants with similar flavors.
- ParsleyPetroselinum crispumA hardy biennial herb grown as an annual for its fresh, grassy leaves. Flat-leaf types have more flavor; curly types are prettier and tougher. It's also a favorite food of black swallowtail caterpillars, so plant extra.
- RosemarySalvia rosmarinusA woody, evergreen Mediterranean shrub with needle-like, resinous leaves. It loves sun and dry roots, and once established needs little water. Overwatering kills more rosemary than cold does.
- ThymeThymus vulgarisA small, woody perennial herb with tiny, fragrant leaves. It wants full sun and dry roots, and is easy in most of the country; in Florida, humid summers cause rot, so grow it in pots with sandy mix or treat it as a cool-season crop.