Phoenix Tropicals Gardening

[phoenixtropicals]

I have a had Carissa, also known as natal plum, in my yard for years. The variety is Tuttlei which is known to be a prolific bloomer and fruiter. It has always produced a fair number of fruit and flowers, but this year it has gone nuts. See the attached photo. The Carissa fruit are decent tasting. They taste like cranberries, but even when they are fully ripe, almost purple, they still have a little bit of latex in them which tends to make your lips sticky. That is a bit of turn off for me. Of course the carissa / natal plum flowers smell awesome, like jasmine, and the plant flowers a good part of the year. Carissa's also have nice dark green foliage. Tuttlei is a relative of boxwood beauty which is a more common landscape plant. Also, notice how I hang the cd's there to deter the birds, which seems to work pretty good.