Did you get to our fruit tasting a couple of weeks ago. If not, you missed tasting the new Nectaplum Spice Zee. The nursery staff and the people coming in for the tasting loved this new type of fruit. Katie thought it was like eating candy. Although I have not yet seen it growing, I am hearing it is an ornamental with showy fruit and colored foliage

Zaiger’s Fruit Genetics has been working on new fruit hybrids for over 40 years and their best known introductions are the many Pluots that have been introduced. Pluots are crosses between Plums and Apricots. They have made a lot of interest in the fresh fruit market. You see them everywhere including the farmers market. The new Necta-Plum is going to make a similar impact over the next few years as the growers get enough trees in the ground to get them in the market. It has taste characteristics of both Nectarines and Plums. I expect you to need to get to the farmers market at first but eventually it will even show up at the grocery stores.

We have a number of them available as part of our pre-season order program for 2009- 2010 and available bare root in January. There is limited availability so order early because if we get shorted early orders get preference!

The official description:

The first Nectaplum™ from Zaiger Hybrids. Spice Zee packs a pile of amazing fruit into an attractive tree for the home gardener. It is slightly acidic and loaded with sugar giving it a spicy sweet flavor. One can detect both Plum and Nectarine traits with ease. Along with great flavor, Spice Zee is a beautiful ornamental tree with a tremendous spring bloom followed by dark red leaf in the spring that matures to a rich green-red in late summer. This variety is self-fruitful and very productive. (Patent Pending) It ripens in late July.
 

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