The Chilean Guava was Queen Victoria's favourite fruit — so why don't we grow more of them, asks Mark Diacono.
As summer leans into autumn and either end of the day anticipates the season to come, I occasionally find myself checking the slowly colouring fruit of the Chilean guava hedge that edges one of the perennial beds. I know there might be two months or more until their peak, but anticipation is such a vital pleasure of gardening. Chilean guava (Ugni molinae) is a half-hardy evergreen shrub that produces not the tropical fruit you might find in the supermarket, but an abundance of blueberry-sized, deliciously sweet/sharp berries with a flavour somewhere between kiwi, strawberry, blueberry and a gentle spicy sherbetiness.
Despite having apparently been Queen Victoria’s favourite — she had it grown in Cornwall’s mild climate for her table — Chilean guava is not widely grown in the UK for reasons beyond me. That is slowly changing, however, as home growers catch on to its flavour and late-season maturing.
The timing of the fruit’s peak is one of the many pleasures of Chilean guava, coming as it does after blueberries have passed and just as approaching winter could really do with a cheering berry harvest. They ripen slowly, through autumn — resist the temptation to pick early. The deepening of their colour comes before their fullest flavour is realised. Try a few before you pick the rest, to be sure.
It grows as a small evergreen shrub, reaching — depending on variety and pruning — 3ft in height and breadth. As with myrtle, its relative, the leaves are small, waxy and coloured deep green with seasonal flushes of red-purple. As its name suggests, it’s native to Chile and its neighbours, growing naturally in mountainous, temperate forest clearings. Having long been cultivated commercially and grown ornamentally in South America, commercial growing of Chilean guava spread to Australia and New Zealand, where it is grown and sold as tazziberry.
When I first wrote about its potential for kitchen gardens a couple of decades ago, it was hard to source anything other than the generic variety. Today, the choice is much wider. Named varieties such as ‘Strawberries and Cream’ and ‘Bigburning Pink’ offer slight — and equally delicious — variations in flavour, and the smaller habit of ‘Bella Berry’ might suit those growing in containers. A variegated form, ‘Flambeau’, is not only a pleasure to look at, but it is slightly hardier than most. Chilean guava is self fertile, so there are no pollination partner issues, allowing you to grow the plants individually, choosing varieties to suit your taste alone.
You can grow it from seed, but, in common with most slow-growing evergreens, what you save in money, you pay for in impact and — in this case — a long wait for their delicious fruit. A middle ground can be struck by buying a few plants and expanding your number from cuttings or by layering, to which they take readily.
Location is important. The plant is reliably hardy down to -10°C or thereabouts, which these days makes it unlikely to be worried by anything other than the coldest parts of our islands; a wrapping of fleece can help with extended periods around this temperature, although a little die-back is usually the only damage suffered even if they’re caught. A sunny, sheltered spot in a moist, well-drained soil is crucial, both to promote ripening and avoid winter damage. Once established, it will tolerate a little drought, but water well when establishing and through extended dry spells.
As with blueberries, Chilean guava thrives grown in containers, well watered and fortnightly fed. Late spring into early summer will bring a glorious reward: its flurry of beautiful pale-pink, bell-shaped flowers releases clouds of sweet strawberry and bubblegum scent that fills the garden. Plant them where you have reason to sit — perhaps a container near the door — to enjoy that intoxicating scent.
Chilean guava is pleasingly low maintenance: pruning is not required, although it responds well to being shaped or the structure thinned, should you choose, and pests and diseases are limited to the occasional blackbird at harvest time.
Young plants fruit sparingly, but quickly get into their stride after a couple of years. I treat the berries as the fruit equivalent of fresh peas, eating most straight from the bush, but however you enjoy blueberries — perhaps in muffins, for breakfast with yoghurt — Chilean guava will step in happily. They also make an excellent jam, a delicious variation on membrillo and a superb jelly that goes beautifully with cheese and pork.
Mark Diacono grows edibles, both usual and unusual, at Otter Farm in Devon — www.otterfarm.co.uk. His book Vegetables: Easy and Inventive Vegetarian Suppers (Quadrille, £27) is out now.
