With a tart and floral flavor, yuzu fruits provide a uniquely refreshing taste to sauces and marinades. Join plant expert Briana Yablonski as she explains how to grow this cold-hardy citrus at home. While you’re probably familiar with lemons, oranges, and limes, you can grow many other citrus plants at home. Take yuzu, for instance. These cold-hardy plants can tolerate temperatures that would cause many other types of citrus to perish, making them a good year-round addition to many outdoor gardens. With the proper care, yuzu plants will eventually produce round yellow or orange fruits that resemble bumpy mandarin oranges. Despite their appearance, the sour yuzu fruits aren’t great for fresh eating. However, the tart juice and refreshing zest have a unique flavor that makes an excellent addition to marinades, cocktails, and salad dressings. If you want to try growing yuzu at home, you’re in luck! As long as you provide the proper environment and practice a bit of patience, you can enjoy fresh yuzu fruits within a few years. What Is Yuzu? Yuzu is similar to many other types of citrus plants, with a few unique characteristics. If you think you’d like to add a yuzu to your collection, here’s what you can expect. Characteristics While all yuzu plants grow as evergreen perennials, the rootstock determines their final height. Plants on mature rootstocks can grow up to 20 feet tall, while those with dwarfing rootstocks cap out at about five feet tall. All types of yuzu produce deep green leaves with elongated petioles (leaf stems). These petioles appear to resemble small leaves, so the combination of leaf and petiole looks like two conjoined leaves. Yuzu plants take multiple years to reach maturity, so they won’t produce flowers during their first year of growth. When the plants are old enough, they’ll send out small, white flowers in the late winter or spring. These flowers closely resemble other types of citrus blooms, with five white petals and yellow stamens. After successful pollination, small green fruits appear in the center of the flowers. Eventually, the petals drop, and the fruits grow until they’re about three inches in diameter. Fully grown fruits begin to change color to deep yellow or light orange and are ready for harvest during the winter. Native Area Yuzu originated somewhere in Central China near Tibet, where it continues to grow today. The tree isn’t a distinct species but rather an F1 hybrid of two other citrus trees: the mandarin orange and the pithy Ichang papeda. Although yuzu plants first appeared in China, humans brought this citrus to Japan sometime near the end of the first millennium. Since then, they’ve been grown throughout the country. Planting While adding any plant to my home is exciting, bringing home a citrus plant like yuzu makes me feel like a kid on Christmas morning. If you’re anything like me, it’s easy to let the enthusiasm of a new citrus tree prevent you from adequately preparing for its arrival. So stop, take a breath, and keep these tips in mind.

If you’re looking for the sweetest strawberry to grow in your garden this year, look no further than 'Albion' strawberries. These day-neutral plants are easy to grow and produce tons of delicious fruit. In this article, horticulture expert Matt Dursum shows you how to plant, grow, and care for these high-yielding berries. ‘Albion’ Strawberries are wonderfully sweet and easy to grow. They produce sweet, deep red berries throughout the growing season. The large berries are super plump, juicy, and flavorful, making them ideal for desserts, jams, or for eating fresh off the plants. If you’re a first-time strawberry grower, you can grow these productive strawberries easily in containers, hanging gardens, vertical planters, or garden beds. They’re resilient to many diseases and handle high heat and humidity. Let’s dive into how to plant, grow, and care for these mouth-watering strawberries. You’ll enjoy the beginner-friendly ‘Albion’ strawberry plants with just a little maintenance and care. What Is It? ‘Albion’ is a gorgeous variety of strawberries that produces large, flavorful fruits. They have a conical shape and bright red color. The berries are flavorful and high in nutrients such as Vitamin C, fiber, and antioxidants. Because they’re day-neutral everbearing, you’ll enjoy harvesting ripe fruit throughout the season. They are excellent in desserts, salads, or eaten fresh. If you’re a beginning gardener, you’ll love these easy-to-grow plants. They thrive with very little care or attention. They’re also resilient to many pests and diseases. Characteristics These small herbaceous perennials grow radially from a central plant. They can adapt to many soil types and containers like vertical planters and hanging baskets. As they grow, they spread out by creating runners that continuously find new sources of water and soil. Each baby runner can be propagated into a brand new plant. As ground cover, these strawberries work incredibly well as a natural mulch. Their foliage protects the soil from losing moisture. Their foliage protects beneficial insects in your garden beds or containers. Before fruiting, the plants produce beautiful, tiny flowers that attract beneficial pollinators. If you want to create a magnificent edible garden, planting these large and easy-to-maintain strawberry plants is a great idea. Native Area Strawberry plants are native to the Americas. The genus has been harvested by Native Americans for millennia. In the 17th century, Europeans first documented their encounters with the delicious fruits. You can still find these wild ancestors growing in fields from the Northeast to the Northwest. When breeders got hold of the South American wild strawberry (Fragaria chiloensis), they bred it with the North American Fragaria virginiana. They created the species we know and love today, Fragaria × ananassa. These modern strawberries became garden and commercial staples around the world. ‘Albion’ varieties were first cultivated in 2006. They’re a cross between the varieties Cal 94.16-1 and Diamante. From their home in California, they quickly grew in popularity and soon became one of the dominant strawberry varieties grown commercially and in home gardens. Planting Planting ‘Albion’ strawberries is super easy, even for beginning gardeners. They thrive in most growing conditions and can tolerate both warm and cold temperatures once they’re mature. Below are some helpful pointers for getting healthy and delicious berries in your garden this year.

The most popular cherry grown by commercial farmers is also available for growing in home gardens. In this article, gardening expert Wendy Moulton shares how to care for fantastic ‘Bing’ cherry trees! The sweet fragrance of white cherry blossoms in spring will burst into rich, large fruits in summer with their tasty, sweet flesh. In autumn, the green serrated leaves turn golden – truly a tree for all seasons. It is, however, the cherries that they are known for. ‘Bing’ cherry trees produce deep red heart-shaped fruits with a sweet, delicious taste and small seeds, giving you more cherry for your pie. These vigorous growers are perfect for temperate climates and will produce up to 50 pounds of fruit per year for many years to come. The prolific fruit on this tree, the large size of the cherries, and the deep red color all make this the variety to plant. It requires a pollinator tree planted nearby, which adds to the variation in cherries you can grow in a home garden. Here, I’ll share the requirements ‘Bing’ cherries need to perform at their best. What Is It? Prunus avium ‘Bing’ is America’s most produced variety of cherry in the commercial market. Its origins have a colorful history, starting in the mid-1800s when the Lewelling family traveled west across the country from Iowa to Oregon, bringing with them 700 fruit trees. They started the first nursery on the West Coast and planted orchards of prunes, apples, and cherries, which is believed was the beginning of Oregon’s fruit-growing industry. The ‘Bing’ cherry tree was named for Chinese horticulturalist and foreman at the Lewelling orchards, Ah Bing. His legacy lives on in this award-winning cherry cultivar. For the nearly 150 years that the ‘Bing’ cherry has been in production, it has set the standard by which other cultivars are judged. Native Area Originally from Germany, these trees are descendants of the ‘Napoleon Bigarreau’ variety. The ‘Bing’ cherry was bred in Milwaukie, Oregon, from original trees brought from Iowa by the Henderson Luelling. Characteristics ‘Bing’ is a tall tree with a rounded canopy that can grow up to 35 feet and 25 feet wide. Dwarf varieties are more compact, with a mature height of around 15 feet and 12 feet wide. The leaves are long, serrated, dark green for most of the year, and turn golden yellow in the fall. The tree will be full of pretty, fragrant spring blossoms that form the sought-after large fruits, a deep red when ripe in the summer. This tree is a vigorous grower and a prolific producer of quality, firm cherries. ‘Bing’ requires another pollinator cherry close by to set fruit; it is not self-pollinating. The best-recommended varieties to plant as pollinators are ‘Sam’, ‘Van’, ‘Rainier’, and ‘Stella’. Planting Find a position in full sun and with enough space for the mature size of a ‘Bing’ cherry—at least 25 feet—and a pollinator cherry. Locate it away from other plants and buildings in a spot with plenty of sunlight. Dig a hole at least twice the width and height of the root ball so that the roots have a chance to expand and sit in the ground well to hold the weight of the tree. A stake is necessary, particularly in windy areas. Add the tree and backfill the soil, pressing it down as you go to remove any air pockets in the soil and prevent any bacterial infections from getting to the roots. Create a basin around the tree’s base to help direct water toward the roots. After planting, water the plant well and add a layer of mulch, making sure that the mulch does not touch the tree’s bark.