Yesterday morning we had planned to leave early to go to De Leon to Womack’s Nursery. We had a package coming and we had to wait for that so it was after 10 before we got out of here.
It was a gray day for sure. Vince doesn’t like the gray days but I love them. I love all days . . rain, shine, gray . . I don’t like temps over 110 degrees for days and days. I just love the scene in that picture.
So the package was delivered and we headed off to De Leon. It was funny because De Leon is about an hour from here and it’s just a little crossroads really. We go there once a year to go to Womack’s about this time of year to buy trees.
As we were headed down the highway, Vince said “There’s a policeman passing us.” One of us and it wasn’t me got stopped for speeding on that road before we ever moved here so he’s real careful about obeying the law when traveling that highway. The guy passed us and it was a De Leon police officer. I thought it was funny – I’ve never seen a De Leon police officer and here he was all the way over here just outside Brownwood and we were headed to De Leon. See . . it doesn’t take much to entertain me.
Womack’s is an amazing place. They have their catalog. You walk into this big barn with dirt floors, tell them what you want or they’ll go through the catalog with you, then they send people out into the tree area to retrieve your trees, which are all bare root. They wrap them, you pay and you’re outta there. Read the history on their web page. It’s a heartwarming story of a family owned business and they are so knowledgeable. They sell quite a few trees that people want but they will tell you they don’t guarantee them and they’re novelty trees. Olives for instance. They will grow here til the temp drops to about 24 degrees. Depending on the amount of conditioning cold we’ve had, most of the olive trees will probably succumb to Mother Nature at that point. So, they tell us . . if you want an olive tree to survive and produce, you’re going to have to be prepared to have a portable shed type think you can put around it with a heater when the temp drops below 24. They said it doesn’t happen that often but lately, it does. Last year we had a couple of zero degree nights. They sell almond trees. The old guy, who must be well past 80 now, looked at me and said “No”! I think he knew Vince was not the guy to buy a tree that would never produce. I said “Hey! We have 9 cherry trees and we got one cherry in 7 years!” We’ll try anything but Vince wasn’t convinced an olive tree was worth $25 or $30 . . whatever it cost.
Vince must have just wanted to get out of the house because he didn’t buy much. I had asked for a Pluot and I saw the old guy write it down but somehow between then and paying, we didn’t get a Pluot. It’s a mix of a plum and an apricot. On the way home, I looked at the receipt and said “I didn’t get a Pluot” so we stopped at a large nursery in Rising Star and they didn’t have many trees but they happened to have a Pluot.
So, you can see what we got:
- 1 Jujube. I thought he was going to get 2. We love those things.
- 1 Pluerry. This is a mix of a plum and a cherry.
- 2 Asian pears. Different varieties for pollinating.
- 1 Persimmon. A new to us variety.
- 10 Blackberries. These probably have about a 0% chance of making it in our alkaline soil with our alkaline well water.
Then we stopped on the way home and got the Pluot so, except for the olive tree I didn’t get, I think we have plenty of trees right now.
Why are we still buying fruit trees if we’re planning to move some day? I have no idea. It probably means one of us has aspirations of moving and one of us has no intention of every moving.
Anyway . . we have trees to plant. Vince will probably run to Home Depot in the morning to get a few planting supplies and then he’ll commence to digging holes.
I do have a million onions to get planted so if it’s decent weather (as in not too cold), I’ll probably get started planting them.
Liz says
How is your bay laurel coming along? I checked out the nursery website and they have meyer lemon trees as well as clementine trees. Would you ever try your hand a citrus trees?
Sue Edberg says
Judy, I’m glad you didn’t get any olive trees. I am very allergic to the fruit bearing “female” olive trees as are many people. Here in the Phoenix area, those trees are not even allowed to be sold anymore. You can buy a male tree but not one that will bear fruit. Years ago we had several fruit bearing olive trees in our yard (planted by the previous owner) and one year I had the windows open and we had terrible winds when they were in bloom and I had a horrible reaction and ended up in the hospital with swollen eyes and an asthma attack – the one and only time I have had asthma. We immediately chopped down our olive trees and now I stay away from any area that still has fruit bearing olive trees. Also, those trees are very messy when the olives start dropping off the trees and the birds get into the olives – purple bird poop everywhere!
dezertsuz says
It sounds like you have some great trees there. I hope they will all do well. That sounds like a great place to pick the brains of people who won’t steer you wrong. I’m glad you got your pluot tree!