Do you know of a reliable nursery in our area that sells peach and plum trees? I don't want to mail order a tree and then have to wait years for it to get big enough to produce fruit.

My floridaking died the first year and replaced it with a florida prince, which I hear is very good.

kara, peaches are very fast growing in fla (and, apparently, pretty short-lived... 7-9 years is it!) my florida price produced 100 perfect peaches the THIRD spring it was in the ground. just fruits sends large (5 foot) trees. best time to plant them is coldest week of the year... when they're dormant. correct pruning is essential. i just bought one of their new varieties, EARLIGRANDE--it's supposed to produce in mid-april. my prince produced mid-may to the beginning of june. in my very limited experiences with such things, the earlier, the better. (pests get bad around here after june 15...)

Don't be too hard on the big box trees. I bought 2 peaches and a nectarine three years ago at Home Depot for less than $10 each (end of season sale). They're doing fine and producing a lot of fruit. Only problem is keeping the racoons and possums that live on the next door golf course from beating me to the fruit.

Anybody with Flordaqueen producing fruits in Central FL? I am in Orlando and planted a Flordaqueen this spring and later found out that is recommended by the Univ of FL for north Fl and not central. The tree is growing excelent. Should I take it out and replace it with like a Flordaprince recommended for my area, I'm afraid it will not produce.

hey there
ive been moaning about my home depot flordaking peach tree for 4 yrs now because it was pretty but never fruited. this year the moaning is ended the treee has dozens of lovely looking peaches growing on it ! they are not ripe yet so i cant tell you about the quality. I also bought a snow queen and a midpride as back up. oh and since its doing so well i bought a golden dorsett apple tree for hd this year.

For trees and shrubs , the motto is :

The first year they sleep .
The second year they creep .
The third year they leap .

By years , this means how long you have had it in the ground on your property;
not , how old the actual plant is .

So three to four years after planting is just right for seeing results .

This is a good all purpose link for fruit trees :

Here is a link that might be useful: Deciduous Fruits for the Home Gardner in North Florida and North Central Florida

We bought a Floridaking last winter from Lowes, it had some blooms when we got it. They set and in a few months we had the best peaches we have ever had. Went back and bought two more this year. Lowes has an excellent return policy, every thing has a one year quarantee. Which unfortunately we had to use on our citrus that froze and died here in north Florida.

Not sure where you are located but Willis orchard has very nice fruit trees and offers older tree's for people like me that doesn't want to wait for years to see fruit. Also check with UF/IFAS for a detailed list of fruit trees that do well in Florida.

I have both Florida king and Florida prince the fla king is huge now and the peaches are as large as what you get in the grocery store and have great flav. I got my Florida king from Willis in Georgia by mail my Florida price I got from a Florida grower both they are great make sure you have enough chill hours below 45 for your area

I live near Tampa and have fl king , fl prince, tropic snow , tropic Sweet, tropic beauty, for plums for central Florida there is a good fruit nursery near you in howey inI the Hills called Natural Farm good plums for our area are scarlet beauty. gulf blaze gulf beauty gulf rose and Hypoluxo all developed at university of Florida