Here's another viewâ¦

Now for the nitty gritty about these things: great tough as nails ornamental plant, evergreen and nitrogen fixing, awesome honey plant for late fall and great floral aroma, BUT pollination issues and/or severe winter cold often limit fruiting. Berry is like a large autumn olive, but more tart and with a larger seed. Strictly for processing I think⦠However, left inside to mellow for a few days I found the berries sweeter and very flavorful. I enjoyed sucking the fruit off the large seed.

In closing, it is a shame nobody has worked with this plant, selecting for fruit production and quality⦠such a cool one I think

It reminds me a little of elaeagnus umbellata or elaeagnus multiflora. Elaeagnus multiflora aka goumi I grow for the reasons you mentioned. The entire family is typically nitrogen fixing and drought tolerant etc. Great plants I think ! Elaeagnus umbellata I'm told grows to well in some areas and is considered invasive so I do not grow that variety. It is known for lycopene content in fruit.

Here is a link that might be useful: Elaeagnus

People will frequently say Goumi's are zone 6 only but actually have no problems surviving zone 5 -20 Fahrenheit winters. I got mine from Lawyer nursery. There are named varieties of goumi such as these https://www.onegreenworld.com/Goumi/347/
You may also want to see this link
http://uncommonfruit.cias.wisc.edu/goumi-gumi/

This post was edited by ClarkinKS on Tue, May 20, 14 at 4:50

The coolest thing about this one is the super early ripening time, around the time of last frost, so even March or April in many places!

Goumi has always sounded enticing to me, but the wimpy plant I put in 3 years ago has never really gotten going. The July ripening time sounds great, as so many other things ripen along with the next two...

Autumn Olive (E. umbellata) grows well for me but is a favorite of the pocket gophers and has not fruited well yet either.

Russian Olive, Trebizond Date subspecies is the no-brainer for my climate, grows really well, and flowers late enough to set huge crops every year.

Overall a very interesting family, with each species showing differences in flowering/fruiting times, etc...

I'm in zone 7 and grow this bush exactly for the early ripening fruit that you describe. I don't get berries every Spring but when I do I get enough to do something with. They also serve the purpose of feeding the honeybees on warm winter days when they are one of the few plants in bloom.

I grow Goumi's also. They have a much better Cherry-like flavor and a long fruiting season. I grow both Sweet Scarlet and Red Gem with Red Gem usually ripening a few weeks before Sweet Scarlet. I also have a miss labeled version that was supposed to have amber colored berries but instead has extra large fruit. I don't know who it is but it is my new favorite.

Check out Eleagnus latifolia or So Shang Fruit from the foothills of the Himalayas. Fruit the size of plums. All the cuttings I've acquired over the years never grew roots so I am ordering seeds this year.

Autumn Olive is weed here so I have no need to plant it, I can harvest all the berries I want in the fall from the woods across the street.

So just from this one genus I can get fresh fruit for half the year!

I was wondering if you would be willing to send me a couple of start off of the goumi "sweet scarlet?

I have no luck getting cuttings to root. They have to be air layered.