Arbutus unedo
"Strawberry Tree"

Year round beauty, ZERO effort. This highly ornamental evergreen tree is ideally suited to our Mediterranean climate – needing little or no water once established. In Fall, it produces clusters of white, urn-shaped flowers with a light honey scent, attracting hummers, bees and butterflies. Showy fruits follow taking a solid year to mature and reaching full, brilliant red ripeness just as the next year’s blooms appear. Much loved by birds, the fruits are edible but they aren’t terribly flavorful and are at their best when made into sugar-laden jams. While “Strawberry Trees” can potentially grow up to 30’ high and wide, they generally cap out at about half that. Naturally growing as a rounded shrub, by pruning the lower branches it can be trained as a standard or multi-trunked tree. Clay tolerant. Provide regular water the first year or two for best drought tolerance thereafter.