PlantFiles: Pomegranate, Granate Apple
Punica granatum

This tree was planted in the 1940's when the house was built.The soil is sandy in this area. It usually gets pruned lightly every year and aggressively every 3-4 years after harvest. The fruit seems to grow best on the 1 year old branches.
There have been as few as 30 and as many as 500 pomegranates on this tree over the 20 or so years that I have witnessed.
This tree blossoms as early as March, but most blossoms appear in May. Sometimes winds remove hundreds of blossoms and the ground is coated red with them.
The fruit is ripe just before Halloween, but may appear ripe in September. Neighborhood kids often pick them too early and tart and miss out on the true flavour.
Once ripened, the leaves turn yellow and began to drop. It will sit naked til spring, then quickly green up again for another go.

If sheltered from winter wind, pomegranate bushes can easily tolerate zone 6b. Mine are planted against a south facing brick wall. We hope to see fruiting this, their fifth year.
July 2011, on that south wall, one of three survived and is coming back well... I guess this winter had three nights at minus 17 celcius and a full day at minus 20 celcius (-4F) did too much damage to some of these plants' roots (these temps are definitely 6b temps).
My large specimen was covered by a temporary greenhouse and is doing fantastic!

I love this tree and the fruit it yields. I've got two individuals in my garden in Krapets. Once, they got mowed over with a lawn mower but they regrew and have several stems now.
They grow in the light shade of some trees in the neighbour's yard and don't mind it. I can't wait for them to grow into maturity. They aren't the fastest growing of trees, however.
Pomegranates are hardier plants than are given credit for, I think. I've seen handsome examples in Budapest, Hungary; Plovdiv, Bulgaria; and all over the Bulgarian Black Sea coast.

This, too is my favorite fruit as someone posted above. Has anyone grown this tree in Boise Idaho? I've always had one since I was a kid, and would really like to plant a "grove" but my wife has limited me to two trees! Thanks.

Pomegranate thrives in our climate. Here in the coastal area I see many strong plants blooming and bearing fruits all the year. They don´t seem to mind our sandy soils, nor our burning sun.

This is one of my favorite fruits - I've grown it in Los Angeles and am trying to get it to fruit in Alabama (with little luck). I use the juice for cooking. Here's my method: take the fruit in your hands and gently squash it, making sure not to rupture the skin - you can feel the inner seed beans getting squished. After you have made the fruit totally squishy, take a knife and make a small puncture in the fruit - make sure you have a bowl to drain the juice in. Continue squishing the fruit until most of the juice is in the bowl and it sort of falls apart. Enjoy!

This is a tree with many good aspects.

First, it grows with many stems and can take a lot of pruning to produce the result you like.
Then, the flowers are a brilliant red and they make a strong impression.

The fruit is wonderful, if you don't mind the pips. You can take the juice by cutting the fruit in half and squeezing it on a lemon squeezer - if you are more sophisticated, it will give you a very refreshing juice with a juice extractor, like that used for carrots.
You can dry the fruit in the sun and use it in a pot-pourri bowl or hang it on the door back with a garlic, some cinnamon sticks and a horseshoe for good luck. In the old times they used to break a pomegranate in front of the home entrance to ask for prosperity.
A hai-koo written in Greek from G Seferis (Nobel):
"naked woman,
the pomegranate that broke
was full of stars"

The leaves turn yellow in the Autumn and give a totally different look.

There are several varieties, some for flowers only, some with early small pomegranates othres with huge dark red fruit, and you can graft a tree to produce 2- 3 different kinds.

What else do you want from a tree ?? Perhaps not to have thorns..

The seeds, (the edible part is the flesh surrounding the seeds) are best removed by cutting the crown off, then scoring the skin in numerous places, then hold the fruit under water and break apart the fruit. The seeds sink and the leathery skin floats. The flesh around the seeds needs to be removed to dry the seeds as it can cause the seed to rot or mold. The fruit has been used as an astringent, diuretic, anthelmithic(wormer), and febrifuge(fever reducer). It is considered a mediteranean fruit, and most commercialy grown in the San Joaquin valley of California.
It can be grown from seed. Has survived temps down to 15 degrees F, although a frost after budding will cause it not to fruit.

Some people find it hard to figure out how to get this plant to produce fruit, but once you do, it'll produce for years. The way you eat the fruit is to break it open and suck the pulp off of the numerous seeds. There's probably, by mass, as many seeds as edible pulp, so many people find it more trouble than it's worth. I, on the other hand, LOVE the sweet-tart flavor ~ reminds me of my Grandma's tree.

Semi-deciduous (will lose some leaves) in zone 8. Grows quickly. Great for color all year, does produce fruit, some can get up to 15 feet tall. Prefers full sun.