On 2013-11-21 11:56:16 +0000, echinosum said:

'Sacha[_11_ Wrote:
;995517']Ray has just brough in a jar filled with the berries from this
shrub,
related to the guava. I took off the lid and a powerful scent of
strawberries filled the room. I felt quite like Queen Victoria for a
moment, though without the lace cap and diamonds! (t is said these
fruits made her favourite jam)
--

The only reason it sometimes got called the guavaberry or Chilean guava
is because it has a somewhat more perfumed flavour than the blueberry,
rather than any particular relationship to the guava. As it happens,
guava is, like blueberries, eucalyptuses and cloves and bottlebrushes,
in that very diverse family the Myrtaceae, but one wouldn't usually
think it worth mentioning that blueberries are related to the guava. It
was until recently classified as Myrtus ugni and is much more closely
related to the blueberry than to the guava. The Chileans themselves
call it murta, which in Spain would refer to common myrtle.

You are very lucky, and perhaps also clever, to have them. They are
very delicious. I've only ever eaten them in Chile. I tried growing them
here in the Chilterns but despite my pouring lots of collected rainwater
on them, they never produced and eventually died.

With every respect to Ray, he doesn't do anything special to them that
I know of. We have one living in a terracotta pot which is the one he's
collected all these berries from. Today, he's opened a few and got
dozens of seeds, so we'll eat the rest. I'm happy to send you a few
berries if you'd like to 'try again' with it. If you send your
snailmail to me at Yes, the name change was quite recent and as these
things are, a nuisance, though not a major one! It is a symbol of
fertility and fidelity, apparently and as Queen Victoria carried a
sprig in her bouquet, it appears to work! The Myrtus communis we have
in the garden (many because it seeds itself all over the place) seems
to flower on and off throughout the year.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon