Source plant from Burnt Ridge Nursery, Jan 2017
I bought this plant to be an understory nitrogen-fixer. The Elaeagnus family fixes nitrogen using a whole different set of bacteria than legumes do. I actually had three Goumi planted side-by-side and two of them died in the summer of 2017 (Red Gem and Sweet Scarlet). But this Carmine survived. I don't think it was because it is intrinsically more heat tolerant, I attribute it to the fact that one of my tropical guavas grew over it and was shading it about halfway through the summer. After winter, this Carmine Goumi put on a growth spurt and is now poking through the guava 'nurse' branch. So it will be interesting to see how it fares the summer of 2018: will the top take the heat / filtered sun as long as the bottom part of the plant is shaded by the guava. Check back for an update.
