I happened to be at UC Davis recently and came upon this garden patch. There were all kinds of neat plants, fruit trees, and flowers. One of the fruit tree that caught my eye was the cornelian cherry.
The tree itself had such pretty green leaves and the fruit hanging from it reminded me of gem stones. But not to be confuse with carnelian gemstones.
One of the neatest thing about using cornelian cherry as landscaping is because they can be planted in partly shady areas under large trees. And it only takes 2-3 years for them to bear fruit.
When ripen, the fruit looks like bright red coffee beans but shaped like olives. And the fruit itself is tart and tasty. The taste also reminded me of cranberries. If I had baskets full of cornelian cherries, I would love to turn them into jam.
I had other appointments that day so I didn’t get to spend much time at the garden. But it turned out that the garden I stumbled upon at UC Davis was part of “The Arboretum gardens“. The last time I visited this campus was almost a decade ago and it did not look this pretty. So next time I am in the area again, I will definitely pack a few sandwiches and have a picnic at the garden. Which happens to be open 24 hours a day, every day of the year, and there is no charge for admission.
8:43 pm on July 14th, 2013
The leaves do look real pretty, I have never seen one before. If it was me, the next time I would bring hot dipping sauce to go with the Cornelian cherry.