When we took over the farm, Greg, the previous owner, gave me a tour of the house orchard, pointing out what was what.

I was polite, but was skeptical about the avocado trees...they were in protective cages, and needed to be covered with a blanket every night to protect them from the cold. Same with the juvenile macadamia trees.

But, we took it on. Sometimes we forgot, and they got burnt by the cold. Sometimes we forgot to take off the blanket, and they lived in the dark for a day or two. Sometimes they got sunburnt. We also had a tamarillo tree, and it got flogged every summer and winter. Even now its a straggly thing, less than two metres tall, after nine years . But the macadamias and avocadoes? Whoosh! A couple of years ago they took off, and they are now big trees. Two years ago we found finished fruit and nuts. This year I have picked more than 30 avocadoes, and collected a couple of kilos of macadamias. They both had a lot of flowers this year, and I expect they will get more productive as time goes on. (One of my neighbours has a massive, mature macadamia tree. The ground is ankle deep in macadamias...they don't eat them! But the tree is thriving, despite the annual cold and frosts.)

When its a harsh frost, or a 45+ day in summer, our tropical avocado and macadamia trees suffer, but I've noticed if I water them before the event they bear up pretty well.

One or two trees Greg didn't know what they were. That is. this one is "...meant to be lucky. A Chinese guy sold it to me, its a lucky money tree", he said. Greg might have got them mixed up. In the backyard is another "Chinese" tree. Despite its very distinct leaves, unusual twice a year flowering, distinctive bark and unusual seed pods, no one knew what it was. I eventually tracked it down, and its supposedly a China Doll tree. Normally they are an indoor, tropical plant in a pot. Somehow we have an adult tree in our backyard.

But I couldn't find the other one online, and every visitor I had who had half an idea about trees couldn't identify it either. Again, it had quite distinctive leaves, and bark. It never flowered though.

A couple of years back I found a plant identification app that was pretty impressive. I gave it some photos of my lucky tree, and it came back with a "Malabar Chestnut". I tracked down photos of the leaves, bark and flowers. Well! The flowers are very impressive.


I kept an eye on our tree, which was quite advanced, but never saw the flowers. Over the years I've not lost interest, but don't pay it much attention. Its by our house-yard gate, and this week as I stopped to get out to open the gate, I noticed a flower cluster for the first time. Very exciting!. But it was nothing like the images of a Malabar Chestnut!

Back to my app, but this time with the flowers picture.

Wow. The tree is a White Sapote. Not Chinese...Mexican. Not specifically lucky.

Well, I think we are lucky. If it fruits. And we get some!

Evidently its nine months from flower to harvest. That's a long time to survive the cockies, possums and other nuisances who get first pick of our orchard.