The highlights
- Sweet with hints of strawberry and pineapple
- Great for small gardens
- Make flavoured vodka or delicious muffins
- Harvest from September to October
Description
- Known as the Chilean guava, strawberry myrtle, tazziberry (in Australia) and ugniberry (in New Zealand), one thing’s for certain – whatever you call this shrub, it’s bloomin’ brilliant!
- Compact and bushy in appearance, ugni molinae comprises waxy evergreen leaves, nodding, bell-shaped summer blooms (which have a lovely scent) and delicious crimson red berries in the autumn
- First introduced to the UK in the middle of the 19th century, the fruit quickly became Queen Vic’s fave, and really, who can blame her?
- The round fruits are incredibly moreish, boasting a sweet taste not dissimilar to that of strawberries or pineapple (some gardeners even say the taste reminds them of cotton candy)
- The plant’s naturally small stature (growing to a height of between just 1 and 2 metres) makes it ideal for those gardens more limited on space – we think it would work particularly well in a sheltered courtyard garden in a large pot
- Pick and eat the berries straight from the bush, bake them in muffins, cookies and friands, or make a delicious tazziberry-infused vodka, gin or tequila
- Native to Patagonia, the juice of the berries was once used as a sort of natural energy drink to help fuel the expedtions of indigenous populations like the Mapuche and Selk’nam peoples
