So got the bright idea that I should start a butterfly garden last year. Really interested in attracting the Zebra Swallowtail to the yard if not getting some larvae from Lucas Nursery.

I got a nice size plant, 4', at the Fall USF sale. It was fully leafed out and looked very well grown. Someone at the Rare Fruit Council was selling them in 3 gallon pots. Well needless to say, a few weeks in my care and all the leaves decided to fall off. This was middle of winter and I thought I was joining the growing list of people who failed with paw paw. It was a stick until the beginning this month. Go figure the stick started leafing out? I has leaves on the top half of the plant.

So is this tree a deciduous tree in Central Florida (Saint Cloud/Kissimmee Area)?
Where is the best place to plant these things? I want to release it from its pot.

PCITURES to follow. This really is a wonderful surprise this spring.

They are a Tropical Fruit. I think you did well overwintering it where you live.

Guess I should not use common names on the plant forum. It is the Asimina triloba, long since lost the tag so not sure if this is a true species or a hybrid plant.

gotcha - I was thinking papaya! which is aka paw-paw in parts of the world.

You know I may have spoke to soon. The top leaves are beginning to turn black. All this rain is giving the plants a bit extra water. Any ideas on what may be going on?

Whole plant



Bad shot - The sky was getting ready to open up and I wanted to get the pic

Close-up of the bottom of the plant:



These leaves are really healthy

Leaves turning black???

Paul, tell me if I'm crazy, but do you have 3 different plants in the same tub there?

In your sideways shot above, the plant on the right (closest to the little clay pot) looks like Plumeria Pudica to me. So does the shorter one on the right. Only the middle plant, the tallest one, looks like the leaves in your last pictures. I'd give each of those plants their own pot.

The tip burn on the leaves might be fertilizer burn, if you put new soil in the pot. Many potting soils have fertilizer already in them, and it can be too much for a plant just leafing out. Good news is, if this is the case, it will recover most likely.

Three different pots same area. Just an optical illusion.

You may be onto something there. I put some Vigoro slow release as an experiment in those pots. I have been having problems ever since on all the pots. Maybe that stuff is not so slow release as advertised.

I don't grow this plant but it sure sounds interesting and the fruit sounds yummy! Looking at your photo of the damaged leaves my first thought was possibly a fungal infection but as Elaine stated it might very well be fertilizer burn. I hope you will consider uploading a few of your photo's to the database.

Asimina triloba: Pawpaw (Asimina triloba)

I have been wanting to grow this ever since tasting the fruit as a child. In my research I've found you have to have more than one to get fruit to set. They also grow very large.