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Feijoa sellowiana 'Lynn's Variegated' (Variegated Pineapple Guava) – An evergreen small tree or shrub reaching 16-25 feet tall and as wide. It produces green oval shaped leaves that have a silvery-white underside but on this cultivar the leaves, which are held upright along vertical stems exposing the silvery-grey color below, have a cream variegation. In late spring to early summer appear the showy flowers with the inside of the fleshy edible flower petals a shiny pink while the outside of the petals is white. This variegated selection has never produced fruit.
Plant in full sun and give occasional to moderate water irrigation. It is hardy without any damage to at least 18° F and can tolerate short durations temperatures below this. This cultivar was not so tested but we have a hedge of the species along the north fence line of our nursery that was undamaged during short duration temperatures down to 18° F experienced in the December 1990 Christmas freeze and we had a gardener in Birmingham, Alabama tell us that his plants survived low temperatures as low as 6° F with sustained temperatures below 20° F.
Feijoa sellowiana grows naturally from the highlands of Southern Brazil through Eastern Paraguay, Uruguay, Northern Argentina and Columbia. For more information about this species and the names like Acca that it has previously gone by, see our listing for Feijoa sellowiana. 'Lynn's Variegated' is a single seedling selection made from a crop of Feijoa sellowiana at San Marcos Growers in 1987 that was later planted out in front of our production office and has since grown to be a large shrub to over 10 feet tall by 15 feet wide. Numerous unsuccessful attempts were made to vegetatively propagate this plant by cutting but the only successful propagation method found was by grafting scion wood onto seedlings. We had one successful plant grafted by longtime Santa Barbara horticulturist Bruce Van Dyke in 2006 and in 2024 we contracted Santa Barbara rare fruit grower Kevin Reimer to produce our last crop to insure we had plants to share with others before the nursery property was developed for housing.
The information about Feijoa sellowiana 'Lynn's Variegated' displayed on this web page is based on our research conducted in the nursery's horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also include observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share cultural information that would aid others in growing this plant. |
