Two people have replied to my Goumi e-mail saying Sweet Scarlet bears fruit in the spring. My mystery plant bears fruit in the fall. I just googled "autumn olive" and found pictures of the same fruit I have. Mystery solved. I have autumn olive, Elaeagnus umbellata.
So I still want to grow Goumi, Eleagnus multiflora. I would be interested to hear from anyone that has spring-bearing Goumi and could either send me a start or some fresh seeds. Contact me off-list to arrange this.
-Mark Lee, Seattle zone 8
On Thu, Jul 3, 2008 at 7:45 AM, Matt Demmon wrote:
I can not remember which variety I got right off the top of my head, because the variety I wanted was out and they sent another, but I have a goumi, and after 1 year, and only two fruits, I can say that they are definitely 1/2 inch in one direction but not the other. ;) And it does fruit early in the year, not in fall. The fruit was much larger and higher proportion of flesh to seed than even the largest autumn olives I've seen.