A funky addition and curious conversation piece to our garden is the Dragon Fruit (Thanh Long in Vietnamese). Also called Pitaya or Strawberry Pear, this fruit is one of several varieties of cactus plant fruits prized in Southeast Asia. The numerous, sprawling branches of this fleshy cacti reach out and climb on to anything that crosses it’s path. Just like a dragon or serpent snaking it’s way in all different directions, the spiny plant itself is really easy to grow in warm, hot , sunny areas. Propagation just takes one strong cutting planted in good soil and you can have a whole farm of plants within two years.
We grow the red/pink skinned, white center variety. The thin skin can be peeled, revealing a white center filled with small, black , edible seeds. Eating the fruit and interior seeds has a texture similar to that of kiwi fruit. It’s really a slightly sweet, mild flavored fruit and is best when eaten fresh. Savoring it this way makes it worth the high price tag it can fetch at the store or farmers market. Dad just gave us some cutting for a red skinned, red center variety. Hopefully next years harvest will be good.
Watching this fruit grow and ripen over a period of 3-4 months is cool. The dragon fruit grows right on top of the branches and over this growth period, the fruit is nurtured to a plump, large, orange sized beauty.
Watch it grow:
True to it’s namesake : “Dragon” Fruit
Baby flower buds …so cute!
Mature flowers about to …Pop!
POP !! Believe it or not, this beauty only lasts for 1 day! After that, it’s like….
A spent penis. All done!
Now comes the fruit growing at the base of the drying flower
More to come…this fruit is still ripening. The harvest should be in about 2 more weeks!
Previous Dragon Fruit Posts and Photographs:
- Dragon Fruit Salad Recipe
- Summer 2009 – Dragon Fruit Flowers
- Summer 2008 – Dragon Fruit growing on the vine and more Dragon fruit recipes
- Summer 2007 – Cool pictures showing the whole life cycle of Dragon fruit plants
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{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
How gorgeous! I wish I had found your post right at the start, because I really had no idea what a dragon fruit was or what to do with it. Your photographs of the lifecycle are spectacular. I look forward to seeing how you go with the pink-fleshed variety!
Great pictures.. thanks!
I have two dragon fruit plants that produce many blooms but no fruit. One is in a large pot the other in the ground. They are in my yard in Key Largo and seem to be thriving but after almost 3 years, no fruit. Any thoughts?
Monty Davis
Hand pollinate.
I believe you are referring to the question Monte asked. If so, you are correct. There are many varieties of dragonfruit which need a little help in different geographies. Often times they will need to be hand pollinated.
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This is so informative! I’ve only seen the fruit at the store and had no idea how it flowered. Love it. Thanks!
Dragonfruit are so pretty and interesting to look at, but I haven’t really been wowed by the flavor. I’d love to have more ideas on what to do with them. They’re all over Chinatown here in NYC.
hello friend in dragon fruit growing! beauuuutifuuuuullll!!! im all smiles while watching your pictures of the life cycle of the dragon fruit.wow! im intending to do that, and here i saw somebody did it first. know what? how i wish dragon fruit growers all over the world would organize a certain association.im sure it would really be a different experience when you’re
sharing your dragon fruit with fellow growers.
Hello and good afternoon from a fellow dragon fruit aficionado. I too am taking a stab at this mysterious and magnificent species of splendor, although, I am honored to be growing several varieties on this, a momentous occasion. I am growing in (get this…) Northern Rhode Island. On a second floor balcony of a rented apartment!!! As you can plainly see from my photobucket site – I grow many many many varieties of tropical and sub-tropical species. This has been an on-going love affair for me since the beginning almost twelve years ago. Currently I am growing three different varieties of Pitahaya; a red flesh red skinned, a var. entitled ‘Physical Graffiti’, and finally a yellow skinned var. more commonly known as ‘Selenicereus Megalanthus’. Wishing you the very best of luck…and god speed!!! Keep those beautiful photos coming and please – continue awakening amongst the moon and stars above.
-Scott
I’ve just discovered your wonderfully informative blog that fits my questions on gardening in Orange County! I discovered dragon fruits about 5 years ago while traveling through China in our hotel breakfast in Beijing. Now I have been give a small plant to grow my own fruit! It’s very droopy leggy branches do not all stand on their own. How do you stake this plant?
I have a lot of catching up on all your posts. My husband and I are foodies who love to try and concoct recipes of delicious foods found in our travels too. Thx!
Hi Annette – We’ll be writing a full write up on how to grow it well. Please look out for it on our Garden blog. Thanks!
Wow, all I could say is that it’s incredible.. I’ve never seen anything like it.
We’re all jealous of your garden…it is just beautiful!
What type of climate does this fruit grow in?
I am wondering the life span of dragon fruit,,, m thinking of planting it in my garden to act as a fence,, would they die after a few years?
They are fairly long lived, although we don’t know how long for sure. Our oldest ones are about 7 years old and getting stronger every year. Make sure they get solid sun for the length of the fence. The only ones that have struggled for us have been in partial shade.
hi to all, I am a dragon fruit lover! Yes I started planting few years back maybe more than 3 years but it never give me the fruits then I decided to change the plant to the ground woh! it then started flowering and I got the sweet lovely taste.Now I got another new plant again in another location in my compound woh the first fruit weighed 660 gm !I am so proud of it !
Finally – pictures of the stages of the flower opening, and then the fruit forming! A neighbor who was moving gave me a cutting. I just sort of threw it on the ground in a spot next to the garage. It grew slowly for a couple of years. Then all of a sudden one morning there was this magnificent flower. Just one. And then a couple of hours later it was wilted. I went online and after quite a bit of research I found the “Queen of the Night”. The next year there were two or three. I actually stood in front of my house at 6AM to see if any early morning walkers were in the area. I spotted two ladies and invited them to see my flowers. Over the next couple of years I got more and more flowers spread out from August to October. In the morning after they wilted I’d twist them off the stems. It was only this year I found out that they bear fruit. Now I know how to manually pollenate them. Unfortunately, I found out after the last flower bloomed yesterday. But there will be more in September, so I’ll give it a try. Thank you for your great web site. Like Annette, I also live in Orange County, California.
We use to have a yard full of them. It was so pretty at night because we would set up lights to help the cactus grow faster, especially during the flowering nights. The the first thoughts that popped in my mind when I saw the wilting flower was a post coital phallus too, lmao!
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