When we first planted a garden, some two plus years ago, we wanted something we could eat from our garden. We thought of bananas but they are messy and prolific. We don't have room for trees like avacados or mamey and don't like papaya. Mangoes just take too long. So we settled on pitaya, something we enjoy in moderation and which seemed easy to grow.
Easy is an understatement for pitaya. We stuck maybe 8 or 10 12-18" stalks in the ground, watered them a bit at first, and then let them go. And go they did. The stalks now cover a wall and have been cut back fiercely so as not to go over the wall to the neighbors. Initially we helped them along with string to help them bind to the wall, but those days are over. They cling happily to rock walls getting whatever moisture they can whenever and wherever it falls, and produce fruit and flowers all summer long.
The flowers are gorgeous, white, and sweet smelling. They only live for one night, but are like the night blooming sirius, divine to smell. And then as they fade a blossom of fruit attached to the end of the bloom and ultimately it ripens and turns hot pink and green. In some countries, these are known as dragon fruit, but here they are pitaya.
Delicious, tasting like kiwi fruit, and white with small black seeds inside.
