I'm growing two in the Toowoomba district at 700m, subject to frosts. Both got knocked back by a black frost 2 Winters ago, but survived and are now fully recovered. If you have buildings and paving all around, my guess is that those would hold a lot of heat and overcome the frost issue.

My older one is about 4 years old now and only about 2m high. They don't seem to like the hottest direct northern sun - bleaches some leaves. The leaves are a beautiful glossy deep green. My older one has had a few flowers over the last two years, but flowering has yet to get into full stride. The scent is definitely the same as the exotic Gardenia, though not as strong. But maybe when they flower properly, all the flowers together will have a more pervasive scent. The shape of my trees is very good. I have not bothered to tip prune - it does not seem necessary at this stage. I have not seen any fruit from the flowers - maybe that will come later too. I think the Randia chartacea gets red edible berries. I'd be interested to know if anyone else has had fruit on their R. fitzalanii and what the fruit looks like when mature.

Incidentally, the R. chartacea is a coastal Qld plant and I have tried to grow it twice, but it does not seem to like the local conditions. I think it cannot withstand any frost.

Cheers,
Frank

Alasdair

Thanks,
Frank

It may be a bit before I have a picture of fruit. I just removed them from the tree a couple of weeks ago, but have buds developing again. I'll let the fruit develop this time, and will take pictures and post them as they do. If I get to my friend's nursery (where I bought the tree) beforehand, I'll take some pictures there. He usually lets his trees develop fruit to collect the seed.

Alasdair

Doug.