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A quick scout around the internet shows that avacados shouldn’t really grow outdoors in the UK. But my experience is very different.

I’m a keen amateur gardener, more inclined temperamentally to ’suck it and see’ than research. My motto: if you find a seed put it in the ground and see what happens.

Despite the UK weather I’ve had great success growing avavcado trees outdoors. So what’s the story?

I first idly poked an avacado seed into a pot in 2000. We had a tiny town centre patio garden in central Brighton. I was surprised when it germinated and, within three years, had grown into a pretty three foot tree with a sturdy inch thick stem and glossy evergreen leaves.

It kept on growing. We uprooted ourselves in 2004, moving to a place with a large garden. I kept the avacado in the conservatory for two years until it got too big then took a deep breath and planted it out.

Because our ‘burb sits on top of the Downs we have very poor soil. About six inches of rough, thin, flinty stuff sitting on top of thousands of feet of solid chalk. We’re right in the teeth of the fierce prevailing Westerly winds too.

Luckily avacados appear to enjoy well drained spoil and they’re not averse to alkaline soil. I planted ours in a very sunny spot, as sheltered as I could manage, and hoped for the best.

It thrived and grew to six feet. Then the harsh winter of 2009 hit and the frost killed it. No leaves, bendy brown stems and loads of very obviously dead wood. Not surprising. It had snowed hard. Temperatures had dropped well below freezing. They’d stayed there for three weeks. And it had been dismally wet and extra windy on and off ever since. 

I left it until the end of June then sadly gave up and pruned my avacado right back to the trunk. Then I curled some wild bindweed round it so it made an attractive tower for the flowers (good for insects!) and forgot about it.

In mid July I noticed a handful of strong, vigorous shoots. Today (29th July ‘09) they’ve reached about ten inches, each with four wonderfully thick, healthy leaves. Amazing!

I’ve been growing avacados outdoors for almost a decade and I never get bored of seeing this plant’s amazingly determined shoots emerge. When happy, they take off like rockets.

So if you fancy growing your own avacado tree outdoors in the UK, just give it a go. They’re surprisingly hardy. My oldest avacado has just survived the UK’s coldest winter in 13 years, followed by an extremely soggy spring!

Here’s some facts and my top tips about growing your own avacado tree outdoors in the UK:

A few avacado facts

• Avacados thrive in mild winter areas like California and Florida
• They can grow up to 80 feet high
• They can take between 8 and 20 years to bear fruit
• They like well drained soil, acid or alkaline
• They don’t like to be waterlogged, especially in winter
• They quickly droop if they get too dry. But they recover fast, within an hour of watering.

My avacado growing tips

• I predict my avacado trees won’t fruit in the UK. They might not even flower. No worries. It’s a gorgeous plant anyway
• Some avacado seeds germinate, others don’t. Probably depending on the species but I haven’t taken note. Over to you!
• It’s evergreen but can shed a lot of leaves in the spring… don’t worry
• They dislike being in the wind. It shreds the leaves
• If you grow yours indoors it’ll have thin, delicate leaves
• If you grow it from scratch outdoors the leaves will be thicker, smaller and coarser
• If you move an indoor avacado outdoors it’ll probably suffer a bit but new leaf growth will be thicker and coarser
• Once established outside they can stand a remarkable amount of horrible weather and seem to grow back even when you think they’re completely dead and gone