Elaeagnus multiflora
Goumi
Common names: Multiflora Oleaster, Many-flowered Silverberry, Cherry Silverberry
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Hardiness
- Hardy down to −25 °C
- Pruning
- Feb–Mar
- Harvest
- Jun–Jul
- Flowering
- Apr–May
- Spacing
- 250 cm, rows 250 cm
- Water need
- Low
Photo: Famartin · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source
This description was machine-translated.
Description
The goumi, botanically Elaeagnus multiflora, also called the many-flowered oleaster, is a fruiting shrub native to Japan, China, and Korea. It grows 2 to 3 m tall and wide, is deciduous, and has oval leaves that are covered with silvery scales on the underside. In April and May, countless small, cream-yellow bell-shaped flowers open and release a sweet fragrance that attracts bees and bumblebees. From late June, red fruits dotted with silver scales ripen on long stalks, measuring about 1 to 1.5 cm. The fruit tastes sweet and sour with an astringent note, and is very astringent when unripe. The fruit can be eaten fresh or used to make jelly, syrup, and compote. In the garden, it can be grown as a fruiting shrub, as a free-growing hedge, or along the edges of fruit beds. Like all oleasters, it forms root nodules that fix nitrogen from the air, improving the soil. It is a different species from the evergreen oleaster, which is known as an evergreen hedge. Birds spread the seeds, so watch for seedlings around the shrub.
Care instructions
Plant the goumi in October or March in a sunny or partly shaded spot. It is undemanding and tolerates wind, drought, and poor soils. In the first year, water during dry periods; afterward it usually needs no watering. Little fertilizer is needed, since the goumi obtains its own nitrogen. One shrub bears fruit on its own, but two shrubs often yield more. Harvest the fruit when it is deep red and soft, since unripe fruit is very astringent. Because it ripens gradually, pick every few days. For a large harvest, protect the shrub with netting against birds. Thin the shrub occasionally and remove seedlings that establish in beds or lawns.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
HarvestJun–Jul
FloweringApr–May
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
well-drained, sandy, loamy, lean
Goumi grows in almost any free-draining soil, preferably sandy loam, and also copes with poor, dry sites. It tolerates slightly acidic and lime-rich soil equally. It only dislikes permanently wet, compacted soils. On poor soil, low nutrients bother it little, because it fixes its own nitrogen with the help of root nodules.
Feeding
Light feeder
Months
Apr
Goumi needs no nitrogen fertiliser, because it fixes nitrogen from the air. Too much fertiliser promotes soft foliage instead of fruit. A mulch layer of leaves or grass clippings in spring is entirely enough; on very poor sandy soil, also add some ripe compost. In a container, give only an occasional liquid fertiliser for flowering plants during the growing season.
Pruning
Thin out goumi in late winter: remove old, crowded or crossing shoots as close to the ground as possible, so that light and air get into the shrub and new, fruiting shoots grow back. It also tolerates a harder pruning and readily shoots again. But never take away all the shoots at once, otherwise you will be missing part of the harvest the following year.
Overwintering
Goumi is completely hardy and survives frost down to about minus 25 degrees without protection. In the bed you need to do nothing. In a container, place the pot against a sheltered house wall, wrap it in horticultural fleece or hessian and stand it on wood so the root ball does not freeze through. In winter, water only on frost-free days when the soil is dry.
Propagation
Methods
- Cuttings
- Layering
- From seed
You propagate goumi from seed, layering or cuttings. For sowing, remove the pulp and leave the seeds over winter in a pot outdoors; they germinate in spring. Seedlings turn out variable. Propagation that comes true to type works by layering in spring or semi-ripe cuttings in summer, which you keep moist and bright; not every one will root.
For your garden
Grow Goumi yourself
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