Hi, my name is Dan, and I'm a mangophile. No, not a mango expert, sadly. Just an addict.
It's a poignant story, starting back in the early eighties when my other half stole a Hayden mango from a neighbor's yard in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I was hooked immediately. Soon we were attending mango tastings at the Broward Rare Fruit Council meetings, craving more and more mangos. We became groupies of Crafton Cliff (or Clifton Craft?), Professor Will, the Doctors Campbell, Chris Rollins and Gary Zill.
There was no room in Ray's yard for a mango tree, so I was forced to buy a small house, on a tiny lot, in eastern Tamarac. I planted Kent and Keitt and Glenn, as well as lots of other fruit trees, driving the HOA and the maintenance men crazy. The trees prospered, I found that Kent and Keitt are easy to ship, and my relatives in Michigan joined in my addiction.
A job change brought a move to Lake Worth, where there was only room for one mango tree. I planted a Gary secured on a class trip to the Zill establishment. We had the chance to move to a place with a larger yard, so I never got to taste Gary. The tree is still there, though.
We've been in suburban Lake worth about 18 years now. The yard isn't big enough, of course, but I've squeezed in what I can. Started with Dot and Cushman, Beverly and Jacquelin and Carrie. Through the years we lost Cushman to hurricanes and Carrie to some awful disease. But we have added Neelam, Rosigold, Lancetilla, Joellen (not Jean Ellen), and Graham, all bearing size. And our most recent acquisitions, with thanks to several members of this forum, are Coconut Cream, Pickering, Maha Chanok, Lemon Zest, and a tiny, sad little Mallika.
I also have an old trailer on a couple acres up in Highlands County, where I've managed to kill many trees, including citrus, jujube, and oriental persimmon. The climate there has been especially harsh the last several winters, hotter than Hades except when it's 20 degrees several nights each winter.
Luckily our goats and sheep and chickens don't mind.
P.S. I love that I was able to edit this after the fact. Turns out I had been misspelling Jacquelin as Jacqueline all these years.