Thanks for all the helpful replies!
I have 2 Vietnams here, and they are doing quite well. I'm hoping they will fruit this year. I have a dwarf pomegranate also and it fruits profusely and is very happy here. I use neem oil frequently in my yard, so that takes care of any issues these seem to have with the climate. My county is the driest county in Florida, with monsoon rains half the year, and desert conditions the other half. It means that most plants I grow have some amount of stress part of the year from too much heat, too much dry, too much rain, or something else - but not enough to really cause serious damage for the most part.
I already have 2 Angel Reds on their way, after waiting to find some available for a year, and they are good size so I am hoping for fruit within the first year in the ground for them. Additionally I have the following coming, none of which I know much about (except for Wonderful), and we'll see how they do: Big Red, Grenada, Hawaiian Beauty, Sweet, Utah Sweet, White, and Wonderful. I really love pomegranates, and I got a good price, so I thought it worth a test to see which variety does best in my area and produces the best fruit. I know I don't have ideal conditions, since even in our drought humidity is usually quite high here, but if any of them turn out to be as happy as the dwarf pomegranate, I will have no complaints. I plan to learn to graft using my dwarf pomegranate, which produces generally inedible fruit, to make a cocktail tree of as many varieties as I can fit on it. I figure with 10 varieties of pomegranate, hopefully more than just the dwarf, which has the worst fruit, should take in these conditions, right?
Let's hope, anyway...
Fyliu, thank you for the recommendation! I had never heard of Ganesh pomegranate, but if I could get my hands on Indian cultivars I definitely would! Most plants that do well in tropical and subtropical India do very well here. I don't see where Ganesh plants are available in the US though. But for those who want to grow pomegranate in tropical conditions, this site lists a number of different Indian cultivars, all which look really good - some perhaps maybe even be better than Ganesh!:
http://aciagropomegranatecultivation.blogspot.com/2013/10/pomgranate-variety-production_1845.htmlIf anybody knows where one can get Indian cultivars of pomegranate in the US, let me know. I don't send outside of the country for any seeds or plants anymore, because customs (especially in Florida!) has proved way too much of a hassle, so I prefer to buy from someone already able to ship from within the US. I don't have a ton of confidence in all of the new cultivars I ordered, and my Vietnams have not produced flowers yet, so any variety that gives me the best chance of success (and good juice and edible seeds) is worth some effort.