Regions: North India

The tree the subcontinent is organised around; a grafted plant fruits in four years.

The most forgiving fruit tree for a small Indian garden or a big pot.

Fruit inside a year from seed — the fastest fruit a household can grow.

A small deccan tree that fruits on very little water and poor soil.

Yellow bells almost all year on a shrub that survives a forgotten terrace.

A sub-Himalayan scrambler with brick-red bracts through the cool months.

A spiny yellow-flowered shrub of dry scrub, unbothered by heat or thin soil.

Curtains of orange through the cool months on a big pergola.

Orchid-like flowers in February, and buds that go into the north-Indian kitchen.

Huge red cups in February that feed every bird in the neighbourhood at once.