The Chinese Gooseberry Family, Actinidiaceae, has one genus Actinidia Lindl., that is planted for fruit in this area or more often further south. The reason you many not have heard of it before is because you know the fruit as kiwi, an name given for marketing purposes when the fruit was first exported from orchards planted New Zealand where it is not even native. The two species generally available from nurseries are the hardy kiwi, A.arguta (Siebold & Zucc.) Planch. ex Miq. and the familiar fuzzy kiwi, A. deliciosa, C.F.Liang.& A.R.Ferguson.
There are several varieties of each and most importantly a male plant in needed for every handful of female plants because the are dioeceous, unlike self-pollinated claimed by a few ripoff mail order nurseries. Another important consideration is to have a very strong trellis due to the massive weigh of the fruit on a heavily bearing vine. The hardy kiwi fruits are the size of grapes, lack the fuzz, and are reported to be sweeter, but commercial production is limited due to shorter shelf life and sporadic ripening that make efficient harvest unfeasible. I have seen an orchard of the fuzzy kiwi with full size fruit in August, but unfortunately the fruit at that time is hard as a rock and inedible due to being so sour. It will be October or November before they finally get ripe. I've heard stories of test being done with various varieties as experimental stations selecting for growth, flavor, etc. The person testing the fruit raved about the flavor one particular variety to the get some others to try it. Turns out is was a bit of a joke since that variety at least seemed hotter than a habanero pepper due to the surprise. They were in the orchard at the time the nearest irrigation spigot was not on, and it was a long way to the next water source. Now where can I get one of that variety?
