Nikita's Gift Persimmon Tree		Cold Hardy Persimmon Trees

The name, "Nikita's Gift", translated into English from the Russian language is Nikita's Kaya Bordovaya c.v. The waxy, bright green leaves of the Nikita's Gift Persimmon tree cover the trees completely to provide shade for the newly forming fruit, and the leaves turn brilliantly red in the fall to reveal a spectacular glowing landscape specimen after the first fall frost. Most outstanding persimmon trees that were growing in the past have been limited to the Southern U.S., but now Nikita's Gift from Yalta in the Ukraine has released this Russian hybrid persimmon that blends the color and flavor of the oriental persimmons D. kaki with the cold hardiness and late ripening characteristics of the American persimmon to produce this hybrid that was licensed for growing in the U.S. by the Ukraine, formerly a Russian republic. The fruit from the Nikita's Gift hybrid persimmon tree is astringent until it is fully ripe much like one of the parents, the American persimmon, Diospyrous virginiana; and the ripe stage color is orange-red and very sweet, a genetic inheritance from the Oriental persimmon parentage Diospyrous kaki. The ripened fruit can be 3 inches long with a rather flattened shape that is attached to the twigs on the trees in large clusters when first formed, but thinning the fruit on the branches will increase the fruit's size.