Winter Delight

'Winter Delight' is a late-ripening selection of northern Chinese origin, marketed in the United States under that trademarked name and grouped with the winter-jujube types that Chinese growers prize for holding crisp, high-sugar fruit deep into autumn. UF/IFAS includes it in the late-season group of cultivars for Florida, alongside 'GA-866', 'Sherwood' and 'Tigertooth'. The appeal is a large, egg-shaped fruit with a genuinely crisp apple-like snap arriving in October, well after the early cultivars have finished, which extends a home orchard's jujube season by a month or more. It is also rated cold hardy across a wide zone range. Independent trial data on it is thinner than for the NMSU-evaluated cultivars, so treat nursery performance claims with a little caution.