The dwarf pomegranate is a beautiful and unusual small shrub. As summer fades into autumn the small delicate leaves become a pale yellow backdrop for the miniature fruits and scarlet coloured flowers. This happens together in one sizzling display mixing fruit, flowers and foliage.

It is the dainty fruit that stand out the most.They sit on the branches like little cherubs with trumpets held aloft. The fruits do bare (no pun intended) a resemblance to a rosy cheeked cherub’s bottom with the elongated calyx playing the part of the trumpet.There are a quite a number of cultivars of both the species and the dwarf. Named cultivars of the species vary depending on the countries with such evocative names as Mangulati (Saudi Arabian), Aswad (Iraqi), Red Loufani (Israeli), Kandhari, Bedana and Dholka. (India). American cultivar names are more pragmatic e.g Wonderful and Sweet Fruited. The dwarf pomegranate cultivar names are more botanical eg Multiplex (double creamy white)  or Variegata (double, scarlet bordered with streaked yellowish-white).

Both the species (see above) and the dwarf form develop into dense multi stemmed twiggy shrubs. A mature specimen of the former will reach as high as thirty foot in the Mediterranean and fifteen foot on a warm wall in England. Great Dixter has good specimen growing on a sheltered wall against the house. The dwarf shrub reaches approximately four foot in height. It is possible to purchase mature specimens of both. They make striking pot plants (and being drought resistant are particularly suited to containers). Good specimens of the species will have three to four thick branches at least ten centimetres in diameter at about five foot in height. These are often old orchard plants dug up and sold onto the nursery trade.