How to Grow and Care for Actinidia

Kiwi (Actinidia chinensis) is a woody deciduous vine that can grow to be 6 m long. It grows in thickets, ravines and on slopes. It is considered invasive in North Carolina. It grows best in full sun or semi-shade. The edible fruit has a smooth bronze skin with green or yellow flesh.

A deciduous climber, the Actinidia arguta is grown for its edible fruit and attractive foliage that produces pleasant-scented flowers. The fruits have excellent flavors and are slightly sweet. This is a kiwi cultivar that is disease resistant, and it boasts gorgeous foliage all summer.

Kolomikta is cultivated as an ornamental garden plant and houseplant as well, mostly for its variegated green leaves with pink tips. This vine is particularly attractive to cats, who like to chew the leaves and cause damage to the plant. It's also known as Arctic kiwi, due to the edible kiwi-like fruit, very popular in Russia.

The petiole leaves are silver and white in color and 6 to 13 cm long and 4 to 9 cm wide. The flowering season lasts from early summer to mid summer in which the plant bears white flowers about 2.5 cm in diameter. The fruit is about 1.5 cm wide and 3 to 4 cm long. The inside of the fruit resembles the common kiwifruit but it is orange in color rather than green.

The long-lived vine kiwifruit has white to gold flowers. The fruits have both health and nutritional properties that make them great additions to salads or eaten raw. The attractive fruits thrive in temperate gardens, and they are sold commercially all over the world.