Gwen avocado is the star product of the U.C. Riverside breeding project started by Bob Berg in the 1950s. It possessed the best traits of the two most popular avocados of the time: Fuerte at #1, Hass as a distant #2. It had excellent deep, rich flavor, high productivity, and easy peeling green skin, which was the market preference at the time. Gwen was finally selected, through years of trial and error, because it achieved the goal of being essentially a green-skinned Hass, the perfect avocado. Ironically, in the intervening years, the upstart black-skinned Hass had dethroned green-skinned Fuerte. The packing/marketing system, and the public had grown accustomed to the Hass’ black skin, and would no longer pay full price for green skinned fruit. The goal posts had changed mid-game, and Gwen was met with market resistance because it accomplished it’s breeding objective and couldn’t be sold as a Hass. Such is the sad story of the avocado for the last 50 years…
Luckily, we can still grow this exceptional variety in our own yards and farms, and love it for what it is: One of the best avocados in the world. Dense, rich, nutty flavored flesh with deep green and dark yellow pigmentation sure to excite any super-food enthusiast. The tree is small and tidy in growth, highly productive to the point of needing heavy thinning in early years to prevent it from stunting out, sunburning, and breaking its own branches. There are stories that in some conditions, it deviates from most other avocado varieties in that it might be pollination challenged, failing to set large crops when planted in solid blocks. This certainly isn’t a problem wherever another avocado is present. Treated carefully, Gwen has all the assets to make it a favorite in any avocado collection.

We will begin selling trees for the season in spring 2026; to reserve a tree contact us through the order form and we will add you to our waiting list.

Trees are approximately 2.5 to 3 feet tall (measured from the top of the root ball) and sell for $50 each cash, check or Venmo/Zelle, or by credit card or PayPal with an additional 3% convenience fee.
All trees are sold in a 5″x12″tree pot.