Some great looking plants Brady. I tried 10 hardwood cuttings and got zero, zilch to grow. I will try again next year, not sure what I did wrong. It's interesting to see the leaves on your plants versus mine...west to east. Maybe it just the way the photo was taken but your leaves look slightly larger on average than mine do. A local grower was telling me he measured the average leaf size on a plants on the west side (Oregon) and found they are about 30% larger on average for same plant variety. This kind of makes sense when you think about the heat we have on this side versus where you are at. A smaller leaf surface would help conserve water. I think the berries on your Chippewa look bigger than those I had last year....mine were really tiny and way too many of them on one plant. The Chippewa grows like a dense shrub whereas the Reka, Bluecrop, etc. are more spindly. I thinned out my Chippewas this past winter by probably 50% and it has lots of new shoots coming up and wants to be a shrub again. Here's one of my Reka, this plant is 4 1/2 feet tall or so. Then here's a Chippewa which is maybe three feet tall growing right next to the Reka:

Yeshwant: Sweeter berries are achieved by leaving the berries on the plants until they are fully mature, and all traces of red around the stems have turned to blue. "Wild flavor" is certainly a subjective description, but smaller berries, like those found in the wild, are likely to be more tart than the very large modern varieties. You will have a difficult time fine-tuning the growth habit of your bushes to achieve the desired visual effect. Blueberry bushes grow like they grow, and if you want one shorter than the other you can prune it down, at some sacrifice to productivity. A planting area that formerly grew azaleas or rhodies should be good for blueberries, but the available sunlight, as you describe it, will slow the growth and development of your blueberry bushes. It is always difficult to predict when a plant will begin to fruit, but you might see a few blueberries in year two, and more thereafter. How much more will depend on how happy the bushes are. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

I have a couple of blueberry bushes in a mixed bed along the southern edge of the woods. The bed is largely shrubs though it has woodland perennials and ferns, as well as trees along the back edge. Even though they are the same cultivar of blueberry, they produce well, maybe because there are wild highbush blueberries around. They are well mulched with sawdust and never watered since there isn't a water source nearby. None of the other plants are growing right under their feet. I really like them - great fall color; lovely, though subtle flowers, and those delicious berries. I've had no problems with competition from birds or chipmunks (knock on wood) - maybe there are enough alternate food sources since this is in a wooded rural area.

Blackberries are extremely invasive, I tried to remove one bush 4 years ago, but its seedlings still come every year all around my berry patch. The same situation with raspberries. They are better planted in a pot if you have limited space or don't want constantly remove unwanted seedlings. Rovada is a very productive red currant variety, it ripes after Red Lake (about 2 weeks later) and bush is smaller than Red Lake, berries are larger that Red Lake's. I also like Pink Champaigne (pink currant) - berries are sweeter. There are also black currants, they like partial shade more than red, pink and white varieties. Gooseberries are very different is taste and size of berries and bushes. Invicta has big sour-sweet green berries with small "fuz" (kinda "furry"). I like Hinnomaki Red more despite that berries are smaller and red in color - they are great to eat when ripe and to make "emerald preserves" when berries are still green (groundhogs prefer them too). The only thing - branches are weeping. There are also varieties that are similar to blueberries in taste, color and size - Black Velvet, for example. I have Black Negus (European gooseberry variety) and it's an extremely productive huge bush, berries are good for making wine. Any way, there are a lot of varieties of currants and gooseberries, suitable for any taste and purpose. Warning- some regions prohibit planting and growing currants and gooseberries and many mail-order catalog companies won't send seedlings to you unless you have a permission from a state.