Good to know. I am cleaning seeds now, and my first experience with cranberry made my eyes cross...too small! The seeds that are almost dust, like orchids, are really easier, to me, than finding tiny seeds. Good luck with growing them. I potted some up last winter, but nothing is showing yet. I usually wait at least three years before I give up. Had some native clematis that took three to germinate, so I try to be patient. (And I live off the road, so neighbors cannot see my pot ghetto!)

Many local plantings and wild populations of salal acceptable in appearance. I notice heavy mildew on it here and there, and I do not so far see obvious fatal or otherwise spoiling levels of it - unlike with the rhododendron mildew, which has been actually killing some varieties here for some years now. Of course, with the rhododendrons I am looking at individual specimens rather than sometimes quite large patches. With any and all plantings of the highly popular heath family plants such as these you have to provide their particular soil and exposure needs, and pests and diseases may appear and have to be dealt with. With many local plantings the soil is too hot, dry (in summer) or heavy for best results (or even long term survival) of this group. With natively occurring salal (and coast rhododendron, in those scattered districts where it is present as a wild plant) you can actually tell what the soil is generally like on a site (or a situation, like the top of a rotting stump) because these plants are able to grow on it.

There's considerable dispute on the toxicity of Gaultheria/Pernettya fruit. Ethnobotanists have determined that various aboriginal peoples used gaultheria as a food source and there are countless anecdotal reports of more modern gardeners munching on the not altogether tasty berries without problems. Apparently the phenols that account for toxicity are far more concentrated in the essential oils obtained primarily from the foliage and there is little evidence of any poisonings from eating the berries. And since by all accounts they are pretty tasteless, I doubt there's much concern. FWIW, there are far more common garden plants (including many edibles) that are toxic to some degree or another than those that are not. Just depends on what parts you ingest, when and in what quantities. Few will kill ya, not that I recommend you necessarily test the hypothesis :-)) Here is a link that might be useful: edible??

I'm currently landscaping my fairly small front yard (approx. 2k sqft) in Baltimore, MD zone 7. I'm looking for any edible evergreens hardy to my zone. Any growth habits or edible parts are good. Currently I'm planning 5 different hedges: Elaeagnus Ebbingei (silverberry), Vaccinium Ovatum (evergreen huckleberry), Gaultheria Shallon (Salal), Camellia Sinensis (tea), and Osmanthus Fragrans (fragrant tea olive). I have 2 small feature trees: Ilex Vomitoria (yaupon holly) and Camellia Oleifera (teaa oil camellia). And I have quite a few groundcovers: Viola Odorata (sweet violet), Gaultheria Procumbens (wintergreen), Vaccinium Vitis-Idae (lingonberry), Chamaemelum Nobile (Roman chamomile), Fragaria Vesca (alpine strawberry), and 4 different Thymus species (Rose petal, orange balsam, nutmeg, and lemon thyme). My garden is a sheltered nook; a South facing hill with a picket fence at the top, on the North side of the house. I'd love to have a vine for an arch, but the only options I've come up with are Lonicera Japonica, which is really only semi evergreen and invasive; Rosa Banksiae, I'm not sure if it's even semi evergreen in zone 7 and though all roses are edible I haven't seen anything about the taste (white blooming is said to smell like violet so I'd think flower petals would taste similar), Rubus Henryi, the only notes on edibility are from pfaf.org and I haven't found much information on it at all, and last is Akebia Quinata, which would likely be only semi evergreen and unless the flowers are edible, most seem to agree that the fruit is bland. The top of the hill in front of the fence is completely unsheltered and will likely take a lot of cold North wind in winter, so any especially hardy plants would be nice.