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OT: Where do I get berry bushes from?

16 years ago

Last year I received a great catalogue that had all sorts of berry bushes in it. I can't for the life of me remember which one it was. Anyone have suggestions for where a good place would be to get some?

Comments (13)

ghoghunter
16 years ago
One source for all kinds of berries and fruits is Stark Brothers. Is that who you were thinking of?

Here is a link that might be useful: Stark Brothers
vera_eastern_wa
16 years ago
Are you talking seed or plant?

Raintree Nursery is a good source for berry shrubs/trees and lots of other's for live plants....that is if you're going that route :D

Here is a link that might be useful: Raintree Nursery
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Hi MapleGirl- Hey, you're right near me. I'm in RI. Nourse Farms would be a great place for you to order plants from. They too are in MA, have a great reputation (see here.), and I've never seen anyone here online have any complaints about them. No, I'm not affiliated with them... just a fan. I like weedblock, but like oviedo_apples was saying, you need to leave room for new canes to come up. I'd say a good fist size is fine around the blackberries and blueberries, but I wouldn't want weedblock around my raspberries. You want them to spread out and fill in. Once you get a good bed of raspberries going, very few weeds even dare to compete. Raspberries are usually so vigorous, they are the weed! If I were you, I'd give some compost to the blackberry and raspberries. Just spread it on an Inch or two thick around the plants. Both plants keep their roots high and really benefit from it. This coming from a guy who just added compost to his 15 beds of raspberries 2 weeks ago. I give my blueberries MirAcid, but with yours being so fragile right now, it's probably the last thing I'd do. With blackberries, you get berries on last year's canes. So, even if your blackberry were to really take off this year, you wouldn't get berries on those canes until next year. Unfortunately, the same is true if you got Home DepotÂs cartonized "Latham" raspberry: being a "summer bearing" raspberry means that it too produces berries on last years canes which means you get to wait an extra year for your berries. *sniff*. But, it doesnÂt have to be this way. I almost always recommend people go with an "everbearing" or "fall bearing" raspberry, which will give you berries the first year you plant it. Even so, people often still say you wonÂt get many berries the first year. But, I disagree. Yes, youÂll obviously get more berries in subsequent years (once the patch fills in), but itÂs still possible to get a respectable amount of berries the first year. Just to show you whatÂs possible, the pic below was from 5 "Prelude" raspberries ($3 each) from Nourse from last year. By your description, I'm getting the impression that these "sticks" are in pretty rough shape. Any chance you could take a picture for us? You'd need to post it somewhere else online, and just give us a link. IÂm starting to think that your biggest problem was your source. -Glenn New bed of 5 everbearing (Fall bearing) "Prelude" raspberries next to my volleyball court.
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I feel you all of you in the colder climates. We got colder than I thought the other night and my small aloe got zapped. It didn't seem to hurt anything else though so maybe its because John is watering it to death, lol. I am going to have to hide the things that don't need much water from him. They all get soaked equally every evening but I hate to discourage him since he is enjoying the flowers and helping me out. I just try to gently point out see this one thats rotten? Its a cactus and doesn't need much water, lol. He has decided watering is his job. I found my cuttings of varieagated jade plant sitting in a bowl of water drowning and he said I though those needed more water they don't look right, lol. Poor things. I am slowly teaching him what I am trying to root and what needs a lot of water and what doesn't. We get to feed them all tomorrow and he is excited, lol. He can't wait for the brugs to start blooming. The big one is putting on a lot of new leaves so it won't be long before it kicks in again. I want to see the new ones bloom!
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Comments (10)
I can't help on the ID for that one, but if you want more, it should be fairly easy to do. Assuming the bush is yours, or that you are permitted access to the bush, you can 'Layer' it. Take some existing branches (they can be two to three feet long) and gently bend them over so that the branch is laying along the ground (or at least a part of it, other than the tip, is touching the ground). Strip any leaves off in the area that will be touching the ground. Anchor this branch to the ground (use a stone or a V shapped stick), and cover the bit touching with some soil or mulch. In a few weeks (it might take a few months to a year - it will depend on what the bush is) the branch ought to have put out some new roots from the part in contact with the ground. The branch can then be seperated from the bush, and the new piece dug up and planted where ever you'd like. You can speed the process up a bit by cutting a notch into the branch just below a leaf node - cut through no more than half the thickness of the branch. Some rooting hormone (sold at many garden centers and nurseries) applied to the cut area and the leaf node will also help. You'll have to keep this developing plant watered. This will give you some decent sized plants in a fairly short period of time. You can also take tip cuttings. Some plants are super easy to root cuttings - you can cut a piece off and stick it in the ground and more often than not, it'll root on its own and you have a new plant for very little work (cuttings can be 12-18" long). Forsythia is like that. Some are a bit harder to coax into rooting. For them, cut a piece about four inches long off the tip of a branch (the cut should be right below a leaf node). Strip off all but the newest two leaves, dip the cut end into rooting hormone, and place the cutting into a pot of vermiculite. Keep the cuttings out of the sun, and keeping them covered with a transparent plastic sheet to keep the humidity up. In a couple of months some of the cuttings will have put out new roots. You should carefully transfer these rooted cuttings to a temporary prepared bed (lose, amended soil)or another container with potting soil, and them bury the pots in the ground for the winter. The cuttings may need some extra protection over the winter, so in the fall, either place a cold frame over them, or place upturned pots over them and insulate in between the pots with leaves. Not all plants will require this extra protection, but since you don't know for sure what you have, you might want to err on the side of over protecting if you have to use this more finicky method. Taking cuttings can give you more plants than the layering method, depending on how many cuttings you take, but they will be smaller. BP
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Don't know that I'd put it in the urban(or rural) legends category so quickly, but my friend did bring up the question(s) of: 1)what analytical methods were used when buckeyes were proclaimed to be 'poisonous' - how accurate were they, back in 1910(or earlier)? 2)Did whoever did this assay sample a large selection of nuts at varying degrees of 'ripeness', and did they sample just the nuts, or the nut, leaves, stems, roots, and the groundhog caught up in the roots? From a veterinary standpoint, most of the 'buckeye' poisoning we encounter is in early spring, when the various Aesculus species are among the first things in the forest to 'green up', and if you have cattle running in woodland/forest settings, and they're hungry - they will eat the fresh new foliage and become poisoned.
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laurelin
16 years ago
Miller's Nursery from Canandaigua, NY, has a great print catalog. I've purchased blueberries and currants from them. Nice plants.

Laurel
gardenluv
Original Author
16 years ago
I believe that it was Park Seed that I was looking at (maybe). Has anyone ordered any plants from them and had good results?
northforker
16 years ago
I've ordered perennial plants from Parks and they were OK; I think there are many other places that better. Love them for seeds - great variety - but the shipping costs can get high.

Miller's is the way to go for fruit - - we have rasberries and fruit trees from them. I also got my heathiest, easiest roses from them nine years ago, a pink hedge of fairy roses that is delightful and hardy with very little care. I think they specialize in fruit and their paper catalog was mostly fruit, with these roses in the back.

Nancy
gardenluv
Original Author
16 years ago
Whatever catalogue I had seen them in, had a collection of three different kinds, with two or three plants of each for an extremely reasonable price. A friend and I were going to split them, and the cost. Thanks for the info on Miller's. I will definately check them out.
changeling
16 years ago
I hapen to have two of the biggest apple trees that anyone has ever seen, I bought them from Stark as "semi Dwarf". However I don't think 35 ft apple trees are considered Semi dwarf!! I emailed them several years ago twice requesting my money back or a replacement, they NEVER responded even though they carried a lifetime guarantee. I never ordered anything from them again!

Since then all my pecan trees, Chestnut, hazelnut, peach, and blueberry bushes have been ordered from a nursery called burnt ridge nurseries with absolutely no problems. I live in Maryland so as you can see we are not affiliated in any way.
rosebush
16 years ago
For blueberries, I always get mine from Finch's Blueberries. They provide the plants for the 4-H sale at the county extension here each spring. They have a website where you can get info.
peaches20
16 years ago
I got mine from park seed last spring. I put it outside and brought it in before freezing. funny thing it started setting buds after i brought it in and is about ready to bloom real soon.
trudi_d
16 years ago
I will second the recommendation for RainTree--very nice catalogue and very nice people at customer service--they know their plants well.

Parks is also good, they're also tops in cunstomer service.
gardenluv
Original Author
16 years ago
Thank you all for your input. I will check them all out this weekend. Atleast if nothing else, it will give me something to do.
pitimpinai
16 years ago
I had a very bad experience with Stark Brothers several years ago right before the change of ownership. The new owners did not want to honor the previous guarantee. What a mess. I won't buy anything from them.

Stark Brothers on Gardenwatchdog

Older comments are no longer there. The rating was awful before. It has improved, apparently.

Here is a link that might be useful: Comments on Raintree
PVick
16 years ago
You might want to check out Greenwood Nursery, too - reasonable pricing if you need multiple plants, and they're having a sale right now. I've not gotten anything from them myself, but have turned several friends on to them, and they have been very satisfied.

PV

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