Jellyman/All- Update: I just ordered 2 Doyle blackberries. I had tried using their website, but kept getting an "ActiveX error" at checkout, so I called them on the phone. I asked them if $20 was for tissue cultured plants. She said, "No, they are actually good sized potted plants". I'm happy to hear that as I don't yet have any experience with TC plants. And, $20 is a lot for a TC plant, but not really for a good sized potted plant. We'll see how they look when they arrive. Thanks, -Glenn

I got the bid but it wasn't enough to handle unforeseen mishaps. The factory that I got a bid for a bunch of 1/2" glass shelves, decided that I don't order enough to warrant wholesale (2500 per month) so my price per shelf doubled. I am a little scared to call up my client. I had to go eleswhere. I drove out and took a country road to the small town to pick up the glass and found a whole bunch of rock that I picked up for my garden and fields full of rock coreopsis almost gone to seed. I will be back. Boulders in the front seat and glass in the back. I just saw a western bluebird, painted bunting, Western scrub jays, cardinals , scissor tailed Flycatcher, chicadees, a yellow billed cuckoo, black crested titmouse, benwick's wren, humming birds and a big fat white winged dove all today while drinking coffee.. I have a family of screaming red tailed hawks than make everyone get real quiet. I also saw a ferruginous Hawk last year. That thing is HUGE with a almost 5' wing span. Earlier this week , I had a crested Caracara on a wire by the road. I saw some threatened black caped vireos a week ago. We are full of fox,deer,skunk, coons, and an occasional mountain lion and pack of wild boars.,. Rose, don't remind me I have to attack some poison oak that is too close to the house. It is where I want to plant 11 Agave montanas that I have been slowly raising from small babes. I have been getting small babies every year so I have a drift of different sized plants under some oaks and a drift of A. ovatifolias under another bunch of oaks. Here is another picture set of brush clearing fires. I did these as the great drought was broken enough for them to raise the burn ban . Things exploded. It was scary, very scary. But living with 13 huge piles of dried brush with a 6,oo0 acre brush fire near earlier made me want to GET RID OF THEM. I had attacked an area of all trees that year. When you deal with land , things get BIG. Problems get large and one finds oneself doing thngs that this citty girl from Philadelphia and NYC never imagined. My son is a volunteer fireman. LOL Here is a link that might be useful: My fires This post was edited by wantonamara on Sun, Jun 9, 13 at 13:36

Wild grapes with larger fruits are likely forms of or hybrids involving Vitis vinifera. The most common native grapes in NY are Vitis aestivalis, V. vulpina, V. riparia, and V. labrusca. The latter two are quite difficult to tell apart. They normally have small, blue-black fruit, a "foxy" flavor, and usually become more palatable after frost. Cornell has a website devoted to grape culture but I don't know how useful it would be for identification Here is a link that might be useful: Cornell - Grapes

I, too, am a planted native of Western WA. Throughout my childhood and youth, I foraged for berries all over Western WA. Now, in my own garden, although the majority of my plants are non-native, I have a lot of native plants interspersed here and there, that have volunteered and that I have nurtured, including both red and evergreen huckleberry and oregon grape, trilliums, etc. I have had all the berry plants growing in everything from complete shade to lots of sun. From my berry picking days, to my own plants, I can tell you that, even though they will grow in the shaded understory of the forest, the plants that produce the most berries, by far, are the ones that get more sun, and the more the better. This holds true for the flowering currents. As a berry picker, you always try to find a good thicket at the edge of the woods, with an eastern exposure. They really like several hours of morning sun. Sun exposure between 2 and 4 pm can kill young plants, but once established they can take that as well, if watered properly. I have a volunteer evergreen huckleberry growing out of a log in my back yard, in full sun, that is happy as can be. It gets enough water, because it's near a hardy fuchsia. A caution on fireweed (if that is what it really is). I have lived in Alaska, also, where it could almost be the state flower. It is a root runner and can be quite invasive, especially here in WA, where it doesn't get the winter cold to keep it in check. Salal, also a native, is also a root runner, but it is very hard to get established, if not growing there naturally. I have known people, whose yards are backed by a large forested area, that absolutely hate it. Regarding soil....all our native plants do like a highly organic, slightly acid soil. I have extremely light, sandy soil, which dries out very fast in the summer. My success with the natives has come from giving them a good, deep mulch of medium shredded bark, with fines in it. In the years I don't mulch I can really tell they are not happy. Good luck!