They'll be right at home in Zone 8 Oregon. And I might add the best blueberry ever. Well there might be a new one or two from Florida that might be better but it could be 10 yrs or longer before they are available to the public.

Thanks. They are up in elevation from the area so their particular spot may be zone 7. They get snow when the town just gets rain. Some later frosts in the spring. Will that still work with the southern sweetcrisp? To get fruit? Thanks again.

Yes, mine turned all red this winter, lost all leaves too, I'm in 5b, and it's starting to bud out right now. I did have it in the garage, but it is unheated. It stays a little warmer in there. We got down to -16F this winter. So it was at zero or colder in there. Zone 7 rating is conservative.

It had some tip dieback, but it is only a year old. I'm extremely happy with that. This was a terrible winter, most will be better.

LOL!! I find this post just a little humorous :-) Oregon grows more blueberries - both for wholesale distribution across the country and internationally as well as for commercial production - than anywhere else in the country. Sending someone who lives in Oregon blueberry plants is a little like carrying coals to Newcastle!

And yes, southern highbush varieties like Sweetcrisp do perfectly well in that area. They are indeed much hardier than many sites show. With proper care, should manage to zone 5.

Michigan grows more blueberries than Oregon. So does Maine, and New Jersey. Oregon is 4th.
http://bignutshell.com/top-five-blueberry-growing-states/
http://www.agmrc.org/commodities__products/fruits/blueberries/

http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/michigan_leads_the_nation_in_the_production_of_blueberries_and_tart_cherrie

If you look at the statistics, for the year 2012 (the most recent data), Oregon ranks 3rd in commercial crop production after Maine and Michigan, with WA state a close 4th. New Jersey is pretty far down on the list. And as commercial plantings of blueberries are growing in both OR and WA, I'd expect to see the statistics change. Oregon also realizes the highest crop yields of the industry, bringing in about 10,000 pounds per acre.

But as far as wholesale plant production is concerned, Oregon leads the pack by a wide margin. I'd be willing to bet good money that many of the blueberry plants you see for sale in nurseries and box stores across the country originated in Oregon. That's why it's amusing to see someone importing blueberry plants to Oregon.

Oregon State University and Michigan State University have many joint projects. Unlike some Universities OSU will allow breeders to use their patented plants for free. Unlike say Univ. Of Arkansas. I'm actually not that keen on wholesale production when they don't offer the cultivars to home owners. Oregon does btw but Univ. Of Florida will not offer it's cultivars to home owners even when some are turning out to be duds for commercial production (low yield, soft fruit, high chill, etc) which is less concern to backyard growers. They demand high royality fees, and the commercial growers only would agree if the cultivars were exclusive, at least that is what I hear.
Sweetcrisp was developed by Uni of Florida, but it turns out to be no good for commercial use, and so it was not restricted, and was produced before they started charging higher fees.
Still extremely hard to locate. Fakes have been known to sell as sweetcrisp. The blueberry is in a class by itself. No other blueberry is like it. Well except for Indigocrisp, which was released for commercial use only. Maybe in 10 years they will let us have it. Maybe sooner, it's turning out to be a low producer, and has higher chill than wanted. Central Florida cannot grow it, only northern Florida.

Thanks y'all. I'm getting from realflora.com. I'm no expert, so I wouldn't know if they are fakes but they were the only place i found that would ship to California. The 4 I got from them, true to what i've heard, have not tried to fruit even in their 2nd yr., whereas all my other (14) varieties flowered and at least tried to fruit the 1st year in. And yes having blueberries shipped to Or does seem weird but I wanted to get my friends something they couldn't just get at the local nursery. I also love that Sweetcrisp will only fruit "enough" so that fruit does not need thinning(so i've heard). I'm also getting them a Legacy, also wasn't available locally this year.

Just ordered and saw they don't ship to OR. After paying! Now have to get a refund. Any recommendations of where to order Sweetcrisp to OR?

Just Fruits and Exotics in Florida may be able to ship to Oregon. Brady
http://www.justfruitsandexotics.com/JFE/product/sweetcrisp-blueberry-plant/

Real Flora sells the real Sweetcrisp. The only place I know that has it.

I wouldn't bet on it. Because Oregon is such an intensive agricultural state, bringing in plants from other areas may be very restricted. Much like California and Washington. Only approved wholesalers for certain plants. This is to restrict the movement of disease and insect issues that could have serious financial impact on the agriculture.

Keep us updated JT and thanks for the Just Exotics link, an excellent nursery, I forgot about it!

Appears they ship to OR.

OK, so Just Exotics is the one that says zone 9 for Sweetcrisp which made me wary of whether they had the real thing. Why would they say zone 9? If you guys say they are reputable though, i will order.

Brady have you got some from just exotics? Thanks.

I think they do it for local Florida customers. Many plants are rated and will live in zone 9 but they will not get enough chill hours, so i think it is their way to say low chill plant. Makes little sense I know. If you look they have many like Pink Lemonade rated to 9 too, and that is a fairly hardy blueberry. They are an excellent nursery, and yes, I think JT got them there.
We are pretty good gardening friends. I have traded with him, top rate guy!
BTW if you want another really nice blueberry get Springhigh! It's too tender for here. It is very low chill, and tends to bloom really early. I would worry about frost damage. Sweetcrisp is a mid-season bloomer. You mentioned Legacy, another winner, I have one of those too. Although in CA it might not be great. It is quite cold hardy and more a northern highbush. Blueberries are so crossed back and forth they have SHB, NHB, and even rabbiteye in just about every cultivar. I have seen Legacy called SHB and NHB and both are correct.

Yes, the Legacy will be going to Oregon too. Just exotics dosen't have it so i'll have to get it from Arbor Grove. Havn't seen Springhigh but if just exotics has it i''ll add one to the order for me to bring down to Cali. Glad to hear about Just exotics! Problem solved. Now on to getting the refund from realflora...

Yeah springhigh for CA not OR Springhigh is one of the very best BB plants for taste.

After all this, now Just exotics won't let me place the order for OR because my billing address is California.

I bought my only Sweetcrisps from Mail Order Natives,when they had them.I communicated about a year ago and was told some were being grown and they were suppose to be ready last Fall.It hasn't happened yet.Possibly send them an email and find out more info.
yawiney,can your Oregon friends order for themselves from Just Fruits & Exotics? Brady

I think why Just Fruits and Exotics shows zone 9 for Sweetcrisp is due to the early blooming of southern highbush. Along the gulf coast most people plant rabbiteye blueberries if they are in zone 8 instead of southern highbush due to the bloom period being about a month later. Southern highbush usually blooms in February in our area.

Sweetcrisp is a early-mid season fruiting. My mid season is late June. My
sweetcrisp is just budding out now, no leaves yet. It doesn't appear I'm going
to have any trouble growing it in zone 5b. We got to -16F in February, no chance
of it blooming. It has to be 45F or higher to come out of dormancy. We are there
now and it is starting to grow.

I also have Southmoon a Southern highbush I want to use for pollination. It
is a mid-late season fruiting. All my blueberries will flower around the same
time which is May, they will ripen at different times. Southmoon is hardy to
zone 6. My latest is Chandler which ripens over a month from late mid season to
late season. Sometime in mid to late August it finishes. I also have 4 other
Northern, Legacy, Liberty, Cara's Choice and Toro.

Drew
The problem we have in Southeast Texas is we only have 15 to 20 days on average below freezing days. Once we reach the chill hours needed we may have a couple of weeks of nice, 70 degree weather even in January. The southern highbush will start blooming but we may still have a few days below freezing. To my knowledge all of the commercial producers in our area plant rabbiteye blueberries for this reason. It really surprises me you can fruit them that far north. It just goes to show that sometimes you have try something even though the literature says it will not work.

I have not had any fruit of my Sweetcrisp yet but they do leaf out. I'm not sure if both plants will survive this last winter (-12F), although one of them does have a few leaves coming out. I also have a couple of the more cold hardy rabbiteye's (Tifblue) planted and they have survived the past two really cold winters and they had some fruit on them last year.

Gary,
Your weather is Texas is crazy! I have seen the devastation to fruitnut's stuff before. We are cold but the weather is consistent. Once it's warm it stays they way. We have had exceptions. I think 3 years ago we had a late hard frost that destroyed our crops here. It does not happen that often, once in 20 years.
I can grow the SHB, but fruiting we shall see! Plants are young. Kept in garage which is 20 to 30 degrees warmer. When it was -16F it was probably -2 in the garage. Close to zone 7 weather and Sweetcrisp is rated to zone 7. It did have some slight tip dieback. Which was my fault. i should have taken out of the garage sooner, it became too warm in there, and it started budding out too early! I know better now to take out late February. Most years though it will not be that cold. It's a young plant and because of the damage I decided to prune it hard to strengthen canes and promote lateral growth. It also slowed budding. it is now starting again.

On rabbiteye I have my eye on titan, looks like a cool plant! A late season, many are that are rabbiteyes. I figure Pink Lemonade for a pollinator. I have no room! Maybe in the future.

Drew,
Pink Lemonade bloomed with my SHB, so would be better to use a true rabbiteye. My second year Sweetcrisp has fruited, should be ready in the next 2 to 4 weeks. I think it is a true sweetcrisp even though it came from FHN. It is a very spreading plant that kind of grows where it wants to. I have no idea how to prune it. I finally put an eighteen inch cage around one to keep the limbs off the ground. All my blueberries are in pots.
Fruitnut is in a totally different environment than me. I am 30 miles from the coast with an annual rainfall of 55 inches. About 8 years ago we had over 100 inches with no really big rainfall events. It just rained 2 to 3 inches every 3 or 4 days all summer long. I was raised in Central Texas so this climate is really strange for me.

Mine probably would have fruited, but I don't like fruit on weak canes, so I'll hold out. I just looked at it and all is well, It should grow thick nice canes. I removed almost all canes that were less than pencil size. Blueboy1977 always pruned hard and out of all the photos I have seen, he had the nicest looking plants. Hopefully in the future the only pruning will be crossing branches and 5 year old canes. I would like to taste it, but want a healthy plant. I will have hundreds of blueberries on my other plants. So it was easy to decide. In a couple years I should be getting 10 pounds plus off some of my plants.
OK, maybe Tifblue as it seems hardy from what JT says.

Thanks for all the good info here! @ Brady, these are a house warming gift so I don't want to ask them to purchase but have other friends in OR who can. I'll also check with mailorder natives thanks again.

@jtburton, any updates.. did your sweetcrisp survive?
i'm in zone 7a (southern CT), it rarely dips below zero here.. 5-10F is usually the lowest. my concern is the plants are very small. does smaller BB plants have less chance of survival in winter?

Just organics is offering indigo crisp. They dont ship to California but id love some reviews. Is it really better than sweet crisp?

Wild hair. I would like to know also

Reports from my friends like Fruitnut report Indigocrisp is not even close to sweetcrisp. It is not as crisp, nor very tasty. I have both and was very disappointed with the first berries. They were not as crisp as some of my northern highbush plants like Chandler. And it tasted watered down, hardly any flavor at all. Hoping it's better next season.

Thnks for the report drew

I'm not giving up on it yet, it appears more hardy than Sweetcrisp in my area, hoping for better results this year. I wanted to try these SHB types here, although in general they are poor choices for northern areas like mine., Hoping the NHB breeders will come up with their own "Crisp" for northern zones.