We will get some berries!

Today I picked this little pan of berries off of some seedlings which were not inside the netting but did have some netting over them!

 This pan was from one bush and I did lose a number of berries because they were in fall off mode. A very loose connection which made easy picking. Also the berries are long so easy to get a grip with your fingers.

 There are a few berries here from other plants on top of the other slim berries. I think the bigger berries are from seed I got from a friend in Poland and he just called them Big Berry as he also sent me seed from one he called Big Bush. I hope to get some berries from those plants as well.

It's July 2nd already!

Well we did have a good crop of fruit set but the Cedar Waxwings are demolishing all the fruit in the yard including the Blue Honeysuckle. So we got some nets up and it might help some. I would like to see them leave! Robins are bad too.

Here are the nets.

Hopefully we will get more than the 2 liters of poor berries we got last year!

Further to Cold Climate Gardening comments

So I decided to do a little looking for resources for Alaskan gardeners and found a couple of interesting items
Redoubt Reporter article.

Alaska Berries


Great story!

From my garden and the beyond.

 One of my Japanese plants

Leningradski

My apologies to the author as I do not remember where I got this.

Old article............Follow up

I am still getting the occasional question or comment coming through from the article I wrote for Cold Climate Gardening Blog several years ago. You can see the article here.
Nice to know people are still finding the article and trying the fruit.

My own work with the plants and seeds is really on hold and some of the plants have found there way to Swan River area in Manitoba. Probably more will go as I wind up this operation and consolidate the efforts to some other areas of life.
I still have a bout 80 plants or so and would really like to get a good harvest experience out of it before I quit!
This is how things look now - taken several weeks ago and there is no change at this point.

If you need a pick me up I am sending you over to an artist friend of mines blog for some good art and stories. Be sure to dig back into some early posts which tell some great stories.

His daughter started a blog with some good nature photography but has not posted for a while. I understand that as I am not here very often either.

On the market in Saskatoon

I have been keeping an eye out for what is coming into the market here for Blue Honeysuckle. So far at Home Depot and Walmart I am seeing the two varieties Blue Moon and Blue Velvet. The plants look very stretched and spindly as in this picture. I noticed the branches break very easily. Not a good sign for the market.

I am glad to see Blue Velvet on the market here so I may have to pick one up yet.

My own plants are /have been blooming like crazy but there seem to be very few pollinators.

Finally spring and the Blue Honeysuckle are blooming

Well it was a long winter no doubt and there was some damage by mice and deer but so far things look pretty good in the orchard. I was surprised to find some plants really quite chewed up by the mice or voles but not a lot of stems stripped which means the tops will still bloom and bear fruit. This is one of the worst but it is in a group of Russian seedlings which are a disaster anyway!

 These are 5 cuttings of my plant number 51. I like the uniformity.

 Very nice shape. Worst weeds are the dandelions.

 This is a seedling of Nimfa. I think the one behind it is too but I did not check the tag. I seem to be able to pick them out in this randomized block.

Another good bloomer. Let the bees come!!

More later.

Bee n thinking about spring.

One of the issues most fruit growers is pollination of their fruit plants. Blue honeysuckle are particularly a challenge as they are self fertile and need pollen from another suitable plant from the species. One of the early possibilities is solitary bee species who are resident in the area and who emerge early in spring. One source of ideas is the Instructables web site. If you type in Solitary bee there are a number of simple housing projects which come up and are reasonable for anyone who is handy with a saw and electric drill. Here is a link to one that I thought was quite artistic.

Interestingly Lee Valley also now carries one made of plastic.

There are many resources on the internet regarding Mason Bees and others who might serve well in the early season pollinating process.

Here is what the result can look like!

 

 

How I hope this summer can be a good producer again!

Found this site with so many wonderful looking possible choices to build. Enjoy!