One plant, two resolutions!
If you read last week's post (and I know that's exactly how cool people spend New Year's Eve: reading my musings), you were challenged to make trying a new plant your New Year's resolution. But maybe the holiday excess has you thinking that you really should resolve to be healthier in 2016. Good luck with that if you're headed to trade shows, but it's an excellent goal.
Why not accomplish both resolutions at once? Try a new plant that produces healthy fruit: Lonicera caerulea, AKA Sweetberry Honeysuckle or Haskap.
This is a super hardy plant that produces vitamin-rich berries. The dark blue fruit tastes like a combination of raspberry and blueberry, with perhaps a bit of plum, too. They are quite tasty whether fresh, dried, or processed into jam. We sell two series of this plant: Sugar Mountain® and Yezberry® Lonicera. Both series are easy to grow and produce tasty fruit.
These are fun plants for folks who want to grow their own fruit. Here are some tips.
A healthy start!
Our new Yezberry® Lonicera caeruleas are cultivars developed from Japanese haskap plants that have very large plump fruit. Unlike other haskaps, Yezberry® Solo™ Lonicera will produces fruit when planted alone, although it will have better yields when planted near Yezberry® Maxie™ Lonicera, a variety with the largest fruit we've ever seen. The berries are about the size of an olive.
Both varieties will grow to 5-6' tall and wide and are hardy to USDA Zone 3. Being native to the boreal forests of Asia, North America, and Europe, Lonicera caerulea isn't a great choice for warm climates - it will go as far south as AHS 7.
Haskaps will grow in full sun or partial shade, although you will likely see better fruit production with more sunlight. Unlike blueberries, these plants do not have specific soil requirements. Unlike raspberries, they are not prickly. What's not to love?
Plant of the Week is written by Jane Beggs-Joles.
Both varieties will grow to 5-6' tall and wide and are hardy to USDA Zone 3. Being native to the boreal forests of Asia, North America, and Europe, Lonicera caerulea isn't a great choice for warm climates - it will go as far south as AHS 7.
Haskaps will grow in full sun or partial shade, although you will likely see better fruit production with more sunlight. Unlike blueberries, these plants do not have specific soil requirements. Unlike raspberries, they are not prickly. What's not to love?
Plant of the Week is written by Jane Beggs-Joles.
