Patio and container gardening are very popular as well as being necessary for those who have little or no garden space in the ground. Over the years, miniature trees such as apples, nectarines, peaches and figs have been developed that are great for keeping in pots. However, cane berries and blueberries have not had many, if any, varieties that are suitable for containers due to their tendency to ramble or grow very large.

This year, we are very happy to introduce berries that are perfect for pots. Baby Cakes Thornless Blackberry grows to three to four feet and produces large, sweet berries. Raspberry Shortcake Raspberry is also thornless, a rarity in raspberries, with sweet, delicious fruit. Jelly Bean Blueberry is very small, only one to two feet, with large, flavorful fruit that tastes like blueberry jelly. Peach Sorbet Blueberry also grows to about two feet and has lovely foliage of peach, pink, orange and emerald green that turns purple in winter. It produces an abundant crop of sweet berries, making it a valuable fruiting and foliage plant. Slightly larger than the other new blueberries is Pink Icing with foliage that is blue, deep green and shades of pink, turning iridescent turquoise in winter. The berries are large and flavorful, but it could be grown just for the astonishing colors it adds to the landscape. We have also added Snowbank Blackberry, a unique old variety from Luther Burbank. The fruit is white and pearlescent with all the flavor of a regular blackberry.

Speaking of trees for pots, we have two new varieties this year. Arctic Babe Miniature Nectarine (left) is the first white fleshed miniature and is the result of interspecific breeding by Zaiger. The fruit is large and very sweet, ripening in late May to early June. Garden Sun Miniature Peach has sweet, low acid yellow fruit that ripens in August and has the added bonus of showy blossoms.

Also new this season is Octoberfest Peach, a very late variety ripening mid-September to mid-October. It will hang on the tree for a month and remain sweet and firm. We have also added Flavor Punch Pluerry (right), the latest addition to the Pluerry family. The fruit has beautiful orange red skin and juicy amber flesh and ripens in early September. These are both great choices for extending your harvest season!

We are now shipping Black Diamond Vermicompost, an excellent worm castings product.  We have been using it at the nursery for many years and have had great results.  It provides all the nutrients that your plants need to get a really good start.  Check it out in the Orchard and Garden Supplies section.

For the persimmon lovers, we have been able to bring back Hana Fuyu and Izu and have added Maru as well. Maru is very sweet with rich flavor. Izu and Hana Fuyu are both non-astringent, productive varieties. We have also been able to bring back some missing grape varieties in pots. You can once again add Blueberry Seedless Grape, Canadice Seedless Grape and Golden Muscat to your collection.

One other change of note is that we will henceforth be shipping roses in January only.
Due to our increasingly warm winters, the bare root roses have started breaking dormancy so early that it is no longer safe to ship them into February. If your order includes roses and you request February or March shipping, we will have to divide your order into two invoices and ship the roses in January and the balance in whichever month you choose. If you are unable to plant the roses out in January due to weather or frozen ground, you can pot them and then plant them out in the summer. We hope that this will not be too much of an inconvenience, but it is certainly better than stressing the roses by shipping them too late. After all, we all want them to live and thrive!