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  • From: "William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] your favorite nurseries
  • Date: Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:18:05 -0500


I'm interested in which nurseries are your favorites for buying fruit trees and berry bushes. What do you look for in a good mail order nursery?


I've had good luck with most of the nurseries I've tried, but I strongly second the notion about checking with the Dave's Garden guide to mail order:

http://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/


I'm starting to plan for spring and want to add pear and apple trees. Also looking at several varieties of gooseberry and perhaps raspberries.


Personally, I bought my apple trees from Adams County Nursery - http://www.acnursery.com/ - and have been very pleased. I bought my Asian pears mostly from Stark Bros. (and they were very nice trees, though I hate the way they rename varieties in order to market them better), and a couple of European pears from Burnt Ridge Nursery - http://www.burntridgenursery.com/ - who were remarkably helpful in answering (in detail) my emailed questions.

The birds planted my raspberries, but I bought my gooseberries from Nourse Farms - http://www.noursefarms.com/ - ForestFarm - http://www.forestfarm.com/ - One Green World - http://www.onegreenworld.com/ - Hartmann's - http://www.hartmannsplantcompany.com/ - Indiana Berry - https://indianaberry.com/ - and Whitman Farms - http://www.whitmanfarms.com/ . I was happy with all of them, but I might note that Whitman Farms has a huge selection and, although the descriptions aren't always too detailed, they're remarkably honest ("horrible mildew," "not very many" berries, etc.). So many nurseries try to persuade you that everything they sell tastes wonderful, produces abundantly every year, and grows with no problems at all.

I don't know if that helps much. I just searched online for what I wanted, and then researched the nurseries at Dave's Garden (discovering to avoid, for example, TyTy Nursery in Georgia).

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)

PS. You didn't mention grapes, but I was hugely impressed with Double A Vineyards - http://www.rakgrape.com/ . I still can't believe the roots on the vines they sent me last year. They were absolutely incredible! And when I planted them, I nearly had to jump back out of the way, they grew so fast. (Admittedly, when they've got such huge roots, it's a bigger job planting them.)

--
As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life - so I became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls. - M. Cartmill




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