North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Ginda Fisher <ginda@concentric.net>]

Dear Sam,

Yesterday was cold and rainy.  Today we had partial clouds, temps in the
50s, perfect planting conditions - and, your plants arrived at noon. 
Thanks!  

The huckleberries look healthy, and I put them in the ground today. 
Some are in rich forest humus, some in rocky soil supplemented with
peat.  Some surrounded by oak leaves and some in bare dirt.  Some
convenient to reach by hose, and some tricky.  I dug big holes and
stirred up the soil for some, and just cut a hole in the ground for
others.  It will be interesting to see which do best.

I'm hopeful the winter may be okay.  People say that if you have good
air drainage and protection from wind you can often push plants an extra
climate zone or two, and all are in protected spots near the top of a
hill.  (Our snow was gone two weeks ago - the yard across the street
(and at a local low point) is still entirely covered.)  Looking at the
moss makes me nervous it may be too dry - that looks like sphagnum,
which grows in bogs.  I will (try to) water well this year, at least,
and then I'll hope for the best.  They are very pretty plants - I am
hopeful they will make it, even if they aren't happy enough to fruit.  I
put the moss around a couple of them.

The baba berry looked a bit dry, but raspberries are usually pretty
tough.  I didn't really have a place to put it, so I planted it in the
large pot I used for tomatoes last year.  (Big enough that two currant
bushes lived there nicely for 10 years.)  Not ideal for raspberries,
which like to run, but it is in full sun.  Thanks for the pleasant
surprise.

I will probably report my results to NAFEX, as there may be others who
live out east who wondered about the evergreen huckleberry.

Thanks again,
Ginda Fisher

Sam Franc wrote:
> 
> Ginda Fisher wrote:
> 
> > Thank you - that would be great!  Send me your address and stuff, and I
> > will send you postage.  It gets colder here than 9F (typically, we get a
> > couple of winter nights below zero) but I think it may be worth a try
> > anyhow.  It sounds like the perfect plant for the strip between my house
> > and the backyard neighbor if it survives.
> >
> > Ginda Fisher
> > 22 Linwood Road
> > Wellesley, MA
> > 02481
> >
> > franc@harborside.com wrote:
> > >
> > > Noticed your plea about them.
> > > They grow wild in our forrest here on the Oregon Coast.
> > > We have gotten down to 9 here and it did not kill them.
> > > They are my wife's favorite berry for pies and eating on her cerial.
> > > I don't think I have tasted a better pie than she makes out of them.
> > > They get mostly no sun at all in our forrested lot.
> > > It is 90% Sitka Spruce, about 150' tall and completely shades the
> > > forrest floor. There is a tree about every 20 feet and the
> > > huckleberries grow between them in the duff.
> > > I imagine they would grow in an eastern oak forest just as well.
> > > They seem to like the extremely acid conditions here.
> > > If you want to pay for shipping I can send some seedlings by Priority
> > > Mail.
> > > They are weed here and I have to pull them up all the time.
> > > The birds spread the seeds.
> > > Sam
> 
> My mail address is 83601 Clear Lake Road
> Florence, OR 97439
> 
> The last time I sent some east it came to about $7.