North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Kieran &/or Donna" <holycow@frontiernet.net>]

>A. Canadensis might be a possible rootstock for other Amelanchier varieties .... "IF" the graft works. Has anyone tried this?

 

I want to know too.  The few native juneberries around us grow slowly and when they finally fruit the berries tend to be ruined by rust.  By contrast, the little Timm x Success sprouts Lucky sent me years ago have had completely clean fruit.  It's taken a few years to get a nice clump, but they are at the edge of the garden and I was able to protect the fruit this spring and eat a handful.  If any of you don't know, the best way to eat juneberries is cooked, because they develop the most amazing almond flavor.  I've gotten to do this exactly once, but have never forgotten.  You can taste it when you bite into the seeds raw, but cooked is far better.  TxS flowers aren't as pretty as the natives and they bloom several weeks later.  I was wanting to do a cross, so I'd have to pick the native flower buds or a branch of them and put them in the fridge to keep them from blooming too early. 

    There is one native plant in the woods that I have waited for years to grow, and  now it's finally reached 2 feet tall, I think I'd be wise to just stick some TxS on it.  I felt like a fool when I found a nice bush out by a volunteer pear I'd grafted at the edge of the neighbor's field.  I've passed it for years, so it must have bloomed for the first time this year.  The berries were smaller than what I picked from a tree in town years ago, but only maybe 10% had rust, and it was a bad year for all rusts.  Amelanchiers should be more widely grown, but we all need vars that do for our area.   Donna