North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Melissa Kacalanos <mijwiz@yahoo.com>]

I've been hearing good things about the flavor of blackberries that are just 
a little too cold-tender for me to grow up here in zone 5a, but I've also 
been hearing good things about laying the canes down and mulching them, so 
I'm thinking of giving them a try.

However, I'm running out of places to put plants. One possible spot for 
blackberries would be against the west-facing wall of the house, so they'd 
get shade until noon, then sun all afternoon. Would half-shade like that be 
OK?

Scott, I might want to buy some of your extra plants.

Melissa


--- On Wed, 12/8/10, Scott Smith <scott@cs.jhu.edu> wrote:
Western blackberries - all kinds can be grown if put on the ground and 
covered.  So far the only reliably hardy one without covering is Metolius 
which fruited this last summer but didn't taste very good unfortunately (it 
overcropped).  I am trying many of the recently bred selections to see if one 
is more hardy.  In fact I will have extra plants of four new selections I 
ordered for next spring for testing (Orus 1523-4, Orus 1843-3 (aka Wild 
Treasure), NZ 9351-4, NZ 9671-1) since the minimum order is 50 each; if you 
are interested in buying a few off me at cost (about $2 per tissue-culture 
plant) send me an email.  I have been growing Wild Treasure for several years 
and it is at least partly hardy; there is no data on the other ones.  I have 
had both Loganberry and Marionberry fruit for me and I prefer them to the 
more hardy varieties so I want to get some berries like that going in my 
climate. The two NZ selections are more red like a loganberry,
 they have some raspberry in them.
Scott