North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[R F Hollaus <hollaus@comcast.net>]

I thought the ones of Maxine Thompson's were of a different species 
of honeyberry than the cultivars Berry Blue, Blue Belle and Borealis 
from Canada. Can anyone confirm this? 

It was the late Lon Rombough that had tested some of Maxine's 
honeyberry of which I remember had  no overlap in bloom period 
in the mild western (marine influence) climates. I'm not sure if this 
has anything to do with how they bloom in the east but I think here 
both of them can be productive. 

BTW: I have a garden in northern Fairbanks Alaska with the "Blue Sky" 
culivar. It had this growing as an isolated plant for a few years and 
recently it decided to sow fruits for me for the first time. I compared 
the flavors to other Borialis and Tundra varieties found else where in 
Fairbanks. In all respects they compete the same in flavor and quality 
and taste some where between the likes of blueberry and raspberry 
mixed together. 

Rupert.

> I've got a couple hundred seedlings from Maxine Thompsons
> program growing and they really do vary a lot flavour-wise. I had a
> taste testing of about 20 seedlings and the three cultivars Berry
> Blue, Blue Belle and Borealis. Of these Blue Belle took last prize-
> sour and bitter-pretty much not worth eating- while Borealis took
> first prize, really nice- sweet but not bland. Berry blue was quite
> flavourfull but not sweet. 

> Kristine