Penseberryfarm. I just received my order about a month ago and it was better than I expected. Good overall value on a large order with most of the varieties you had listed
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Indiana Berry has always sent me good plants. And you don’t have to order a minimum number like some other vendors require.
I have PAF, PA Traveler, Osage, Ouachita, Natchez, Caddo and Ponca from them. All are 4 years old except the last three are 2 years old. All grow well here, but aren’t particularly hardy enough for us in NE KY.
We also have triple crown from a member on here, and they are more hardy, productive and tastier imo than my UArk varieties. But we haven’t had any fruit off our newer three varieties.
IB actually just sent me a new catalog yesterday. Prices are higher for everything, not really surprised there.
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Oh thanks! So, looks like around $7 per each 1-yo dormant, bare root cane? And you would basically buy enough for 2-3 per linear foot? And S&H looks pretty reasonable, too!
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Ive gotten the wrong plants from Penseberry 3 times. Im currently over a year into receiving the correct plants from my last order. However you get to keep the wrong plants each time. Ive seen several posts about this on FB.
If you dont mind plugs Nourse is a great nursery.
Indiana Berry- hit or miss for me… one order was nice the other looked very very poorly.
Simmons Plant Farm- Large field grown plants that are very fairly priced. Gary Pense is the owner and one of the most knowledgeable resources for growing berries that i have ever talked to. Hes been growing berries since the 1950’s. One of my favorite nurseries.
Boston Mountain Nurseries- Very nice field grown plants at a fair price. Everything ive gotten from them did excellent.
Not sure where you are located but I would try to put Apache into that mix… I have 2 Von plants for novelty… personally i dont care much for them but it could just be me.
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Got some lousy plants from Pense the last time I bought from him.
Lost bout 1/3 of the Von which required me to replant the voids.
Bought the replacements from a tissue culture producer which does custom orders for 100 or more.
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Same for me on the penseberry Vons… i chalked it up to vigor… thats why im keeping a few to see if they overcome it. My penseberry Poncas acted very strange the first year…nothing like the pictures i see. Hoping they overcome it as well.
Still waiting on Galaxy and Twilight from them. The ones that they sent were erect and thorny… i think PA45 or Horizon.
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No excuse for that!
May be a honest mistake on rare occasions but it seems too common with most retail nurseries. I believe sometimes they just ship what they have in stock and hope the customer does not notice the error.
The problem is less common with wholesale nurseries but I received a few mislabeled plants from them too.
Pense did not apologize for the inferior quality Von plants he shipped. He offered to ship me more of the same stuff he shipped the first time and I declined. They were some type of tissue culture plants he held over that were full of algae and green slime. I had the extension agent look at them and we took pictures and sent them to the plant breeder for VON at NCSU.
The field grown plants I received from him looked good.
He knew I was a small commercial grower and he still shipped me crappy Von plants. Cost me a bunch of money and a bunch of time.
Yes on my first order from him i got really strong healthy plants…which led me to order again… but this time i took advantage of the deal that he had with buy so many plants and get the reduced shipping and the free plants…on that order i got all plugs…which took a good while to figure out that some where wrong. Very poor communication except i got an email stating that a new invoice was created…
I ordered the new varieties like Ponca Caddo and Von and did the same deal with the free shipping and free plants if you order so many… again got all plugs The Vons really struggled…the Poncas dont send out many laterals but instead the leaves are super tight to the cane…never seen that before… looks pretty though.
I do pay attention and am on the Rasp and Blackberry boards on FB… when someone pays full price and only orders a few plants they get the nice strong field grown ones and brag about them.
I think personally he or someone gets upset when you take advantage of the deal and you get a grab bag of plants from the scratch and dent dept… maybe im paranoid but it seems that way.
My invoice was generated in August for the replacement plants and ive seen alot of folks get their plants since then… so hes holding them on me which is fine. On this order i ordered Marion and Tayberry both should be trailing and thorny. I ordered 10 of each. 10 of them grew out to be erect and the other 10 grew out to be very similar to triple crown…semi erect. Thats 60 foot of row space that i had to pull and get rid of all roots and hope for the best. I ordered those plants last winter…still not here. So i think hes punishing me for his mistake as far as i can tell.
Im over it.
I have ordered from the tissue culture lab too… high hopes from them.
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Shipping a plant with thorns when a thornless plant was ordered is crazy stupid…
Demonstrates the lack of any type of quality control or shipping verification process.
Are you buying your TC plants from a retailer or direct from the lab?
North American Plants.
For others looking for plants etc this is a good resource. A list of NARBA Nurseries. (some errors in the listings but overall a good resource).
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Yeah, that sounds right. That link you have is for last year’s prices.
I should say they’ve always sent me good blackberries. I’ve also ordered rasps and gooseberries from them. The rasps looked good, but I had mixed success getting them to survive here. That may be more my fault. Or they’re maybe just not as suitable for our location.
But their gooseberry plants were basically just a small cutting with a few roots on them. I know a gooseberry doesn’t have to be a big plant to get going, but these were small compared to others from other vendors.
Nourse is a good vendor, but I’ve only ordered strawberries from them. If you want blackberries you have to buy 5 minimum.
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Thank you again for the report on Ponca. Two arrived from Ison’s yesterday.
Great shot! I remember him as a tot, eating ice cream at my house!
That was a lovely visit. I’ll never forget the white peony open with the golden yellow center shining in the coastal summer sun.
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The name of it was white moon.
What a beautiful flower it was. I’ll have to look out for that one. I hope you are enjoying France. God bless.
Do you mean Prairie Moon?
It was Moon of Nippon. It is huge!
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