my nelsons are like your illnis. wicked bad thorns. mine are in a 4’ x12’ raised bed i have to mow around. occasionally i forget and get too close. i have permanent scars on my legs/ arms from them.
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I have said it before… i am a bit of a snob when it comes to jellies and jams… my two favorites are blackberry and raspberry… my top favorite is black raspberry but those are pretty rare.
As for storebought- i feel as if i have tried them all. (except for the crackerbarrel marion)…that sounds good.
My favorite for now and i am totally satisfied is from ALDI. (they changed vendors too). These are made in Poland and are 75 percent fruit…which to me is a plus. These are less than $3 per jar as well…
I will admit that i really like some freezer jams that i have had before…but the first ingredient in them is sugar…
These are mostly fruit.
Is this the cracker barrel one? If so it seems to be out of stock…looks like clearance price?
If so and this is the one… i went to their website and they have been discontinued and they were bought by Smuckers.
it looks like they had some nice stuff.
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i love raspberry and blackberry jams also but have you ever tried black currant? hands down the best jam ive ever tasted. i make sure i never run out of it and its juice. i grow 20+ bushes of it here. most are Tiben, a Polish cultivar.
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There have been threads and posts about ‘Thornless Marion’ over the years… i saw a post last week on social media…and the ‘experts’ chimed in and said that they grow it etc etc.
It was found by Leonard J Heidt and he grows many acres of it in Oregon and i think he got a patent for it…however… the USDA thinks that there are better options available… and it looks as if nobody picked it up to be sold to the public… If you live near Oregon you may find plants on local ads or something it seems.
The USDA thinks that Black Diamond is a better choice than Thornless Marion.
Metolius looks very good to me… and is praised by the USDA but i have never seen it for sale let alone anyone saying that they grow it.
Many other cultivars seem to not be available for sale either… maybe someday.
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That Dickensons blackberry jam… is the same that our crackerbarrel has has for many years. Marionberry jam.
We dont buy jams… too much sugar for us.
I make very low sugar chia jams.
My fav from last year had about 90% black rasp, 10 % Logans… off the charts good…
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Amethyst Purple- these are on small canes that only had 4 months to grow last year… i feel as if next year will be much more impressive.
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@krismoriah … my wife feels much better if she keeps her carbs in check… but she does splurge occasionally when we eat out. Yes… one of those little tins of that marionberry jam she splurges on pretty much every time we eat at crackerbarrell … which might be 6 times a year.
The rest of the jam we eat… is homemade, very lowsugar, chia seed thickened and fresh frozen.
I can eat a little of that myself… perhaps every other weekend. I cant splurge as she does, or as often as she does… or my health immediatly goes down hill. My splurges almost always end in pain and sufferring… that can last for weeks.
Glad many others… dont have that problem.
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Blackberry (Osage), Mulberries (Oscar and Easter Egg), Marion berry and Raspberries (Jewel, Double Gold, Caroline and Royalty)
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General note: The preferred spelling is “Silvan” rather than “Sylvan”.
Yes i think it was sold by Burnt Ridge nursery years ago… they still call it Sylvan on their website. They also say it is hardy to Z3… which to me is pretty interesting.
‘but newer developments such as Sylvan Blackberry do better in extreme hot or cold weather and are hardy up to Zone 3.’
https://www.burntridgenursery.com/Blackberry/products/51/
The main seller in the U.K Chris Bowers also calls it Sylvan.
Silvan history is interesting- the seed was selected by George Waldo in 1952… after a cross with Marion. In 1964 the plant was grown in the Silvan District of Victoria Australia for 10 years where it was called ‘American Bramble’.
Silvan is very popular in Australia due to its high tolerance of wind, drought and heavy soil.
I have also seen Navaho spelled Navajo plenty of times…
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Have you tried Black Pearl / diamond ?
they are higly praised by Valentinovich Yakimov a blackberry enthousiast and author.
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I am growing Black Diamond… I think Jeremy went to Oregon and got Black Pearl and brought it back but other than him i have not heard much about it.
Black Diamond, Black Pearl and Nightfall blackberry were created to replace Marion due to the poor performance of post harvest of Marion.
So i gotta think that Black Diamond won according to the USDA as they talk about it alot…and the other two have faded into forgotten.
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do you have Silvan Kris? im particularly interested in it due to its cold hardiness and tolerance of heavy soils. sounds like the perfect blackberry to grow here in Northern Maine.
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planting justice has it but its out of stock.
I do… i lost them all last year due to a vole… then i got new starts this spring. I have 6 plants going and 4 root cuttings planted that seem to not be growing… so not sure if it will grow from roots… will know soon.
Im not sure i would believe Burnt Ridge… maybe u can email them or call them and see where that info comes from.
If u note the link i posted about them… it looks as if in the very early days you could get cuttings from Canada… so maybe
Looking at its parentage i dont see any cause to think it is cold hardy…its a cross of Marion that was crossed with a Logan and Boysen hybrid… and none of those really say to me it has any parentage that would lend it to be anything to note for cold hardiness.
As far as i can tell the most cold hardy of the PNW varieties are Kotata and Newberry.
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yeah. i thought that also. maybe later on when you have 1 to spare i could trial it to see how it does here.
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has been for years and will be for more years… their nursery burned down and they have been focusing on getting people to donate money to them rather than selling plants… they have alot of projects going such as hiring ex-cons and other things…
Sign up for that waitlist… you will likely never get an email saying that its instock though.
They are trying to get people to donate $3 Million to them… while not selling much of anything in their nursery.
IF u remember years ago they had a similar nursery to fund schools and they said that they were veteran owned… they had a strange website then.
Strange business model to have a nursery that doesnt sell many plants but wants folks to donate money for their various ‘causes’…
To each their own i guess.
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didnt know that. thanks for the heads up. ill take my business elsewhere.
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im not saying that… just saying that im not sure if they will ever get back in stock some of those things… ive been on a waiting list for metolius and a couple of others for i think 3 years.
There isnt much if any demand for very thorny 20-50 year old plants… im one of the only guys thats into them and still talking about them…
Loganberry is 142 years old… i think its still worth growing though…even though it can only be bought as thornless.
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