I live in Vancouver, Washington. I feel like an orphan!! Our PNW group… Home orchard society … is closing down as of Dec. 31st. This is VERY sad. Such a wonderful group of people… interesting and educating events (fruit tasting, scion exchange, grafting classes, seminars at the home orchard arboretum, etc. etc… great forums for chat, questions, etc. I am heart broken.
So… found this group.
I have a small backyard orchard of 13 dwarf trees… apples… plums… cherries (mostly for the birds)… persimmons. Also, grapes, strawberries, blueberries and usual garden veggies.
Looking forward to getting to know folks here… getting help… sharing experiences.
Hello Mary,
My place is in Redmond,north up I5.
I’ve been to a couple fruit tastings,in Canby,during the Fall.Last Spring,plans were made to attend Raintree Nursery’s Day of Classes and then go to the HOS scion exchange,the following day.
Then Covid was starting to come on strong and Oregon’s governor stopped groups of people from meeting that weekend.
That’s too bad about HOS.This is an informative forum though,even with lots of scions available.
Mark - I have always been drawn to this addiction since I was a kid. I had periods in my life when I was free of it… but… bought this property about 31 yrs ago and it definitely enabled by addiction. I have given up fighting it. I just try to control the addiction as best I can. …“I will only add one tree and one new variety of strawberry next year… ok… two new apple trees”. and do the conversation goes each year.
Brady… nice to meet a fellow PNW gardener. Yes, the closure of home orchard society is heartbreaking. I found them about 8 yrs ago or so. I’ve been able to take the grafting classes a few times and some of the seminars at the arboretum. It was only about 45 - hr drive for me to Canby for events and to the arboretum. I retired a year ago and was all set to get more involved with the group… more volunteering, etc. Very sad.
So happy to have found this group. Someone from PA (I believe) put a post up about this group on an HOS forum.
Very thankful!
welcome Mary! we all suffer the ‘‘addiction’’ here and this site itself ‘‘enables’’ you even more. you won’t find more friendly, helpful , generous fruit growers than on here. hopefully we can fill the void for you. we even have growers from 4 different continents and many other countries that post here. enjoy!
Thank you for the warm welcome!
Boizeau - I will look into West Cascades fruit growers assoc. I was just so happy to have found HOS years ago I never really looked for any other groups.
Yes, the PNW is a wonderful place to grow fruit… play… etc. I was born and raised in Los Angles. When I was 11, we took a vacation up here. Even that young… loved it and decided someday I was going to live in a place like this. Took me a few yrs but I made it… and I am not leaving!
Hi Mary,
im also in PNW seattle, welcome to our group. this wonderful group have been very helpful answering my newbie questions. We love to hear more about what varieties you grow and what you like and dont like about them.nice to meet you!
I posted about this forum on the HOS message board.
Hopefully we’ll be able to keep the Home Orchard Society’s forum going for a while. The organization began in the Willamette Valley, and physically meets there, but wasn’t intended to be just PNW and has members from around the US, and I believe some international.
There are a number of smaller organization in the PNW with related or complimentary charter. Perhaps we can start a thread on the HOS board to give visibility to some of them.
This forum is complementary, and obviously bigger scope.
Good morning. seattle fig girl. I am very thankful to have found this group!
Speaking of figs, I planted a two about 2 - 3 yrs ago. I am very pleased with the olympian. Petty nice crop of breba figs. Also, planted a stella but only get 1 or 2 before all is lost to frost. I will probably take it out. Last year, I started a desert king from cuttings. I am hoping to get a few from it next year. I’ve read it is good for a breba crop. Do you have any suggestion for a cultivar for us northern folk?
Apples - bramley, pristine, jonagold, a baby cosmic crisp, honeycrisp, gala, liberty. Want to add… Rhode Island greening and calville blanc this coming spring.
Plums - terrible problems with fireblight - green gage, beauty, …and two more that I can’t remember.
Persimmon - fuju… would like to get a tam cam.
grapes - interlaken, reliance, canadice.
Strawberries - rare/hard to impossible to find in the US - gariguiette. Difficults to find - marshall ( from
Bainbridge island and from USDA in Corvallis. fairfax… Easy to find - mara de bois &
tristar
Blueberry - 18 plants… too many to name
I will miss the HOS. What an amazing opportunity it has been for me. The tastings… scion fair… seminars… grafting classes… and just an amazing amount of knowledge and help.
I know it is a very distant hope but I do hope that perhaps in the future, it can be reborn.
Murky could expain it better… but sounds like not so much a lack of money right now but sounds like not enough manpower/volunteers and covid. Sounds like the website/forums will still keep going for another year??
I am so very thankful that I have been able to enjoy and take advantage of all that HOS has offered these past years. My daughter who went to all the fruit tastings in the fall and the scion exchange in the Spring remarks that we had become “such apple snobs”. LOL
