One fruit that thrives in the Pacific Northwest coast climate
is Ribes.
I especially like the Black Currants.
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Hi Mary. I am new here too.
I am in Central WA. I had never heard of the Home orchard society, but I am sad to hear of its demise. Grafting and tree fruit is largely unfamiliar to me (as I am mostly a berry and vegetable grower), but I bought some supplies this year, so I am ready for spring. I see you have 18 blueberry plants. I have 30 in the ground on my small property. What is your favorite variety? Mine is Draper.
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Hello Fellow PNW gardener,
Yes, the closing down of the HOS is very sad. What a wonderful resource it was.
My favorite blueberry is Reka. For me it is very early, great flavor and I can keep picking from it until I am also picking from my late season bushes. My one complaint is that it has a more rounded shape rather than upright so takes up more real estate. I have a Draper also but I can’t really be sure it was properly labeled. … got that one and a couple of other one year when Fred Meyer was closing out plants and they were $2 each. So my tag for that one …a duke…a chandler… and rubel all have ?? after the name. LOL. Pretty sure about rubel and chandler as their berries are very distinctive.
Runner-up on fav is… Hannah’s Choice. Very early also. Wonderful sweet flavor. Raintree had them for a couple of years. I like the one I had bought from them so much I tried to get another but they no longer carried them. I ended up buying 6 from a very fine nursery back east Hartmann. Great people to deal with. I gave 3 of them to friends/family. In trials, they don’t produce as well in oregon and washington as they do back east but they are soooo good I don’t care.
When you say …central Wa… do you mean Yakima/spokane? East of the cascades is a whole different climate.
You mentioned you bought supplies… for grafting?? if so …loads of fun…and easy! At least apples and pears are easy. I haven’t tried any thing else.
If grafting, do you have a good source for scions? HOS was an amazing source for basically free scions every years… 100-20+…75 - 100+ grapes… pears european & Asian… etc…etc…
I am so happy to have found this very active group.
Boizeau – I planted a gooseberry a couple of years back…poorboy, I think. The berries are quite good…but carefully protected by THORNS!
I have never tried currants. but hearing that they do well here makes me want to look into them. When I was a kid my mother used to buy currants rather than raisins for oatmeal and cookies… they were good!
Thanks for the tip!
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One of the characteristics that Draper has,is that the berries ripen almost at the same time.
Boizeau - I look at west cascade fruit growers. Looks like all their chapters are seattle/puget sound area…but… looks like a good group. It would be nice if they have yearly events and seminars. Due to covid all that type of thing is cancelled, of course. I don’t mind a nice drive to attend interesting events.
Thanks for the tip.
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Well
Clubs are folding up over the virus, but I have a few things to share.
Mostly Figs, Grapes and Ribes.
You’re almost a neighbor.
Yes… very sad. I can only hope some of the PNW clubs get going again. Seems like there were a number of active garden groups up in the seattle area so hopefully some survive even if events are cancelled for Spring of 2021. Unfortunately, looks like HOS is closed for good!
I don’t have much to share except a few very ordinary apple scions, a couple of grapes and a couple of figs. Probably the only thing that I have that is unusual are a few rare strawberries cultivars… gariguette, marshall and fairfax. Gariguette is the only only that I started enough of that I would have some to give away.
mary
What kind of figs do you have?
I like figs.
I have olympian, desert king and stella (a fig found growing at a home in Portland, oregon. Story goes it was brought back from Italy after WWII by a returning soldier. The gentleman who brought it back named it after his wife. so… it is probably some already known fig in italy.
I do have a niece who lives in shelton. I go up there to see her occasionally … but a whole lot less now because of covid. Probably will not head her way until Feb or so. If any of those are ones you would like, I will pot up a couple to give to you.
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Shelton has a good restaurant, called “The Sisters”. Great breakfast food. I used to live near there.
I have seen that restaurant. Thanks for the recommendation. Maybe when we are done with coronavirus, I will take my niece out to breakfast. Always happy to help the small mom & pop places.
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When those mom and pop places are forced out of business all we will have left is the big franchises. That would be a shame. I agree, I always try to go to the mom and pop stores when possible. Always better food too.
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I loved a comment that Dr Fauci made. He said… it is"almost a neighborhood obligation" to support local restaurants with takeout orders (during covid). I thought that was a wonderful way to express the need to support small local community business where one can always but especially now with the hardship that covid is bringing to small business. I feel the same way about supporting mom and pop restaurants, grocery stores, small business. I have been doing a lot of “curbside pick-ups”. It still scares me a little I but I have been doing some takeouts. My daughter and her husband are pretty sure they caught covid in march so they are less worried about takeout orders… and they are much younger!!.. so mostly I just treat them to takeout dinners. 
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Preach it:+1:
.
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My experience with Draper has not been good. I picked them today (7/25) Mine ripen over a few weeks with some ripe and some not although they all look ripe. When they get picked some are sweet and some aren’t. Waiting longer results in some shriveled, some are sweet, some are sour. Taste is just mediocre. We had three weeks of sunning weather but that didn’t help. I’ll give one more year and discard is they don’t improve. Maybe it was mislabeled.
When in Payson,Arizona,a couple years ago and meeting Arlen Draper,where he retired,I mentioned the Draper variety.He said something like,not wanting one named after him,in the event,that it might be a dog.
To me,the flavor is okay,about a 7 out of 10.There is another called Arlen.I wonder how that is?
Is Legacy one of your plants?That’s a Blueberry he helped develop and liked.
Don’t have Legacy. Only have Blueray, Bluecrop, Darrow, Bluegold, Draper, Tophat. Blueray is the best tasting for me but unfortunately this year the birds ate most of the berries before they even ripened. This year planted Rubel, Premier,Patriot, Chandler, Sunshine Blue. Non get all day sun. Need to find what works best in my environment.