First to flower and first to ripen is Indigo Gem. The bush is more outward growing and shorter overall. The berries are currently fully ripe and have a mild sweet taste with no sourness at all. They are enjoyable but nothing interesting or intriguing about them.
Next to flower is Aurora and the bush is much more narrow and upright growing. Though second to blossom they are not the second to ripen, at least not by my taste buds. They are probably a week away from peak ripeness but even so they are my favorite and have a much bolder, slightly tangy or tart, more cohesive favor of my varieties.
Next would be the Boreal Series of Beauty, Beast and Blizzard. Theses 3 bloom about the same time but ripen differently and have different flavors as well.
Beauty has the iconic heart shape that I’m guessing it was named for. It is ripening second according to my taste buds and slowly dropping from the bush with some of the winds I’ve had. I would rank the flavor 3rd on my list.
Next to ripen would be Beast and on about the same schedule as Aurora. It would be second in my ranking and in many ways similar to Aurora in both berry shape and unique flavor.
Last to ripen according to my taste buds and 4th in my rankings is Blizzard, though that may just be because they are more sour than anything at this time. They share the same shape as Beauty but slightly more blocky.
mine are right on schedule with yours. i also have 2 strawberry sensation , a honeybee and a maxie solo. the 1st and last only have a few berries that arent near ripe yet. honeybee has about a doz. or so but i haven’t tried them yet. nice sized berries. bush is as vigorous as aurora. planted 20 czech 17 and aurora at my other 3 acres this spring.
Nice pictures. I harvested 5 1/2 gallons from my little patch this summer, mostly Auroras. Wife is busy making jam – we love the jam these things make!
ive tried all the ones you rated and i find the boreals alot less sweet than aurora and indigo gem/ treat but where they’re at in the yard gets about 4 hrs direct sun and 3 hrs. dappled shade behind the garage. aurora, indigos and honeybee are in full sun. going to let them hang a little longer to see if taste improves. strawberry sensation is growing near them so it will be probably a few more weeks before they’re ready. my 4 year old aurora had huge berries this year. some got over 1.5in. i didnt weigh them but i got double what i got last year. very tasty. i froze most on sheet pans to jam latter. some we ate fresh.
I been eating fresh berries, making pie and freezing berries to use at a later date. Aurora berries are at peak right now and any remaining Indigo Gem are starting to shrivel and raisin but super sweet and enjoyable just not much of an attention grabbing flavor like Aurora.
Have several Aurora, plus Czech 17 and willa. I have Beauty and Beast.
Some other older varieties died or I sold them.
I added some extra Czech 17 plants a couple months ago for pollination.
And am getting from One Green world this week these varieties to try for the first time:
Taka, Tana, Honeybee and Giant Heart. These in gallon pots. Should give me something in bloom from start to finish in the honeyberry/haskap bushes.
