Nocturne the new one I am pretty sure I am going to buy this Spring was developed in NJ by the same fellow that developed Hannah’s choice. …and I love hannahs choice.
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Hello Nora… Nice to meet a fellow PNW gardener.
My favorite for fresh eating is Hannah’s Choice. Very early. med to large fruit. Are not as productive as some other varieties but have a few bushes because I LOVE their flavor. Next favorite is reka… early good flavor. good yield that I can pick over 4 weeks or so.
For cooking, I like Rubel best. Small rather late berry. Rubel was found wild in NJ many years ago. They are good fresh but really give a blueberry flavor when cooked in pancakes, muffins etc.
Next… bluegold. bluecrop… Oneal is pretty good. Berkley is my latest bush and gives good but not outstanding berries but tasty enough. .
I find duke, draper rather bland and neither produce very well for me. earliblue - are not very early and not very sweet. I’ve had a lot of trouble with mummy berry on my two earliblue bushes. aurora - late…- it was removed from my blueberry house and planted for the birds in the front yard because it has to stay on the bush quite awhile after it looks ripe to get any sweetness…and then in just a few days it is over ripe. Poor yield also for me.
I have a couple of bushes that I have lost their names they are all good but I don’t like any of them as much as Hannah’s choice and Reka.
It is hard to give advice on flavor as it is such an individual thing. I like sweet and not mild/bland.
I have lots of berries but I want to extend my season so I am going to add Elliott and nocturne. As I was looking into nocturne, I realized it was bred by the same gent as Hannah’s Choice. …so… hoping the flavor is good.
I will be getting my new plants from burnt ridge nursery. You probably have some good nurseries down your way. Hannahs choice was difficult to get. I ended up ordering from Hartmann’s back east but got VERY nice plants…and was less expensive, including shipping, than lesser quality blueberry plants that I have gotten locally.
Hope this helps.
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What a wealth of information! Thanks.
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thank you. I don’t have hannah’s choice, that’s going on the wishlist. reka is my favorite of the varieties I have. my one reka bush has been flowering intermittently the last few weeks which doesn’t bode well for next year’s production, I think I stressed it out somehow
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That is funny… Reka is fav for both of us! It is the fav of my daughter, after Hannah’s choice, also. My daughter is considering replacing her sunshine blue with a Reka. She gets a good percentage of mine but wants more!! 
Interesting that you should mention the flowering… I noticed a couple of flowers on one of my bushes in the blueberry house… Oneal, I think and a couple of flowers on the landscaping blueberry plants I have in the front yard in the past week or so. very unusual! It isn’t like we have had a warm spell or anything.
I am confused/surprised by the flowers also.
This is the first winter I have been fully retired so maybe this happens every year and I never noticed it.
I am hoping a few flowers here and there won’t matter for next years crop.
Interesting
mary.
Nora… something that might be of interest to you is that every year OSU has a blueberry research day… and also a raspberry research day. These seminars are held at:
North Willamette Research and Extension Center
15210 NE Miley Rd
Aurora, OR 97002
It free and really interesting. I managed to make the blueberry one a couple of years ago and the raspberry one the year before that. A lot of the info is aimed at commercial growers and flew right over my head…but… I was able to get bits of info I understood and could use. Good handouts. Also, tasting evals for developing varieties that was quite interesting. Each time the seminar took about 2- 3 hrs total.
With covid going on, who knows if they will have it in 2021. It was outside under a canopy and there was some walking through the field. Maybe 40 - 60 people
Mary
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Mary, what works for you to protect against bird predation? I haven’t used bird netting too much lately but will need some thing to stand up to deer attempts too. Maybe some 1/4" wire screening from Tractor Supply or such may work for me. Hmm Fort Knox vs human accessibility.
Thanks for the reference, Mary. I had heard about those research days, but didn’t follow up since I was not sure how helpful it would be for a home gardener. I will watch for the next one.
This conversation is inspiring me to think about increasing my blueberry varieties (fun activity for the armchair in the winter). I looked around for Hannah’s Choice and only found it at Hartmanns in the wholesale section as a 6” plant or plug.
When I contacted Hartmanns a few years back, wholesale was all I saw, as I recall. But… I had exhausted all retail nurseries out west and back east. A few back east had that variety but were not interested in shipping a few plants to me. I called Hartmanns with the intention of BEGGING them to have mercy on me and send a few plants through their wholesale process. To my surprise, they said they had nice plants available through the retail side of their business and would be happy to send some to me. As you can imagine… I was DELIGHTED! I ordered 6 plants. I figured two die in transit… two would die after planting and that would leave me with 2 plants. Well… all 6 arrived in wonderful condition. well developed for online type plants. Pretty much the best I had ever received. Height was 18" to 2ft approx. good roots. well packed for the journey.
Potted them up in 2-3 gal pots. … waited… all continued to grow and look healthy. Since I didn’t need SIX Hannahs choice, I gave 3 away and planted 3. Those three are still doing well.
So… If you want a hannahs choice, I would contact hartmann. I didn’t have to buy 6 plants but wanted to make sure I ended up with a couple of plants… and I wanted to make it worth their while to ship to me. Perhaps they would even ship one plant.
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I looked again and it’s not my reka that’s blooming, it’s pink popcorn. reka has lost all leaves and is nicely dormant. maybe it’s the freeze/warm cycles we have now. I think pink popcorn is too new to have chill hours established, best I could find for it was the generic northern highbush 800-1000. we’ve had about 600 hours so far
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I went out and checked… not my reka either. It is my O’Neal that had a couple of blooms on it. Very confused plant!
Hey, I live in Hazel Dell, in Vancouver, WA!
I lucked out this week and found at Fred Meyer’s one Bushel and Berry “Strawberry Shortcake” raspberry for $9! Oh yes I got it! It only had a bit of heat damage to some leaves, and is very alive.
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