I am extremely surprised to hear of your experience. Like Drews, mine has been outstanding since I called and reminded them that I had an order that should have shipped. She sent me a really nice email and then called me BOTH. My order was about $300 so that could have helped, but I didn’t get that feeling. It is obvious that they are a mom and pop, small, less than high tech place- which I’m fine with.
As for whether they kept their word this time and got my order moving…they DID. 3 days after I emailed them, my plants arrived fed ex TODAY. Now, I will say that they were all VERY VERY small plants. To tell you HOW small, picture those little plastic 4-packs that you can buy tomatoes or petunias or other small plants. Now if you could somehow seperate those 4-packs by cutting them apart into the seperate cups, that is the size of the root ball and dirt that the plants were in, and the plants were around 12 inches tall, though some were longer. This applies to the saskatons and haskaps (honeyberries). The Romance Cherries had a rootball about the size of a baseball and had a thick bundle of limbs that were all around 12-15 inches.
These may sound too small, but honesty I was pleased. I knew their size and it was as big or bigger than what I ordered. Perhaps more importantly, even though they were small, they all looked very very healthy. They all had big green leaf BUDS or small, newly emerging leaves. In short, they all look healthy and i see no reason why they won’t establish and begin to grow. I will keep you posted, but I’m satisfied so far.
I ordered some of their larger size Carmine Jewel cherries last fall and they really were a decent size. I planted them in the late fall and one of them actually flowered profusely this spring. I am waiting to see if it might set a few cherries this first year in the ground.
I am also waiting on a variety of other things I have ordered in smaller sizes. Initially they lost my order but were apologetic when I reminded them and say things will be here soon. I will report when they arrive.
Last year I’d organized a group buy for around seven friends and family that was for several Carmine Jewel and Honeyberry plants from HBUSA.
We’d decided on the medium sized CJ’s that were potted to keep the cost down, and I already knew from experience that they size up really quick.
Anyway, when it was close to shipping time Bernis sent me an email asking if I would mind if they upgraded my order to the large bare root plants. (I think they had an excess if I recall)
So she sent me several boxes of really big nice bare root CJ’s for the cost of the little potted ones.
I think they’ll do right by you, they’re good folks.
Thanks Drew51, I’ve found that personal recommendation is the best measure of where to buy. I’d rather wait a bit longer and support a growing, Mom and Pop operation than a Corporate Nursery. I should be a bit more patient! Greg
Thanks Cityman, for the reassurance. I sent a note to Bernis just now asking for a shipping notice and let them know that they have solid supporters here. I’m in the Ohio River Valley, S. Indiana, and our weather has been highs of 75-85 and lows in the high 60s, and I like to have dormant plants in the ground before now. I’m glad you commented on size, I can brace myself for small, well rooted plants that may not be as large as ordered. Because of my lot size and physical limitations, the Romance Cherries are the last on my list for right now, but as I learn more here I may try my hand at grafting next year to try and add a few more varieties without devoting more space. I just need to find room for a few plums! Will be patient with HoneyberryUSA. Greg
I think in the end you’ll be pleased- small plants or not. Good luck. BTW…you should go and put your location on the map. If you are in southern Indiana, you’d probably be the second closest person to me, even though I’m in TN. I’m also in the Ohio Valley and I’m right on the TN/KY state line. If you haven’t seen the map, here it is:
I stopped by Honeyberry USA on April 5. Its was snowing with a nice snow
covering on there road and yard. They are truly delightful people and a true family operation. Bernis was wearing a cast on her foot so she is definitely slowed down
until that is removed. I picked up a large order of Haskaps which I took back to
Alaska. I did not look at them until I repacked them for shipping on Airline and they
were the best quality and largest Haskaps I have ever purchased.
My order from honeyberries is coming at the end of the month. And yeah Bernis seems super nice. We chatted via email about a lot of fruit. I was going to dig up my honeyberries at my cottage this weekend, but decided to just take cuttings. See if I can do anything with them. I’m going to stick them in soil for now. If they fail, I’ll try humidity etc.
Cityman, you are absolutely right, I need to fill in a complete profile, and will do it ASAP. I’m in Evansville IN, on the IN/KY Stateline, so I must be straight north of you. My back issues seem to slow me down on everything since the last surgery, I work to the end of my endurance(mediocre) and then collapse. But good news! Today I received my order from HoneyberryUSA, and you were right about the quality. I ordered 2 Carmine Jewel and 1 Juliet, HoneyberryUSA mailed my order on April 18th, I received it at 4pm today, I had a pleasant surprise. The Carmine Jewels were quite large, at least 36inches with one having a 1 inch diameter, and the other 3/4 inch diameter, and both with enormous root balls and very heavily branched. The Juliet was about 16 inches, and also well rooted. All 3 Cherries are at the perfect stage to plant, breaking dormancy with swollen green buds barely visible. Since this is my first encounter with the Dwarf bushes, I’m not sure if these are flower buds or vegetative, but given the size I would not be surprised if they have at least a few blooms. I had been working outside too long when they arrived, and only had the steam to unbox, inspect, and get them in buckets of water. I seldom soak anything more than 6 hours, and these were well packed with very slightly damp roots, and I’m not able to plant them until the morning. I know cherries hate wet feet, but do you or any reader see anything harmful if I don’t plant these until Thursday AM. That would be soaking from 4:30pm today until 8am, total 16 hours. Sound OK? Thanks for encouraging me to be patient, the HoneyberryUSA order was worth the wait. Greg.
Cool, when they first opened the trees were small HoneyberryUSA. I guess they’re getting more organized. Mine are about to flower. Two Carmine Jewels. They never flowered before and they are loaded to the gills with flowers.
Greg- I’m sorry I didn’t get your question in time to respond, but I’m not knowledgeable enough to feel good about offering much advice. I will say that from everything I’ve read, most suggest soaking for just a few hours at most. But can tell you that back when I first started getting into fruit trees I always plopped my trees into a bucket of water -sometimes for 2 days- and never lost any. To be clear, I’m not promoting that or saying it was right- it WAS NOT and is not. But don’t panic if that is what you did, because I have personal experience that you can likely get away with it. But reading your post, I get the feeling you have more knowledge and experience than I do so I’m sure you’ll be fine.
I am, however, very jealous of your tree descriptions! Now, as I said before, my trees were all in excellent condition and I was happy, but they weren’t even CLOSE to the sizes you described for your Carmine Jewels! One inch diameter?!?! Mine weren’t even 1/2 that. But good for you, and I’m sure mine will be fine. SOunds like you and me both have become fans of Honeyberry USA.
I’m new to these bush cherries as well, and I’m more excited about them than anything I’ve bought in a long time. Photos and description I’ve seen are just amazing. So wel’ll get to find out together- though I suspect you’ll be a year ahead of me based on the size!
Sorry to hear about your back trouble. Most of us take our good health for granted until we have a problem like yours, then we realize how lucky we were to be able to work all day and live without health problems or fears.
Good luck with your new trees.
Cityman, thanks for the answer. I had second thoughts about the long soak, and around midnight I emptied the water, added shredded paper and tossed in enough water to make it damp and get through the night. I had one of those toss and turn nights, and got the cherry bushes in XL pots on the patio about 7am. I’m still amazed at the size, and with just that short soak the buds are swelling, and I think they just may be flower buds. I could not be more pleased with HoneyberryUSA, not only size, but a large, healthy root system. My last mail order was from Starks, and the tree roots were buzzed off, leaving only 2 inch stubs. My back gives me fits, after living a fast paced life, I have a hard time going at a much slower pace with hampered ability. I can lift the big pots, but have to move the dirt a gallon at a time instead of just picking up a bag and dumping as I had done in the past. But now, potted on the patio the bushes are great! I used a mix of topsoil, composted manure and a bit of sand to keep them well drained. I intend to keep them like this thru the summer, and will get them in the ground this fall, but with their cold tolerance to -45F I won’t worry if they stay there until Spring. I’ll try to post some pictures soon, but I’m using a desktop and trying to get the hang of a tablet that has the camera. Things seem to disappear. I’m excited also, to see just how productive they are, and how other members find them to grow in different areas of the Country, both in size of the bush and productivity. Have a fine weekend!
Poorwolf,
I received three huge Romeo bushes like that from Gurneys last year. The bushes were covered with blossoms, but they aborted all the berries. That is probably what will happen with yours, too. The bushes seem to know they aren’t established enough to support the crop. They were very beautiful to behold, though, when in blossom.
I’ve decided to stay away from the Romeo for now. I’m a little gun shy with later ripening cherries, seems all manner of bad things happen here the later the season goes on. They sound real cool, but I’ll probably stick with the CJ, CP & Juliet I have. (for now…)
I’ll second that on the aborted cherries Northwoods. It seems to be that’s what happened with mine as well when they were first blooming. I was really jazzed about the blossoms, heck even little cherries began to appear, but nothing came of it. All fell off if I recall.
And Cityman; I prepaid and got on the list for the Juliet’s early, and once they were ready for Fall shipping I told Bernis I’d hold off until this Spring. Mine arrived on 4/12 and were both really small, but they’re doing great.
I’ve actually never had large plants of my own come in from HBUSA, all mine have been real undersized. On the other hand, I’ve ordered for friends and family and when they came in they were often three times as big as what mine were. Even the tiny potted plants - mine would be real small, when my friend’s order came in… jumbo! Same class of plant. But it just doesn’t matter, at least in my case that has never been an issue, they just go like crazy. If they come in from HBUSA I just feel like they’ll be healthy plants and take off like they should.
I hardly ever have time to write on the forums, but still do a lot of lurking. However my experience with honeyberry USA has been so positive I feel obliged to chime in here.
Originally I pre ordered aurora along with some others. They sent me the right # of plants, but none of the plants was an aurora. I was a little miffed but felt is wasn’t worth the hassle of trying to get it corrected. I
So you can imagine my surprise when out of the blue they contacted me a year later asking me when I wanted my aurora honey berry shipped.
I had also ordered a crimson passion on my original order, and it had died(these are known to be somewhat wimpy).
Anyway, while arranging for shipping Bernice asked how the plants had done, and I told her about the dead crimson passion. She said she would ship me out one that was a little more established to replace it. She did and it has been growing nicely over the past 2 years.
I think that is an outstanding example of customer service. Based on my experience I would go out of my way to order from them again.
Thanks, now I got the 2 yezberry varieties planted this spring. Actually when I unpotted them, was a couple in each pot, so now have 2 of each variety, were small, but they should do ok.
I have ordered several times from Bernice @ honeyberry usa and have been very satisfied every time. My most recent order from Berries Unlimited Im not overly impressed with. I got Happy Giant and Blue Moose honeyberry from them and both were VERY small, less than 2 inches tall and scrawny. I contacted the company about this and they told me if they dont survive the winter, they will replace them for me in the spring. Hopefully they follow through on that, I havent read great reviews about that company online.
YIKES! Now those are SMALL!!! I don’t blame you for being disappointed. That being said, if they make through winter they may well take off and be fine. Good luck…
I actually decided to keep them indoors for the winter and try to coax some extra growth out of them under lights… If they dont make it, hopefully the company will honor their offer to replace in the spring.
