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.
1 Like
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.
3 Likes
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.
1 Like
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…
3 Likes
Yes those are small, too bad as that company added many new cultivars.
They are swimming in honeyberries! Offering over 30 cultivars.
1 Like
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.
2 Likes
Good plan. For what it’s worth, I’ve had good experiences dealing with HoneyberryUSA. I was also a bit disappointed with the size of several of the honey berry plants I got from them (though mine were more than 3 times larger than yours!) but they ended up doing well. I also bought one of each of the bush cherries they sall (Romance series + 2 more I think). Even they came in what I thought were tiny sizes (they had actually used the little plastic 4-packs like you buy tomato plants in at retail stores and had cut them apart). But I planted them last spring and by fall they were almost 3 feet tall!!!
Every time I’ve dealt with them it has been the same lady. She is super nice and acts like she genuinely appreciates the business- which is not the case with many online nurseries in my experience. I feel like she would be easy to deal with if a replacement is required, but of course you never know, and I hope you won’t need one. It also seems quite early to be sending out such a tiny and somewhat (I would think) tender young plant. I think your plan of trying to bulk it up this winter is a good one. Good luck.
1 Like
I should clarify, the pictured plants were ordered from BERRIES UNLIMITED, not Honeyberryusa. The way I wrote the post might cause some confusion. Ive gotten small plants from HBUSA before also, but no where near as small as the ones in the picture.
2 Likes
Hirt’s is getting way too many negatives on Dave’s Garden Watchdog.
1 Like
Hirt’s still has more positive than negative if we take a glass half full approach. I was satisfied with my yezberries from them, each variety I bought came with 2 in the pot. 
1 Like
Thanks for the clarification. I just reread your OP and you were actually pretty clear…so my bad. I’m actually kind of glad to know it wasn’t HB USA because, as I said, I’ve grown somewhat fond of them based on my very limited interactions with the lady who works there (and I think is wife of owner?)
1 Like
Haha, Im guessing shes half owner, being the wife! hehe… They are very nice and I never feel bad giving them some of my money!
Ha! Certainly, the way you stated it is much better and more accurate. Having been through a divorce, I can tell you that the courts would almost certainly see her as 1/2 owner and not the “wife of the owner” as I poorly stated it! 
(not to suggest that they shouldn’t- and I sincerely mean that. Don’t want folks thinking I’m a sexist just because of my poor choice of wording)
1 Like
Me either, one plant I ordered was DOA, but I didn’t make a claim. I bought another from Hirt’s, and it was huge! It was the Maxie Honeyberry cultivar. I look forward one day to adding more, to me these are very tasty fruits.
2 Likes
Update from my previous post showing Berries Unlimited honeyberries. Both were very small when I got them so I contacted Berries Unlimited about this right away. They were very nice and told me that if they didnt survive the winter, they would replace them for me. Happy Giant lived, but Blue Moose didnt so I contacted them last week and they sent me a replacement. I took the opportunity to get 2 more varieties at the same time. New plants are much nicer!
