Last year I had 3 boysenberries in 8 gallon pots on my patio. They didn’t make it over the winter in my garage, probably because I overwatered them a few times. Last year they were airlayering themselves in between the pavers of my patio. In the spring I saw a few growths in between the pavers, in the same spot where I kept the potted boysenberries.
Could this be a boysenberry plant or is it poison ivy?
Definitely a boysenberry or thorny blackberry and not poison ivy. Congrats.
Of that I encountered, poison ivy foliage doesn’t have continuous serration and the stems are thornless.
You’re safe…not poison ivy.
It isn’t poison ivy but the best way to tell is to taste it
Shouldn’t it be painfully easy to tell?
Definitely not poison ivy. Poison ivy never has thorns. It looks like a bramble.
Though I have tasted nectar from poion ivy blooms and also pollen,
I believe I’ll pass on tasting the leaves or stems as a ‘test’
to figure out if it’s poison ivy!
I bought a jar of honey years ago labeled “poison ivy”.
Not impossible I imagine, but it’d be much much more scarce and obscure than sourwood honey, and maybe less likely than sumac, Va.creeper or bittersweet honey. So, I’d imagine it’s somebody’s theory.
But, having had bees, and them located in 8 to 10 different locations, I can say I’ve tasted poison ivy nectar using a toothpick by opening up a beehive on a pretty day and tasting the thin uncured honey they were collecting that morning.
First, I noticed the pollen coming into that particular hive did not match the other hives at the same location.
Second, I observed the direction of flight of the bees in that hive.
Third, I found large poison ivy vines going all the way to the tops of some trees.
Fourth, there was enough frenzy in the top of those trees one could have thought a swarm was there.
Very light in color. Tasty. And it didn’t affect me in a negative way, but I’d be cautious with giving it to anyone highly allergic to poison ivy.
And one hive out of 30 or so visiting poison ivy and the other hives something else…if the honey is harvested from numerous hives and blended…you’d almost never get ‘poison ivy honey’ in my opinion. (But a blend that had some poison ivy honey in it…certainly possible if there’s blooming vines of poison ivy near a beeyard.)
If a beekeeper can obtain a premium price…isolating unique floral honeys might be
worth the time and trouble. I know ‘key lime’ honey in Florida is much better than ‘orange blossom honey’.
The poison ivy honey was purchased perhaps 20 years ago at a place in Gladstone Oregon called Ruhl Bee Supply. The honey was quite good, and of a very usable viscosity. It was on some makeshift shelving with a few other jars of random honey. I also bought Holly honey there once.
I just assumed that the poison ivy honey was a mixture with the bees having access to some poison ivy plants.
The company has long since sold, moved, and morphed.
Good info.
The Hive & Garden honey selection … all appears to be granulated.
Most honey does granulate. Especially most raw honey.
Sourwood is one of few very slow to granulate (sugar granules form).
Yes, the ultimate in granulated honey for me was a large jar of rapeseed honey (product of Canada) purchased in the 1990s from one of those survivalist stores (Vancouver WA). Near-white and pasty, but spreadable at room temperature.
For the past ten years I have been relying mostly on Trader Joe’s Mesquite honey. At one point there must have been an ingredients scandal, as it is now labeled “Mostly Mesquite Honey”.
