I need to by 12 honey berries this year and try to minimize the cost. Looking for Aurora and Honey bee. I found Aurora at $12 a plant(looks nice on picture) at Aurora Haksap Bush (Honeyberry) . But I can’t find any information on the seller online other than e-bay reviews. Does anybody have any experience with them?
Those look like plugs from a tray just recently popped out and freshly stuck into these pots in the photo. Buying the plugs if you can find a source is cheapest. Still, I realize some bare root or gallon honeyberries sell for 30 or even 50 dollars apice…so for the price, they look acceptable.
But I never heard of Ryders plants.
ps.
You could buy a 30 dollar 3 year old bare root plant, (possibly from HoneyberryUSA) pot it up 3 inches or so deeper than original soil level, and in a couple years have several limbs rooted you could divide and get 3 to 6 or more plants for $30. About the same outcome…but you get to taste fruit sooner this method. Just a suggestion.
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I have 4 productive Honey berry bushes that produce berries that have NO honey taste whatsoever. They are very tart, sweetless, and pop/squirt when bitten. No body to them. Get blueberries or saskatoons.
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It makes sense to taste any fruit before splurging on an orchard of them.
But, I have about 19 Aurora honeyberry and perhaps 8 other plants.
And I am adding more if I find a good deal. And I am trying to root cuttings (not a lot of success so far).
They are much less trouble than blueberries unless you already have very acidic soils.
So, those that don’t like honeyberries - I accept donations of bare root plants. 
Even the old varieties I first tried (Blue Moon, Blue Velvet, Pagoda) tasted OK to me. (And to the birds!)
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Don’t like either - especially saskatoons. Bland, tasteless with odd after tone. Blueberries are fine fresh, but in preserves - not for me. Sour is good. I am not fooled with Honey name, I selected them as good pollinator for Aurora and large crops for preserves.
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I cleared a patch I need to fill in, so it doesn’t get covered with weeds again. This is why I want to have them all at once. I have one producing Aurora and we really can eat 10 times more than it gives us just fresh and frozen. Plus making preserves. Honey bee should be very productive, and I may not need 6 of them for preserves, just wanted to do a better job with pollination. May be I can get OK with less of them? The patch is 30’X17 ’ (including pathways)
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Honeyberries are so named due to being a type of honeysuckle. They were not named after their flavor.
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Highly recommend putting a request for a small group order at Hartmanns with some local folks who might also want to get a few things. Their stuff is good quality and affordable. Even if you met their minimum yourself, buying wholesale there you’ll get many more plants for the same price vs retail somewhere else. 10 is probably the borderline amount for that.
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Hartmann’s made onto my “do not buy from” list last year. Some of their plants appear to be TCs. Others were ridiculously small rootings. The mulberries were labeled with the wrong species. In my opinion they are cheap in the pejorative sense of the word.
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Layout looks fine to me. And though one bush of a second variety should pollinate 3 or even 5 or more once it’s full sized plant, half and half is great if you love both varieties. Those are compatible as are several other possible pollinnators.
I think my Honeybee died…but I still expect my other 6 varieties (8 plants, extra Beast and extra Berry Blue) to get the job done pollinating my 19 Aurora plants.
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Aurora honeyberry from Hartman…excellent results…planted in February.
(Some of their items, perhaps small or poorly rooted in case of blueberries, but if you potted up and let them root into a bigger pot, they should do fine. They are predominently a wholesale company…still I find the plants equivalent to OGW, Indiana Berry, Jung’s retail honeyberry plants.
Burnt Ridge or Honeyberry USA has bare root plants that are better/bigger plants. Burnt Ridge does not have the better cultivars though. And Honeyberry USA is going to cost more.
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They taste similar to blueberries when ripe and turn blue a long time before they’re ripe. Slice one open. Still green goo inside? Not ripe.
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Ryders is on FB… i talked to him when he first started a few years ago… basically as far as i can gather he is just a normal joe that has a backyard nursery and has gathered alot of stuff from cuttings on FB and roots alot of his own stuff.
Here is behind the scenes of a website.
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I am aware that these berries would not taste like honey, but the name is very misleading. A better name would be battery acid mush berries.
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I disagree! Though I’ve not actually tasted battery acid for a comparison…I don’t think so.
Use “Haskap” or Haskappu or the French “Camerise” or the Latin scientific Lonicera Caerulea
if the term ‘honeyberry’ doesn’t suit you.
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