I just received an email from Stark Brothers they have a lot of their nursery product at $18.16 pricing. I also think they have a discount in shipping as well- $5.55.
Just a FYI to those that may be interested.
Hope they have something you are interested in.
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I got an email about it. The $18.16 was mostly on the more common (and generally most disease-prone trees, Bartlett pears, grocery store apples, etc) which was kind of disappointing. Still some good stuff though.
Anyone growing the Elderberries varieties they have available? Adams, Johns, Nova and York? I had kind of been looking at some of the newer varieties (Wyldewood, Ranch), but if the older ones are good Iâm not super particular on them. I just donât want to spend $50+ per bush on them when theyâre apparently stupid easy to propagate.
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Yes I took a look too and agree.
They mostly had same sale a week ago. The $5 shipping was already there last week.
Itâs not a bad deal on some items considering shipping is almost free.
The Oâneal blueberry I got was quite small, so donât expect much if you order blueberries.
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@evilpaul ⌠i tried ranch and york here in southern middle TN zone 7a and they could not hack it here.
The first year they grew ok bloomed and fruited a little⌠but got some aweful foliage issues that plagued them the next 2 years.
It was so bad that they did not bloom the next two years. I yanked them.
I started a new elderberry patch this year that i expect will do just fine⌠i transplanted a couple crowns of wild elderberry to a nice bed out in my field. They are growing like crazy now.
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I had been looking for a Golden Russet Bosc. I finally bought a rootstock and a friend got me a scion from the germplasm repository in 2021. I did a bench graft and then directly planted. Itâs okay, but its still tiny. $18 and $5 shipping has me tempted. Are these going to be already leafed out and marginal at this point? Or will they have been kept dormant?
I couldnât find a tree for twice that much total in 2021, maybe not at all that could be directly ordered over internet.
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@murky I just ordered last week a redbud tree and canefruits, all bareroots.
The redbud was still dormant, no leaves. Canefruit was has some few small yellow shoots. They should be keeping the trees in temperature controlled places to enforce dormancy.
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They are still dormant. I believe these are the items they have way too many of and need to lower their inventory. i have bought late in season from them and everything I have bought has been dormant and fine looking.
Grab what you need at some good prices. I grabbed a few I had been looking at , not just from them, but the prices were not what I wanted to spend. At the $18 price and the $5 shipping it was worth it for me.
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Can somebody remind me what rootstock they use for âSemi-Dwarfâ european pear?
OHxF87 I believe, but I donât think they specify.
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I have had mixed results from Stark Bros. Their asparagus thrived and was on sale for 3 or 4 dollars for 10 crowns at the time. I have had some trees that are thriving from them like the bubblegum plum, Zestar! and Seckle. Other things have died like shiro came in horrible shape with white stuff on the roots and their first super red fuji never leafed out. The ironic part is I got the smaller super red fuji in the fall and it leafed out. My sweetheart apricot lost most of its leaves on arrival died died over winter despite being rated to our zone. In regards to the sale Stark Bros always seems to have sales going on. If you pay full price for a tree you are either buying a tree that they never have in stock like the supposedly self fertile pecans or you over paid because it will be on sale in a few weeks to a few months.
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My Star Bros was okay for me. The canefruit I got was pretty decent. One of the raspberry roots was 2 foot long stretched out. Another one puny. So it may be whatever cultivar specific the quality you get.
A bit overpriced for a lot of things not on sale though.
I would say overpriced in general now. A year ago when asparagus could go on sale for 3 or 4 dollars it was not too bad of a deal if on sale. I am fine with getting small plants for a low price. Many prices are Raintree levels of pricing even on sale now and the caliper will be a quarter of what Raintree sells unless you get the supreme version at Stark Bros. I quickly learned the trees that are not supreme size and Stark Bros will need heavy protection from deer, squirrels and other animals as they are so small animals can easily break the trunk. Then you get to deal with netting for 2 years while it catches up in caliper size to what you could have gotten on the same price not on sale.
Unless itâs something I desperately want Iâd wait for a sale and/or free or cheap shipping. Iâve ordered probably about 10 things from them and 7 or 8 were fine as far as size. The only thing that died was a Neptune grape which got planted late in November and never really got established. When the Blizzard Honeyberry I got from them was weedwacked by morons to 4" tall a month or two after planting it they were willing to send another honeyberry as a replacement (they were out of Blizzard) or give me a credit knowing it wasnât their fault. It grew back over the next two months, and Iâve got a handful of green berries on it right now, so I didnât take them up on it.
I ordered the pear tree. The top looks pretty good, especially for May. It arrived at about the worst possible time. 90 plus degree weather after it was just in the 50s 
It arrived upside down in the box. The plastic bag it was in wasnât sealed, so the moist paper strips fell to the canopy end instead of the roots. Fortunately the tree didnât seem especially dried out. Feeling it through the bag, at first I thought the root end was a hacked off top, because all I felt was firm âbranchesâ and it was the end in the air.
There were some leaves emerging, maybe 1/2" long at near the extremeties. Not too bad considering the weather. I pruned some off.
Roots are kind of a disaster. I bought it because of the sale, and the variety I wanted, but if Iâm honest with myself, Iâd rather have spend another $40 if it meant better roots.
I pruned off the circler:
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I ordered from Stark Bros three times. The first time was some blackberries that all worked out great. The second time was apple trees after they canceled like 4 other items due to being oversold. The third time was again several items that were canceled and three gooseberry plants that were dead on arrival. They refunded me for the plants but not for the shipping. So I am done with them. Good luck with your pear tree. My apple trees from them are doing fine.
I should know better, but it is a pear that has been hard to find. I have one grafted to OHF 333 in 2021 that hasnât taken off. Now its a race to see which does better.
If they both make it, there are some other European pears Iâd like to add and will need roots:
Dana Hovey
Abate Fetel
Shroyer Sunset
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I have the Bosc that is sold by Burnt Ridge, if your grafts fail. I donât know which it is, but I give it 50/50 that a fruit will set this year. I also have Russet Comice (Taylorâs Gold"). It may be available for Summer wood, or for dormant wood. I am thinking I would like to graft Seckel and/or Honeysweet to bridge the gap in flowering. Bosc was later this year, but much more shaded. I think I might get more overlap next year, when Bosc has completely overcome the privacy fence.
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I bought a standard sized Seckle from Stark Bros last year. It was 20 something or 30 something all together on sale. The roots were not the biggest and it took forever to leaf out (I must have waited into June for it to actually leaf out). Once it did leaf out it did not push a lot of growth that year. This year my Seckle seems to be sending an insane amount of growth to make up for the lack of growth. Same is happening for my standard size apples.
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The pears you mentioned I grow or have grown. Shroyers sunset is interesting. My tree is only waste - chest high so i dont know a lot about yet. Have been growing it for years in poor soil. Think it is on ohxf87. Might need to graft it on a larger tree. Your other choices are very good for oregon but have been somewhat problematic in Kansas due to higher disease pressure. Great choices! The quality of all 3 of these are rated as excellent! If you need scions just let me know.
" COR - Pyrus communis shroyers sunset**
Oregonâs Home Orchard Society (HOS) voted at their November 2018 annual meeting to name a favorite pear selection in memory of long-time member Jerald (Jerry) Shroyer who was born on November 24, 1932 and died on November 9, 2017. Shroyerâs Sunset (PI 541201) is a delicious little pear that was among hundreds of varieties transferred to the USDA National Clonal Germplasm Repository when it opened in 1981 from Oregon State Universityâs Experiment Station near Medford. Little is known about this un-named selection from Canada, other than it was from a cross made in 1925 by O.A. Bradt in Ontario. The catalog at the Southern Oregon Experiment Station listed this pear as HES 25021, the letters presumably an acronym for âHarrow Experiment Stationâ. There are no records to link this selection to a particular pedigree, however the fruit resembles the cultivar Seckel in size, shape and coloration, although it tends to be slightly larger than âSeckelâ. The fruit ripens in mid-September, and like âSeckelâ has superb texture and flavor. HES 25051, now Shroyerâs Sunset, has been a favorite of HOS members during their annual visits to the USDA Pear Repository in Corvallis."
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