New arrivals, Brown Turkey figs and a quick Video about Newcastle Nursery

 I'm pretty sure I need a loyalty punch card to Brian on Ebay. I've bought a bunch of figs from him. His plants look good, he's got great varieties and the pricing is solid.

Madeleine des Deux Saisons

LSU Scott's Black

Orphan Fig

I also stopped by NewCastle Nursery in my neighborhood. It's a small nursery with very high quality plants and Japanese maples. They do not have website and is only open seasonally. I wasn't actually looking to buy anything but luckily for me I was able to pick up a nice large Panache for $49 and flat of Brown Turkey figs from their produce section. The Panache was taller than me. They also had VDB, Kadota, Desert King, and a couple others.

13013 Newcastle Way

Newcastle, WA 98059

Phone number (425) 227-8400 
 

Wild Cherries - Yuck

I ran across a wild cherry tree on my jog and decided I had to try it. Well it wasn't ripe and I couldn't keep it down. Regardless, I love running into fruit trees "in the wild" lol.

Which gave me an idea. I may just plant a whole bunch of fig trees in areas where I frequently run so that in the years to come it will feed others who come across it.

Tasting my Borealis Honeyberry (Haskap)

It's late May and almost all of the fruit on my Borealis Honeyberry is ripe. What do Honeyberries taste like? Well they taste like blueberries, not as firm, and much more tart. Makes my face pucker just thinking about it. The fruit is less than an inch long, so it would take a bunch to make a mouthful. They would probably make a great preserve if you were able to harvest enough.  My tree is in it's 2nd yr and its only put out a handful of fruit. Not enough for me to get too excited about.

The good thing about these berries are that they would act as a great compliment to the early, mid, and late blue berries planting. Honeyberries have early and mid varieties as well. However, their early ones ripen much earlier than any blueberry. So if you want to extend your blueberry growing season, compliment it with some honeyberries and you can possibly be eating honey/blue berries from May into October.


Haskap/Honeyberry Bloom Chart

Early	Mid	Late
Aurora* Tundra* Indigo Gem* Indigo Treat* Berry Smart Blue Cinderella Sugar Mountain Blue™ Svetlana	Borealis* Honey Bee*	Boreal Blizzard* Solo™ Maxie™

Borealis Honeyberries are also a very pretty bushed when they fillout. It has a dome shape growing habit. They grow outdoors here with no protection and I only have 1 mature tree but it produces for me without a pollinator. The productivity may go up if I had another mature variety close by. I have two smaller bushes but they probably have another year before maturing.

I like the idea of an edible hedge so I may just plant a row of these outside my fence. They are much more decorative than blueberries and the fruit is well hidden under the leaves, which is a good deterrent from hungry birds and curious sidewalkers.

Here's a great site that carries many varieties of honeyberries.
http://honeyberryusa.com/honeyberry-plants-1.html