If you set small but glorious goals for your life, there is no way that you can be unhappy. For me, one of these goals has always been to own a blueberry bush. On the list of things I wanted in my move to Oregon, blueberries ranked pretty near the top. You could say that I move with my mouth.
We arrived in December, so I must tell you that the wait is almost unbearable.
I bought two blueberry bushes in late February at Terra Gardens on the Northeast side of Salem, just past Lancaster Drive. They cost $9.99 — who knew happiness could be had so cheaply?
I planted them in a half sunny, half shady spot at the side of the house. If you’re going to buy blueberries, the trick is to purchase at least two because they pollinate each other, allowing for a more robust fruiting.
Being plants that love acidic soil, they really love it here in Oregon. That must account for why we wanted to put roots down here too — our humor can get kind of wicked…
My blueberries are of the following variety:
Toro:
Continues to amaze us with its easy to pick berries that hang like grapes from the stocky bush. While not as fast a grower as some of the other varieties, Toro has outstanding ornamental qualities. The flowers turn from hot pink to bright white and contrast nicely with the bronze colored spring foliage. Deep green summer foliage turns to the brightest of reds in the fall.
Was selected and developed in New Zealand. It is vigorous, fast growing and adapts well to a wide range of northern climates and soil types. Gardeners will marvel at Rekas bountiful yields of early ripening, medium sized, tasty berries. Burgundy red fall color is an added landscape bonus!
These descriptions are courtesy of Fall Creek Farm & Nursery in Lowell, OR.
I can hardly wait.
Desperately Seeking Salem 
March 22, 2009 at 2:22 am |
AMEN, sistah!
We’ve been partaking of the fruiting labors of others. Each summer we take a few flats of berries frozen individually on cookie sheets and then load them into freezer boxes; this keep us in the raw materials for blueberry pancakes with a compote –works great on sundaes, too– among other things, all year long!
We’re putting in four bushes this year, and I can’t wait to see them take off. We looked around and found the bushes at Terra Gardens to be the best size and quality for the price.
March 23, 2009 at 1:08 am |
I’ll be picking my own berries this year as well, I just like the idea of a plant fruiting outside my window…
March 22, 2009 at 8:40 pm |
Was it a tough decision on which bushes to buy? We have two bushes in the backyard that the previous owner planted. They did well for the first 12 years, but due to the increasing amount of shade from the flourishing canopy overhead, they produce enough for the robins . . . maybe. The robins have a good system of knocking them to the ground and then dining at ground level. We’re thinking about buying a couple of bushes for the front yard for people eating.
March 23, 2009 at 1:07 am |
In a word, yes. We’ll see how they do.
March 23, 2009 at 3:30 am |
Terra Gardens had some great info there, and we got some advice from one of the staff, too. We just went with what we want: we don’t care about huge berry size; we prefer sweet fruit that is good for jams and what not. We wanted variety and to take advantage of the longest harvest, so we chose one early, two mid and one late bearing bush style plants. If these do well, we’ll add a few more at some point.
Just go into it knowing what you hope to get out of it.