Garden Update: Fruiting Plants

In addition to the raised beds I recently posted about, I have also been busy putting in some fruiting shrubs this year.  I wanted to get those planted as soon as possible this year because they can take a while to get properly established.  I'm a big fan of growing my own fruit.  When I lived in Iowa, the climate allowed me to harvest a wider range of fruit, but here in New Brunswick, the growing season is short, so my choices are more limited.

Blackcurrants are a family favourite - something that I grew up with because I have British parents.  Many people aren't familiar with blackcurrants, or think that they are related to "currants" of the raisin type, which are a different fruit altogether.  I had 8 different blackcurrant varieties in Iowa, but here I was having trouble finding any, even by mail order.  Fortunately I was at MacArthur's Nursery in Moncton a couple of weeks ago, shortly after they'd received an order of fruit-bearing plants, including 4 blackcurrant bushes.  I bought 2 of them!  I left the white hanging basket container in this picture to show the size - the hanging basket container is the "regular" size you see in most stores.


The blackcurrants are the Ben Connan variety, which is bred from a combination of Ben Sarek and Ben Lomond varieties, both of which I grew in Iowa.  I was really excited to see such big, healthy plants.  They have already been planted in amongst some of my existing perennials.

At the nursery, the blackcurrants were sitting next to some gooseberry plants, so I immediately grabbed one of those as well.  This is an old classic "Pixwell" variety.  Some people think they're sour but I think they're great!  As you can see, it's found a spot next to the tulips, which are almost finished for this year.  If we could just stop having overnight frosts, it would be great.  These late frosts have already wreaked havoc on our province's grape and blueberry harvests. 

I need to ensure the berries get adequate sunlight, so planting them in with the other perennials is one of the best places, since those beds do receive a reasonable amount of sunlight.  I was also able to purchase a small but relatively healthy looking red currant.  It is also already planted.  The leaves are a bit pale but I'm pretty sure it will green up quickly.

I was also lucky enough to find a jostaberry, which is not a well known berry here, but is another that I used to grow in Iowa.  It's a cross between the blackcurrant (Ribes nigrum), the North American coastal black gooseberry (Ribes divaricatum) and the European gooseberry (Ribes uva-crispa).  The flavour is somewhere between a blackcurrant and a gooseberry - kind of a milder version of a blackcurrant really.  Very nice for jelly and other sweet treats in the fall kitchen!

In addition to the berry bushes, I purchased two different varieties of dwarf sour cherries.


I love the zing in the flavour of sour cherries. Sweet cherries are nice too, but the flavour of the tart cherries is just superb in my opinion.  I bought "Romeo" and "Cupid" varieties, which both originate from the University of Saskatchewan dwarf sour cherry breeding program.

I used to grow "Nanking" shrub cherries in Iowa, so I'm hoping these will do equally well for me here.  I would like to find a couple of Nanking cherry shrubs here as well, but I need to keep looking because I haven't found any yet.  For now, Cupid and Romeo will, I hope, grow big and strong!

This perennial bed has now become a half fruit bed, with 3 currant shrubs and a rhubarb plant from my in-laws that I planted earlier this year.  I also received a lovage plant from a friend of mine who has a vegetable farm.  I've planted it on the left side near the rhubarb.  The same bed  has a white climbing hydrangea on the bird feeder pole, some yellow loosestrife, some cranesbill, daylilies, echinops, irises, and lavender, as well as the forget-me-nots that are in all my garden beds!  In the front left there's a submerged pot that has mint in it - the pot prevents it from taking over the garden, since mint can be so invasive.

I'm not sure whether I'll get much of a fruit crop this year, but the blackcurrant bushes do have a reasonable number of little green fruits already, so maybe I'll have enough for a little jar of jam!