Editors note: Steve Smith has been owner and operator of Sunnyside Nursery in Marysville since 1989. Starting today, his weekly column, The Whistling Gardener, will be published every Thursday in The Herald’s Home &Garden section.
For more than 50 years I’ve had the privilege of working in the field of horticulture from San Diego to the Canadian border. I grew up in Southern California spending many summers mowing lawns and working in the yard.
My wife and I moved to the Great Northwest 25 years ago and bought Sunnyside Nursery, where we have been having sharing our gardening passion ever since. I hope to share that same passion in this column each week, dispensing advice with a touch of humor and helping readers make the most out of their time in the garden.
Sometimes that means exploring new things. There is a new breed of berries on the market that offers the home gardener not only great tasting fruit but attractive and functional landscape shrubbery at the same time.
Fall Creek Farm and Nursery in Oregon breeds BrazelBerries, a series of blueberry and raspberry plants that are ideal for smaller landscapes and container gardens. All of the varieties are easy to grow in the Pacific Northwest climate where they enjoy the same conditions as rhododendrons.
Now is the perfect time to plant them too and you should be able to find them in the garden center alongside strawberries, currants, gooseberries, blackberries, grapes and other small fruits. Rich organic soil, good drainage, acid fertilizer and adequate summer water is all it takes to make them happy.
Fruit-producing shrubs and vines like grapes and kiwis don’t have to be relegated to the edible garden part of the yard. These varieties have attractive qualities that lend themselves well to incorporation into the ornamental part of any landscape.
Here is a sampling of what they are currently offering:
Raspberry Shortcake. This is a wonderful dwarf raspberry that only grows to 3 feet tall and produces full-sized fruit in mid-summer. It is also thornless, which makes it well-suited for children. Plant it in full sun either in a large container or in the garden where it will spread slowly and is easily controlled (unlike traditional raspberries).
Peach Sorbet. This is a dwarf blueberry that only grows 1½ to 2 feet tall. It is evergreen in our mild winters but will defoliate if we get a nasty cold snap. New growth coloration is an attractive mix of peach, lime and dark blue-green. Fall and winter colors are a dark purple with pink buds and stems. Medium-sized sweet berries ripen in July. Use this plant in containers, as a hedge or mixed into the landscape.
Jelly Bean. This is a little puffball of a blueberry shrub, growing 1 to 2 feet tall. Foliage is bright green during the growing season turning to a rich green with red margins in the fall and winter. The berries are sweet and medium to large. Jelly Bean is well suited for containers or a mini-hedge.
Blueberry Glaze. This blueberry shrub introduction sports glossy foliage that resembles a boxwood with delicious bluish-black fruit in July. Dense mounding foliage is glossy dark green in summer turning to deep burgundy in winter and tops out at 2 to 3 feet tall. The berries are smaller and more closely resemble our native evergreen blueberry.
Pink Icing. The newest of the BrazelBerries collection, Pink Icing resembles Peach Sorbet, only it’s flashier and taller, reaching 3 to 4 feet tall. Spring foliage has varying shades of pink, blue and dark green while winter leaves are an iridescent turquoise blue. Pink Icing will dress up any landscape while simultaneously producing a summer crop of large sweet blueberries.
Steve Smith is owner of Sunnyside Nursery in Marysville and can be reached online at info@sunnyside nursery.net.
February to-do list
Where did January go? It’s already February and it’s a great time to dig into the garden. Take advantage of the rare dry weather and get some dirt under your fingernails. Below is a short list of things to focus on:
Prune. This is the ideal time to prune all deciduous material including fruit trees, roses, vines and summer blooming shrubs. Perennials that didn’t frost to the ground should be cleaned up this month. Ornamental grasses are a classic example. Evergreen perennials like Hellebores and Epimedium that bloom in the winter need to have their old foliage removed now to make room for the flowers.
Plant. February and March are the only months to plant bareroot trees and shrubs such as fruit, shade and flowering trees and berries, rhubarb and asparagus and many others. Early blooming perennials and hardy herbs are also good to go this month.
Weeds. A quick trip with the Hula Hoe can make waste of a lot of weeds in no time flat. After you have cleaned up your weeds you can keep more from returning by applying a weed preventer like Preen and then spreading some compost over the soil surface.
Sow seeds. Root and leaf crops, and broccoli, cauliflower and peas can all go in the ground this month and next. But before you plant be sure and add some organic fertilizer, lime, and compost to the soil.
Take a gardening class. Most garden centers offer free gardening classes year-round. Check out their websites to see what they are offering.
Go to the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. Not to be missed, this is the premier garden show in the country and is a great way to get excited about the upcoming season. This year’s show is Feb. 11 through 15 at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle.
Bountiful Berries
For a discussion on how to grow berries, including pruning, insect and disease control, and varietal choices, attend a free Bountiful Berries class 10 a.m. Feb. 7 at Sunnyside Nursery.
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