Cultivars
Blackberries, Raspberries and other Rubus
Boysenberry: Boysenberries originated from a complex cross among blackberry and a raspberry and a [dewberry X loganberry hybrid] on the farm of Rudolph Boysen. Mr. Boysen died, but fortunately the famous plant breeder and explorer George M. Darrow heard about it and with the help of Walter Knott, rediscovered the plant. It was then brought to the public's attention by Knott's Berry Farm, in Buena Park, California in 1934, back when it was actually a berry farm.
I planted boysenberries in-between my young grapevines in my Coal Mountain, Georgia orchard. My memory on how they did is vague, probably indicating that they didn't perform well. I don't remember ever getting to eat a berry. I recall them dying back to the ground every winter and I finally gave up and planted more grapes where those useless berries had been. The general consensus is that the thorny kind of boysenberries do better and taste better. I had planted the thornless version.
The lying Washington Post left out the contribution of the dewberry and the loganberry in their story. They HATE dewberries and loganberries and will do ANYTHING to discredit them! Another conspiracy! SAD!!!
(Washington Post and Wikipedia)
'Heritage' red raspberry: Various literature, including the Georgia Extension Service, suggested that the only red raspberry available at the time that might do well in our area was 'Heritage', so that's what we planted. We grew about an acre of them for the U-pick market. They were planted in bottomland, which was good rich soil, but we made long raised beds so that the berries would be sure to have good drainage year-round. After harvest, we would mow them with a Bush Hog®. They were essentially organic, though we never got certified. They were a real draw on the farm, because no one else in our area had them. At home, my Mom made delicious raspberry pies, one no-bake version with a neufchatel bottom crust was a favorite on hot summer days during picking season. We also ate lots of them fresh, or with fresh cream from our Jersey cows. Although they were not the most intensely-flavored raspberry I've ever eaten, they had a nice red raspberry aroma and certainly tasted good. I recommend them to Southern growers.
'Heritage' was developed by Cornell University. A good summary of Cornell raspberries can be found here.
'Navaho' blackberry: An erect-cane, thornless blackberry developed by the University of Arkansas' impressive berry-breeding program. I generally agree with the patent description pasted below with minor edits, even the comment about its excellent taste, with the caveat that 'Triple Crown' is technically a dewberry, not a blackberry.
"Originated from a hand-pollinated cross of Arkansas Selection 583 (non-patented)×Arkansas Selection 631 (non-patented) made in 1977 at the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station Fruit Substation at Clarksville, Ark. The seeds resulting from this controlled hybridization were germinated in a greenhouse in the spring of 1978 and planted in a field on the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station in Clarksville, Ark. The seedlings fruited during the summer of 1980 and one, designated Ark. 1172, was selected for its thornless canes, erect growth habit, and high fruit quality.
During 1981, the original plant selection was propagated asexually from root cuttings and [s]ubsequently, larger test plantings have been[were] established with asexually multiplied plants at [snip] locations in Arkansas and on state experiment stations in Illinois, Louisiana, Florida, Texas, North Carolina and Mississippi.
It forms new plants from adventitious buds on most root cuttings, but is best propagated by rooting softwood cuttings. Test plantings over a wide geographic area have shown this new variety to be adapted to differing soil and climatic conditions. It has performed well in tests in the Southeast U.S. but is not cold hardy in northern states.Plants of the new variety are moderately vigorous and row establishment following planting is more rapid than with other thornless varieties. Both primocanes and floricanes are erect in growth habit and the new variety is the first truly erect thornless variety to be developed. The plants are genetically thornless, having the recessive genes for thornlessness derived from 'Merton Thornless'. Plants and fruit are moderately tolerant to anthracnose (Elsinoe veneta (Burkh.) Jenkins), and plants are immune to orange rust (Gymnoconia peckiana (Howe) Trott).Fruit of the new variety ripens late, about 15 days after the Cheyenne variety, and 7 days after the 'Shawnee' variety, but about 5 days earlier than Dirksen Thornless, a standard thornless cultivar. Average ripening date is June 25 in central Arkansas. The harvest period is longer than most other erect varieties; it produces well for a full month. Fruit yields are comparable with the 'Cheyenne' variety but are less than the Shawnee variety. Late spring budbreak avoids spring frosts and the new variety is consistent in yield from year to year.
The fruit is short conic in shape, bright glossy black in color and medium in size (ca. 5.1 g). The fruit is firm at maturity, consistently rating more firm than fruit of the Cheyenne and Shawnee varieties.
The fresh fruit has better flavor than any extant variety of thornless blackberry and is rated superior to the thorny varieties Cheyenne and Shawnee. The soluble solids content averages 11.2%, higher than most blackberry varieties. Seed size is smaller than other thornless varieties now in existence."
The information other than my own experience was copied from James N. Moore, USPP #6679.
'Triple Crown' blackberry: Technically, 'Triple Crown' is a dewberry because it grows as a vine and propagates by tip-rooting, unlike blackberries which have upright canes and don't tip-root. Nevertheless, the lying catalog media is conspiring to make us think that only blackberry lives matter, so they insist on calling this a blackberry. That said, this dewberry is the best-tasting blackberry or dewberry that I've ever eaten, and apparently many others think so, too. In addition to having large, delicious berries (unless it rains during ripening, in which case, they aren't so good), it is untroubled by diseases and insects and is easy to pick because it is thornless. It is a tough vine that continued producing long after my 'Navaho' plants had all died. On the downside, it does need some type of support. I grew mine on a simple two-wire vertical trellis, essentially a Kniffen system, as is used up North for grapes. It also freely tip-roots, which is good if you want to share plants with friends, but requires constant snipping of the tips if you want to keep your berries in a row and not spreading all over. I highly recommend this berries for fellow Southerners, except the laziest gardeners.
There is a nicely-written article about 'Triple Crown' here, even though the writer is not from the South, but from li'l liberal Oregon and has clearly bought into the lying catalog media's story about this being a blackberry. SAD!!!
Blueberries
When my father decided to migrate away from broiler chicken and beef cattle production and move towards high-value crops, blueberries became our farm's main crop. Thankfully, the talented and dedicated plant breeders associated with the University of Georgia had recently developed a productive, delicious blueberry type that was adapted to the South, the rabbiteye blueberry. The name, "Rabbiteye" comes from the color of the unripe berries, because they are pink like the eye-color of the stereotypical white rabbit. Only a few cultivars of this type were available at the time. We planted a few 'Southland' and 'Woodard' as pollinizers for our main cultivar, 'Tifblue'. A couple of years later, we added some 'Climax' bushes, so named for their characteristic of ripening all their berries in such a short time that you can effectively pick the whole crop in one pass. This characteristic of 'Climax' was actually targeted more towards the large-acreage producers who use mechanical harvesters, but the berries are very good quality and we wanted to try them. Our operation was U-Pick, primarily, and though we weren't certified organic, production methods were organic. We didn't spray the bushes at all and mostly fertilized with cottonseed meal. Bushes were heavily mulched down the entire row with wood chips and we had overhead irrigation leftover from our days growing forage for the cattle. All the above cultivars produce good quality berries, but 'Southland' was notably lower quality than the rest. Both 'Southland' and 'Woodard' were also not as productive as 'Tifblue' and 'Climax'.
After I moved away from home, I experimented with several of the recently-developed "Southern Highbush"-type of blueberries that have the advantage of ripening earlier than rabbiteyes and supposedly are adapted to the Southeast (NOT!). I will have to dig out my notes to list which Southern highbush cultivars I tried, but in my opinion they are not adapted to the Southeast, except maybe the mountain counties and the more-northerly parts of the South. They were all sickly and unproductive in Apex, NC and Pittsboro, NC.
I was also allured by catalog ads from Gurney and Henry Field's (same parent company, by the way) catalogs to try the cultivar, 'Ka-Bluey®' because they said it tasted so good. It's not even recommended for parts of the country below USDA Zone 6, and my Pittsboro garden was in Zone 8, so I don't blame the sellers for the fact that my bush struggled for survival. I got a single berry and it was, as advertised, a fabulous flavor. I can't recommend this berry for most of the South because of its poor health, but it is worth a try in northerly portions of the South and in the mountains. For more information, see the catalogs.
In general, I'd say stick with rabbiteye blueberries. New cultivars of rabbiteyes are released every year now from several breeding programs in the South. The quality and adaptability keeps getting better, too. The most-recent ones I tried were 'Vernon' and 'Ochlockonee'. 'Vernon' is an early-ripening cultivar and 'Ochlockonee' is late-season. More information can be found here.
Blueberries also are a beautiful landscape plant and consistently exhibit bright red fall color.
Cornelian cherry (Edible dogwood, Cornus mas)
Figs
In Apex, I planted 'Atreano', 'Brown Turkey' (there are two different figs called, 'Brown Turkey', but the other kind is not generally found outside the western U.S.), and 'Desert King'. All three produced delicious figs, but 'Desert King' was the family favorite.
Because of the extreme rich sweet deliciousness of the 'Desert King', I planted it again at our place in Pittsboro, NC and added bushes of 'Celeste', a nicely-flavored small fig, and 'Scott's Black', a relatively new fig developed by Dr. O'Rourke at Louisiana State University and whose seed parent is 'Celeste'.'Scott's Black' is also known as 'LSU Black', 'Fantasia', 'Fantazia' and 'LSU Black' PP.
'Desert King' again was our family's consistent taste favorite, but it is not the most-attractive fig- it only loses all its green color when it is fully ripe. The girls actually prefer it with some greenness still visible. I like my figs so ripe that they are beginning to dehydrate and wrinkle a bit. This often attracts ants, but to the horror of those who watch, I find the taste of ants with fresh figs to be delicious.
'Scott's Black' is a larger, dark-purple fig that actually tied 'Desert King' as the taste favorite one year when ripening conditions were ideal for it. 'Scott's Black' ripens a bit later and unfortunately this means it usually coincides with rainfall. No fig is at its best if it ripens in the rain, but 'Desert King' is a bit more tolerant. 'Scott's Black' turns into tasteless wasp magnets that sour on the tree and aren't fit to eat. Its a great fig if it doesn't get rained on during ripening. If you try growing them for sale, it would be worthwhile to provide a rain-out shelter, such as a high tunnel to prevent this disaster.One has to take this mix of information with a grain of salt, but you can find some interesting fig information.If the discussion in that post is accurate, then I may have been sold a 'Sicilian Black' instead of a 'Scott's Black'. Caveat emptor.
Bottom line: My fellow southerners should plant more figs. They are delicious and so easy to care for. I wish I had photographed this, but there is a trailer home, near the Dogwood Veterinary Clinic in Pittsboro, NC with a huge fig bush growing right up against the trailer. If one looks closely, you can see the remnants of the small plastic pot that the tree had come in. Presumably, the owners had bought a fig on a whim, set the pot down next to their trailer and then just ignored it. The fig rooted itself, split the pot and just kept going, shading half the trailer by the time I drove by it. Plus, figs are soft and perishable, so you won't get this delicious treat at the grocery store and there is no substitute for those moments when you enjoy a tree-ripened fresh fig from your own tree on a warm Summer day.
'Nikita's Gift' persimmons shown about 2 months before picking
'Chocolate' persimmons
Persimmons
Some Asian persimmons are also astringent and have to be fully-ripened before eating. Japanese and Korean children sometimes leave persimmons on the tree in winter. When they want a treat, they pick them, remove the top end and core and then eat the rest of the fruit with a spoon, like a natural frozen custard. In the South, you have to mimic this particular treat in your freezer because they ripen before we get hard freezes and the weather doesn't stay cold, so they start to rot if left on the tree after ripening. Asian persimmons aren't as cold-hardy as American ones and aren't quite as sweet, although at the level of sweetness of persimmons, how much more sweet do you want? They are all very sweet. In Apex, NC, I grew 'Chocolate', 'Fuyu' (aka Fuyugaki) and 'Hachiya'.
'Chocolate', is a cultivar with pollination-dependent chocolate-colored flesh and an acorn-shape that many people rave about as a fantastic-flavored persimmon. It is also non-astringent before it is fully ripe. Flavor is a very personal thing, but my family and I were unanimous that this was the lowest-quality persimmon we grew. The brown flesh was novel and it made very good dried persimmons, but we ended up either drying the whole crop or turning it into persimmon vinegar because no one wanted to eat more than one or two of the fresh ones.
'Fuyu' is the most-common Asian cultivar found in the U.S. It is a good-quality persimmon whose fruit is wider than tall and they lose astringency before they fully ripen, making it possible to eat them when they are still firm. My mother-in-law used to eat them when they were as crunchy as an apple. I didn't like them that way because I thought they hadn't developed their sweet-spicy potential, but maybe it suits your taste, too. They also make a superior dried product as it retains its golden-orange color after drying.
'Hachiya' is the most-common astringent-type Asian persimmon grown in the U.S. It is an acorn-shaped orange-fleshed fruit that needs to be fully ripe before eating. I don't see any advantage vs. 'Fuyu', so I didn't plant this one again when we moved to Pittsboro.
In Pittsboro, I again planted 'Chocolate' (although I wouldn't again) and 'Fuyu' and added 'Coffee Cake' (aka 'Nishimura Wase'), and two Asian X American hybrids, 'Nikita's Gift' and 'Russian Beauty'. The 'Russian Beauty' was attacked by borers and didn't fruit, but the others did.
Top view of ripening 'Nikita's Gift' persimmon fruit and leaves. These fruit are about 2 months away from being ripe.
'Coffee Cake' is currently my favorite Asian persimmon. It is non-astringent, large and has a wonderful spicy-sweet taste. It ripens quite early, when the weather is still hot, which is nice that it opens the season, before other persimmons are available, but can be a problem because wasps are still very active and they swarm around any holes that birds peck.
Possibly my favorite persimmon is 'Nikita's Gift'. The fruit are super-sweet with that hint of pumpkin-pie spice flavor that is characteristic of its American parent. They grow on a small, manageable tree like an Asian persimmon. The fruit size is much larger than American persimmons, though not nearly as large as the Asians. They are self-fertile, so if you have only room for one tree, it will be OK. Unfortunately, they are very astringent until fully ripe, like the American persimmon. The flavor is worth the wait, though.
Ripening order of those we grew side-by-side was 'Coffee Cake' (late Summer), then 'Chocolate', then 'Fuyu' and finally 'Nikita's Gift' wrapping up the persimmon season just before Christmas. Except for 'Coffee Cake' which ripens much earlier than the others, their ripening seasons overlapped with those adjacent in ripening time.
Persimmons also make beautiful landscape trees, as long as you prevent dropped fruit from making a mess. They have gorgeous fall color of golden and bright orange, and the fruit of the later-ripening cultivars hang on the tree like Halloween mini-pumpkin ornaments. The Asians in particular also have large dark green leaves that are quite attractive from late Spring until their gorgeous Autumn show. They are occasionally bothered by webworms, which are unsightly, but with the aid of a stick and some Bacillus thuringiensis dust or spray, there is a simple, organic solution to this pest.
Citrus
Pittsboro is right on the edge of temperatures tolerated by some of the more cold-hardy citrus, so I tried multiple times. I planted several trees outside with more or less protection from cold, including a Yuzu (Citrus junos), an 'Owari' satsuma orange, a 'Louisiana Early' satsuma orange, a 'Thomasville' citrangequat (which I prefer to pronounce, "strangequat") and a kumquat.
The Yuzu I planted with no protection because it is supposed to survive down to 13°F. It didn't survive the deer, however.
The 'Owari' is supposed to be hardy down to 12°F and for extra protection was planted next to a stone wall. It froze to death. The 'Louisiana Early' was grown for several years in a half whiskey barrel first and was brought into an unheated garage when it got cold. I picked fruit from it around Thanksgiving (late November for the furriners out there on the Interwebs). However, when the whiskey barrel rotted enough that it needed to be replaced, I tried transplanting this orange into the ground in a protected spot. It also died during the first winter outdoors. The fruit quality was not the best anyway, so no big loss on that one.
Kumquats are supposed to be one of the most-hardy citrus, being able to survive down to the low teens. Our 'Nagami'(?) blossomed nicely and bore several nice fruit before winter came. I had planted next to a south-facing brick wall near the house. We even wreathed it with Christmas lights to provide a little warmth and covered it with a sheet on the cold night, but it succumbed anyway.
The only success story on the outside-planted trees was the 'Thomasville' citrangequat, which is supposed to be hardy down to 5°F once it is established. I planted it next to a north-facing stone wall and it survived two winters before we moved from that house. By the time we left, it was about 5 feet tall. It had wicked thorns, but was otherwise a lovely tree.
I had better success with trees that were planted in half whiskey barrels placed on a rolling platform so that I could roll them into the unheated garage on nights that were predicted to drop below 29°F. Using this method, I was able to grow beautiful 'Improved Meyer' lemons (actually a lemon-orange hybrid; and the "Improved" part just means that it is virus-free, unlike the original 'Meyer' lemon) and 'Brown's Select' satsuma oranges. Both of these fruits are delicious. The satsumas would ripen around Christmas time and were sweet and tangy. The lemons ripened a bit later and were tart, as you might expect from a lemon, but still sweet enough to be edible directly from the tree, skin and all. The blossoms of both trees were ornamental and delightfully fragrant. The only problem that I had with them is that they would get bad scale infestations during the late winter and early Spring. I tried soap sprays, biological predators and light oil sprays, but nothing was perfect. When I gave these two trees away because we were moving, I hand wiped each leaf with a horticultural soap solution so that I wouldn't pass the scales onto the next owner. Luckily, the new owner is taking incredibly good care of these trees and he's getting bigger and more beautiful crops from them than I did, so presumably he has the scale well under control. (Much thanks and appreciation, Jonathan!)
Kiwis
My father planted some fuzzy kiwis in Georgia which didn't fare well, so I said farewell to fuzzy kiwis (Actinidia deliciosa) and tried hardy kiwis in North Carolina. The one that did the best for me was 'Ken's Red', from which I got one crop from the vine growing on our deck in Apex, NC. The fruit were fuzzless, so could be eaten like a seedless grape and were sweet-tart with a delicious tropical flavor, so I planted it again in Pittsboro on a rather shady fence. They are slow to come into bearing and need a male pollinizer, which won't produce fruit. 'Ken's Red' is an interspecific hybrid, A. arguta X melanadra. They do make lovely landscape plants and have no pests or diseases that I noticed, but they are vigorous vines, so they need a structure to climb on.
I also tried growing the Siberian species A. kolomikta, but they really didn't like our heat, even though I planted them in partial shade on a North-facing slope. For more information on hardy kiwis, the University of Minnesota has published a nice summary which can be found here.
Other weird stuff
Some unusual things I've planted have done well and others have failed.
Honeyberries (also known as haskap or by their scientific name, Lonicera caerulea) is a type of edible honeysuckle, but they can't stand our heat. I recommend sticking with blueberries, to which they are otherwise similar in taste. If you move to a very, very cold climate, give them a try. Wikipedia page.
Seaberries (Hippophae rhamnoides), aka sea buckthorn has loads of bright orange or red fruit that look a bit like pyracantha, if grown in cold climates. Like the honeyberries, they can't take our heat and humidity in the South. More information about this fascinating and healthful shrub that can even fix nitrogen can be found here.
Like the haskaps, they are planted in very cold climates, like Russia. However, I will not plant any until they either build me a tower in Moscow or make me President. I think the tapes will show why he is being called, "Individual Number 1".
Highbush cranberry is not related to cranberries, it's not even in the same family. Highbush cranberry is Viburnum trilobum from the Adoxaceae family, whereas true cranberries are members of Ericaceae, as are blueberries. They got their common name from the appearance and use of the berries. One doesn't eat them fresh, they are too sour and astringent. But they have a good reputation for jellies and pies. I had so much other fruit that was delicious, that I left these for the birds and for their ornamental value. The bushes are beautiful almost year-round. In the Spring, they have loads of pretty white umbelliferous flowers, followed by dense foliage that makes a good place for some songbirds like cardinals to nest. In the Fall, the foliage turns beautiful bright colors and the bright red berries hang well into Winter, probably because the birds don't know how to make pie or jelly, so they only eat them when there isn't much else to eat.
Aronia (Aronia melanocarpa) is known for its healthful fruit that is rich in antioxidants. I planted seedling aronia bushes and after ten years saw a few flowers, but no fruit so far. It
'Silk Hope' mulberry: This is another underplanted tree in the Southeast. Its only downside is that the fruit is messy. When the trees have a lot of ripe fruit, the fruit falls and stains what's below and attracts birds which enjoy the fruit and drop another staining substance. If you have a place in your yard where this consideration doesn't matter, then you will enjoy several benefits. The large, glossy leaves are ornamental and provide a nice shade. The berries are about blackberry sized and are sweet and delicious. They are also good dried, baked into pies and for basically any other recipe where you might use blackberries. I haven't seen mulberry wine, but it must exist. 'Silk Hope' was the cultivar that I chose because it originated in a town near Pittsboro, Silk Hope, North Carolina. The town was named for an attempt in the 1800's to start a silk industry. To grow the silkworms, of course, they needed mulberry trees. The silk industry didn't work out, but one of the mulberry trees that they planted had exceptionally good-tasting fruit, thus the 'Silk Hope' mulberry came into prominence.
'Pixwell' Gooseberry: Gooseberries are illegal in some states, including North Carolina, because some cultivars are an alternate host for white pine blister rust. White pine blister rust doesn't hurt gooseberries and currants very much, but it is deadly to white pines, so the laws are intended to protect that lumber species. Some states, including North Carolina ban all gooseberries and currants, whereas other states allow people to plant cultivars and species that are known to be highly resistant to white pine blister rust. Thankfully, Georgia allows people to plant gooseberries, so my grandmother had a patch of the cultivar, 'Pixwell'. 'Pixwell' happens to be one of the cultivars that is resistant to white pine blister rust. We got some plants from her and started a patch of our own in Coal Mountain. 'Pixwell' is the only kind of gooseberry that I've ever tasted, so I can't comment on its relative quality. Others have generally said it is a cultivar of low quality, but certainly we enjoyed eating them, making jam, sauces and pies from them. And the USDA stated that it's particularly good for these culinary purposes. Some of our U-Pick customers who were born in England were thrilled to find someone growing gooseberries and were happy to buy whatever we would sell them. 'Pixwell' got its name from its characteristic of having many fewer thorns than other cultivars. It originated as a seedling of this cross: Grossularia missouriensis X ('Oregon' ('Crown Bob' X 'Houghton')) and was introduced in 1932 by a North Dakota experiment station.Additional information taken from Michigan Department of Agriculture.
Quinces:(Cydonia oblonga)I planted two cultivars, 'Aromatnaya' and 'Lisle Special'.The 'Aromatnaya' was a beautiful tree while it lived, with huge leaves (for a quince).However, it died of fireblight before fruiting.The 'Lisle Special' was being distributed by a NAFEX member who said it was fireblight resistant.That proved to be somewhat true, as I was able to get some fruit from it before it, too succumbed to fireblight.However, the more serious problem was quince rust.Quince rust ruined almost every fruit after the first year it fruited.The fruits also lacked aroma, which is really what makes quinces so special.It was a beautiful little tree, though, as the photo below shows.
(Pseudocydonia sinensis):Another NAFEX friend gave me some Chinese quince (cuttings or potted, I don't remember).This tree has beautiful exfoliating bark and produces fragrant fruit which were nice additions to preserves and pies.
