Berry Mania

Sami and I knew we wanted more edible plants in our yard. He especially wanted lowbush blueberries similar to the kind that grow in Finland. I really wanted currants (good on cereal and in cookies and by themselves too) and I know they grow fairly well here in Oregon.

Two weeks ago when were at the Home and Garden Show, we found a company just south of here that has a great catalog full of all kinds of fruits from around the world.

So, Sami and I went through the catalog thinking we wanted one of everything. Of course we had to decide what could fit in our yard given the light in different areas and the existing trees and shrubs. Sami also wanted cloudberries, but this seems to be the one type of berry that the company does not sell. Yesterday we placed our order.

The Final List

• Lingonberries (Vaccinium vitis-idea) Red Pearl
  
• 2 types of Lowbush blueberries (Vaccinium angustifolium) Burgundy and Brunswick
  
• Everbearing strawberries (Fragaria x ananassa) Seascape
• Black currant (Ribes nigrum) Blackdown
• Black currant hybrid (Ribes nigrum x uva-crispa) Jostaberry - this is a black currant / gooseberry cross
• Red currant (Ribes rubrum) Red Jade
• White currant (Ribes rubrum) Swedish White
• 2 types of Sea Berry* aka Sea Buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) - Baikail, Baikail Ruby, + a male plant.
• Arctic Beauty Kiwi (Actinidia kolomikta) - Viktor (female) and Pasha (male)
  
• Dwarf Pie Cherry (Prunus cerasus) Northstar

* Sea Berry is Tyrnimarja in Finnish. The varieties we've picked are dwarf ones that will be more like bushes than trees.

Today we drove down to pick up the order. Of course they had a display out front with various sorts of plants and Sami realized he needed a Bay tree (Laurus nobilis). After that we stopped by wal-mart and ended up buying a couple more rhubarb roots (Sami believes there is no such thing as too much rhubarb) and some primroses.