GMG's Friday Find: Winter Care for Berry Plants

Photo Courtesy BrazelBerries(R)

I found myself jumping into the berry craze this year and scored a BrazelBerries® Jelly Bean™ blueberry plant from Fall Creek Farm & Nursery.  I planted my young Jelly Bean in a container on my deck and tended to it throughout the summer.  Now that autumn has arrived and the temperatures are beginning to dip, I needed to find out how to care for my prized plant through the winter to ensure it's coming spring into summer bounty. 

The BrazelBerries® Collection of compact berries includes two beautiful blueberries,  Jelly Bean™ and Peach Sorbet™ and a luscious dwarf raspberry, Raspberry Shortcake™.  If you're lucky to have picked one up this year, the following tips on how to overwinter will help you get the most from your berry plants once spring arrives.  It's easier than you think!

Fall Creek® Farm & Nursery Featured in Country Gardens

We are thrilled to see a gorgeous 7- page feature on Fall Creek® Farm & Nursery in the Spring 2013 issue of Country Gardens Magazine! It’s truly an amazing article on their new collection of BrazelBerries®: a dwarf, thornless raspberry and two ornamental blueberries. All three are the result of decades of research by the Brazelton family. Don’t forget to pick up your copy today!

For the complete article click here or visit our results page!

-James

My Visit to Fall Creek Nursery

Here's Dave Brazelton from Fall Creek

Last week I was fortunate enough to head out to Oregon with Suzi to visit with the folks at Fall Creek Nursery, the world's leading wholesale blueberry nursery stock producer located just outside of Eugene. Their state-of-art growing facilities specializes in propagating, producing and distributing blueberries to commercial fruit growers and nurseries all over the world. Pretty exciting stuff!

I was impressed right off the bat when we pulled up to their offices. We started our tour by meeting all the wonderful folks who work there and then we headed to the testing field to do some taste tasting with Dave Brazelton, the founder and blueberry aficionado of Fall Creek. I knew I was going to get my fill of antioxidants for the week with this part of the tour.

Dave gave us a quick overview of the testing area and then we were off to the fields to eat some delicious berries right off the bushes. It's amazing how each variety had its own unique taste, color and texture. I was in blueberry heaven!

I was impressed to learn that Fall Creek currently grows 50 varieties of blueberries. I had no idea that many existed! Besides trying old and current varieties that you would find in your local grocery store, we also had the opportunity to try out a few new varieties as well. Sorry, can't give you any info on these berries just yet!



Suzi in the fields. What an amazing view!

Next year you'll be able to grow some of Fall Creek's amazing berries right in your own backyard. They'll be introducing Raspberry Shortcake (TM), a dwarf thornless raspberry that works great in containers. And in 2014, you'll be able to grow two new exciting berries called Jelly Bean (TM) and Peach Sorbet(TM), which all part of their new BrazelBerries Collection!

I must say that I'm looking forward to my next trip out to this beautiful farm. Hope it's sooner rather than later!

-Stacey
Garden Media Group