The Scoop! - Fruiting Ornamentals

February 28, 2008

Here's the scoop on fruiting ornamentals!

Spring is just around the corner! Like you, we have been planning and designing and, thankfully, in only a few short weeks it will be time to put those plans into action! We previously shared some tips to help you do your early season planning, and some design tips to increase your enjoyment while lessening the amount of work required in order to achieve the perfect outdoor living area.

This spring consider taking your garden one step further with a group of plants that is increasing in popularity and finding its way into mixed borders, flower beds, and even foundation plantings. I'm talking about edible plants. This diverse group of plants can be functional, beautiful, and provide the grower with nutritious fruit. There is nothing sweeter than a homegrown strawberry or tastier than a homegrown tomato. Plant breeders have focused their efforts on plants that will provide more fruit with refined growth habits and extended bearing times in order to make growing edibles easier and more rewarding. From a problem solving point of view numerous fruit bearing plants can be quite functional. Additionally, most folks have not really considered the ornamental qualities this group exhibits, and have focused only on the fruit. We say it is time to consider using more edibles in your plantings and listed below are some great tips on how to use them.

Strawberries
Strawberries are excellent when planted as a ground cover or as a front of the border plant. Everbearing varieties like Sweet Bounty and Titan are durable plants which will produce loads of flowers and berries all summer while making a tidy edging plant or while covering a large area. Once planted they do all the work from blooming to fruiting and the only work you will need to do is enjoy the sweet fruits of your labor. And, best of all, they come back year after year!

Blueberries
Blueberries are one of the most underused plants in the country! The ornamental qualities alone should make this one of the top ten plants to use in your landscape. Beautiful, bell-shaped pink and white blossoms cover the plant in mid-spring bringing fresh color into your landscape. As the season progresses the blossoms turn into berries of a deep rich blue, which adds a new color to the landscape and a tangy delight for all to enjoy. Then, in the fall, even after the berries are gone, the foliage begins to turn a brilliant red that rivals that of the Burning Bush and Nandina! Thanks to the University of Florida there are now varieties that will basically grow in just about any area of the country! The Southern Highbush, a relatively new group of blueberries, is a cross between southern Rabbit Eye and northern Highbush varieties. This cross has yielded varieties that perform in climates as warm as Tampa, Florida or Los Angeles, California, and which bear fruits whose quality rivals that of the famed Michigan and Jersey Highbush varieties.

The best of the Southern Highbush varieties is Sunshine Blue. First of all, it can almost be considered a dwarf variety as it will only get 2-4 feet tall. This trait makes it ideal for any number of applications like foundations, low hedging, and even containers. Secondly, it will bear fruit as early as the second year and finally, due to its dwarf nature, this plant is virtually maintenance free - unless you count picking the delicious berries! The only thing blueberries need is an acidic soil with a pH below 6.2. This can easily be achieved by incorporating aluminum-sulphate into the soil. A brief conversation with the local county extension service will allow you to gain all of the information you need concerning your local soil and its requirements.

Blackberries & Raspberries
When we think of blackberries and raspberries, most of us envision wild-growing canes along fence rows or places where nothing else seems grow. Thanks to the research of Dr. Clark at the University of Arkansas you can now enjoy large, beautiful berries right from your own yard! The development of Primocane Blackberry varieties Prime Jim and Prime Jan is significant due to the ability of these varieties to fruit on each year's new growth. Before these two were developed, blackberries fruited on old wood, which meant you had to let them grow long canes over multiple years to provide enough flowers for significant fruit production. That really only served to produce large oversized plants which were maintenance nightmares. Primocanes, on the other hand, do not need older canes to bear fruit, so plants can be kept to a more tidy size. These varieties can be pruned in the fall as short as 6-12 inches above the ground so that they maintain their neat appearance for the next year. Prime Jim and Prime Jan can be used as a back of the border plant, or as a large shrub in the landscape.

When is comes to raspberries, we have had Primocane Raspberries for a number of years and they are most commonly referred to as everbearing varieties. Heritage Raspberry is an example of a primocane raspberry that bears on first year wood and can be maintained similarly to the blackberries. From a commercial fruit production standpoint, trimming berry plants back to the ground is not the most effective way to maximize the harvest, but for the homeowner, this technique of pruning will allow for an abundance of fruit, without the headache that comes with maintaining the size of the plant on a consistent basis.

The healthful benefit of fresh fruit, and of berries in particular, is well documented. With great, new varieties to choose from you can grow delicious fruit within your landscaped areas that will not only be beautiful and functional, but also yield the best fruit you have ever tasted!