Honeyberries early fruit and something else.

Its been a long time since my last post so apologies to anyone who checks out this page on a regular basis. Actually I have been out of action due to a nasty leg injury which meant that I missed the spring and early summer scythe season which in turn meant that the grass took over and the mulching didn't get done. However plants will flower and fruit no matter what you throw at them and this year has been no exception. I have got back into the swing again (literally) and have started to clear some of the backlog. But now comes the job of picking processing and storing so I have had to be selective as to where and what I clear.

One of the first fruits to ripen were the Honeyberries (Lonicera caerulea), I am growing a variety called Moreno I have 3 plants and this is their 2nd year. I was picking the first fruits in the first week in June and the bushes were picked out 4 weeks later, but most surprising of all was the form that the bushes grew in. I have 3 low growing domes that have shaded out all that might try to grow through them which makes this variety ideal for south facing understory ground cover. The fruit itself is high in nutrition  but beware it does not taste anything like a blueberry which many nurseries claim. My best description is the taste of a slightly underipe plum. Its also a bee plant and its important to cover the plants during fruiting as the birds just love them.

They have only reached a height of 40cm so I'll taking cuttings this autumn and will plant them as ground cover around different fruit trees to see how well they perform in this role.

Till next time.