Saskatoon Berry - Anyone Tried Them?

ghues

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Hi Folks,
Over the last two years I’ve collected a few Saskatoon Berry plants as they look like they could have some good potential and wanted to know if others out there have had any experience with them. I have been told that the leaves do reduce in size and they have nice white flowers in the spring and berries in the late summer.

(Wikipedia)- Amelanchier alnifolia, the Saskatoon, Pacific serviceberry, western serviceberry, alder-leaf shadbush, dwarf shadbush, chuckley pear, or western juneberry,[1] is a shrub with edible berry-like fruit, native to North America from Alaska across most of western Canada and in the western and north central United States. The native one to our area is var. semiintegrifolia. It grows from sea level in the north of the range, up to 2,600 m (8,530 ft) elevation in California and 3,400 m (11,200 ft) in the Rocky Mountains.
The berry has recently been found to be very high in antioxidants particularly phenolics, flavonols and anthocyanins.

Although this shrub can grow to a height of 1–8 m (3–26 ft), in most of its local range it doesn't achieve those heights around here as it’s a preferred food for local ungulates (Roosevelt Elk and Coastal black tailed deer). With the constant “grazing” they are kept short in height and show some good ramification but are very wild looking with twisted, contorted branches generally formed in a clump style. I’ve also noticed that the older branches are very stiff but they do send off new branches constantly which could easily be wired into desirable shapes.
I’ve attached a few photos of the ones that I'm going to work on.
Cheers Graham
 

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crust

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I am trying the species too. Got one in the ground that I plan to pot this coming spring. Its the eastern variety. My experiment with small ones did not go well and they retained big leaves and were clumsy so this one is bigger--no pics though.
 

wireme

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A good Saskatoon berry is one of my favorite berries to pick and eat. Unfortunately they are a co-host for cedar apple rust and the berries are too often affected, they grow those crazy orange spikes and get all orange dusty. I've been keeping my eye out for good specimens, so far haven't found a good collectible one at the right time and place to bring one home but I'm sure someday it will happen. Please share anything you learn as you play with them. I saw one of your other posts with some Kinnickinik plants too, nice to see some of these native plants being used. I found a few kinnickiniks this fall that I'm pretty stoked about, will collect this spring hopefully. Here's a pic of one, hard to see in the pic but it's super cool.
Mpimage.jpg
 

edprocoat

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Man the one in pic #4 is really sharp, its has a great raft look to it already.

Edit; looking at it again it looks more like a clump but its still has caught my eye and I bet it will make a nice looking specimen.

ed
 

coppice

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I liked upland blueberry (the short plants) better. When I had more space.
 

ghues

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Many thanks for your comments,
Crust- we'll have to trade notes on how these develop,
Wireme - thanks for the info, good luck with your collecting of kinnickinik next spring, I've been told that your area has some great specimens.
Hi Ed, most of them are a clump style as they have a central base which sometimes can be very thick, I think the trick is going to be to keep the "suckers" from taking over the design.
Coppice, what type of blueberry is that?.....we have at least 4 local varieties and I've got a couple in the grow bed that I collected this past spring.
Cheers All,
Graham
 

coppice

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Upland blueberry grew on any sandy bank in ME, NY, VT. At the biggest it is little more than heath tall.

Faster growing than Uvas Ursi bear berry, in my NH garden and benches.

As an aside, I just saw a country road named Knick knick, I wonder if there might be a bear-berry collecting trip in my future.
 
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ghues

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A re-pot Update

Hi Folks Just re-potted this little one....it was in pure pumice and man did it ever have a lot of new roots. Not the greatest pot I know but my collection of pots is very limited :(
Cheers G.
 

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GrimLore

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Very nice!

Grimmy
 

augustine

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There is a good article and super photographs in International Bonsai Magazine 2008/No.4 issue.

personally I think it's a great candidate and would like to find a wild specimen.

Yours are great.

Best,

Augustine
 

JudyB

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I like it, nice to see different material out there. I grow them as landscape bird feeders. I thought I was planting them for me.... but you have to get them fast if you want them!
Would love to see the fall colors.
 

Pete-Regina

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So five years ago I picked up a little saskatoon bush from the local nursery here and put it in the ground. This spring my landlord informed me that bushes and trees would be removed unless I did it myself. I'd been planning to train this one as a bonsai, but when I dug it out of the ground I was amazed at what I found.

It's going to be a semi-cascade believe it or not!

Trying to upload an image.
 

wireme

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image.jpg
So five years ago I picked up a little saskatoon bush from the local nursery here and put it in the ground. This spring my landlord informed me that bushes and trees would be removed unless I did it myself. I'd been planning to train this one as a bonsai, but when I dug it out of the ground I was amazed at what I found.

It's going to be a semi-cascade believe it or not!l

Trying to upload an image.

Looking forward to seeing it if you figure the photo thing out. Hopefully an update on the plants of ghues too!

I have one now, just collected last week. Not a good time to collect but way up a mountainside at the end of a long rough road that looks like one more rainstorm it'll be gone. I didn't think I'd get back at a better time and I could get a very intact rootball, it's still perky, probably a good sign. Cute little thing eh?
 

Tycoss

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I know this is an older thread, but I have a new Saskatoon collected earlier this spring that is just starting to wake up. It was on top of a windy ridge with very thin soil, and was being constantly nibbled by horses and mule deer. This has resulted in a lot of ramification that almost reminds me of what the Japanese do with flowering quince. Several branches actually touch the ground and then ascend up again. Mule deer are now among my favourite bonsai artists.

The central trunk is a black barked, lichen covered little monstrosity that doesn't care one bit about bonsai convention. Some reverse taper, thick exposed roots, and some twisted deadwood. The trunk is about 2.5" across, height is about 15" and width is about 2'. Very unique for a Saskatoon, and should look cool in flower or with fruit.
 

crust

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Very cool tree but I woud imagine you would have to essentially cut off every divided branch.
 

Tycoss

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Crust, I know I will have to reduce the branching to some extent, as this contributes to inverse taper etc., but I plan to keep a lot of the more dramatic and rapidly dividing branching. The stuff that has lichen or black bark, or that drops down close to the trunk will probably stay. I think this would best preserve the wild and dramatic character of the tree. Long, straight branches and long twigs will have to go though. Can't undo all that hard work the deer and livestock put in!
 

ghues

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Tycoss, that is a great find, has great age and character.......... for me, The beauty to be found in this species is its wild, unkept, uncultured look.
Makes me want to look for some more....promised the miss'is that the only one that can enter the yard is when one leaves lol
Good luck with this one..........one of mine looks like it's going to show some flowers later this spring.
 

Tycoss

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I may eventually work some stones in under the exposed roots and raise the tree up so that some branches droop below the edge of the pot on both sides. Years away of course.
 
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