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It's bareroot season and the limited availability of some new low-chill Zaiger Genetics cherry cultivars has made me rush to order. I was too afraid I'd be left out. If I waited longer, I could maybe get some deals at local drugstores. But I couldn't wait. Not counting the time I've spent looking at the internet and catalogues before today, it must have taken me 3 hours of research and shopping before I could decide what I was buying.
The two Zaiger cherries were cinches: Minnie Royal and Royal Lee. Bay Laurel Nursery hasn't opened its page for ordering yet which is too bad because I first found out about these new introductions from them. I would gladly have given them my money. I wasn't thrilled with my experience ordering from Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply last time. But Bay Laurel's site emphasized that there'd be limited quantities available, so I was anxious. Thus to Peaceful Valley I went. Because the cost for shipping would be the same for 5 bareroot trees as for 1, and because there was a slight price break and bonus plants for ordering 5...I decided to order 5. Because the 7 apricots I got from my Blenheim apricot weren't enough to tide me over, I knew I had to get more apricot varieties in.
My Berkeley coastal climate is one most folks would be envious of. And it suits me just fine. But it doesn't suit my favorite fruits. Most of the fruits I like prefer extremes of cold and heat that we don't get here. The major concern here is a cultivar that doesn't need many winter chill hours. Last year I winter I got a deal on a cherry tree for 10 bucks. It was a Lapins cherry grafted on Colt stock and was labeled "Fogline". So I figured it was meant for growing around here. but when I looked up how many chill hours Lapins needed (800 hours), I knew it was too big a risk. I'd be lucky if it bore once every 5 years. So I donated it to the CRFG raffle and someone inland in Concord, CA (where they get more chill and more heat) gave it a better home. It stunk, but I figured I'd never be able to grow cherries. These new varieties only need 400 - 500 chill hours. That's doable. I won't get it every year, but I can get it most years, I think. Cherries!
Next came the apricots. Zaiger has also come up with some low chill apricots that beaer earlier and later than Blenheim so that I can extend the very short apricot season. Since the Zaiger varieties are patented, I'll never be able to get them cheaply. They're not going to show up at a CRFG Scion Exchange. So those are the ones that make the most sense to buy at an elevated mail order price. I settled on Gold Kist and Earli Autumn. One more tree to pick. When I went to Harbin Hot Springs for my birthday 2 years ago, I tasted my first Pink Lady apple. I wasn't expecting much. I don't love most apples, or at least that's what I always thought, but I was desperate for fresh fruit to take to Harbin. The apple was exactly the type I like: crisp, tart yet sweet and delicious. I made a note to look into it for my garden. It turns out that it's a patented variety, which also means it won't show up at a scion exchange. So it was a good choice to buy compared to a variety I could get free as a scion.
Not only did I get a slight discount for picking 5 trees, but I could get 2 grape vines for free. The varieties were limited, but them's the breaks. I opted for Muscat of Alexandria, which might not do well here as it needs heat, and California Concord, which I already have one of. Next I hemmed and hawed over whether to buy professional frost protection cloth or to try to figure out something cheaper to do. Having lost 4 citrus trees to the record frosts last year, I decided that I had better pay more up front to keep from losing more later. When you lose the trees, you don't just lose the cost of the tree itself. You lose any money you paid a landscaper/gardener to take care of it, you lose the money you spent on water and fertilizer, you lose all the hours you yourself put into it, and you lose time because it'll be that much longer until you'll be getting fruit and it's that much longer until the trees grow tall enough to give you privacy from your neighbors.
There's an "early buyer" special on the frost cloth, but it's still expensive. $167, not counting the cost of shipping a 42 lb. box, to be exact. But it's a better deal than buying the smaller cloths piece by piece. With a big roll, I can tailor the frost protection. I better prepare ahead of time this year because doing it right means more time than I'll be able to come up with at the last minute. You have to build frames because you don't want the cloth to actually touch the plants.
Now my total was such that I was entitled to 6 packs of seeds. I bought celery, purple bush beans, Walla Walla onions, pickling cucumbers, and native California lupines. Oh yeah, I also have a pound of Daikon radish seed in my order which I want to use to aerate the soil. Oddly enough, the Daikon radish seed is taxable. Edible plants are not supposed to be taxable in CA. But I guess because they view it as primarily cover crop seed instead of anything to be eaten, they tax it. I believe they're wrong. Not that I'd be able to eat that radishes...
The shipping on this was $25, not counting the trees. The trees they're going to figure out shipping for and add on later. This order cost me a bit above 3 Cs. Oy.
But it had only whetted my appetite. I went to Raintree, which is having a special where you get bonus plants if you order and pay now for spring delivery. I spent a couple hours researching and assembling paw paws, gooseberries, an Illinois everbearing currant, etc. I was just about to push the fatal "Order Now" button when I realized that I was ringing this all up on my credit card. I've been trying to pay my credit card off for a year now. Ordering plants I didn't absolutely need would not help me pay it off. So, ruefully, I aborted my mission. I kissed the aronia, currants, mulberries, raspberries, and more goodbye. :~ {
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