Somervillefan,

I can help with some...do you happen to know what your native soil PH is? If your native soil is neutral or acid I would use 1/3 native soil, 1/3 pine bark fines and 1/3 peat moss. Mix the 3 together and you will have a perfect mix your plants should enjoy. You can mulch the bushes with the pine bark also. The pine fines are sometimes sold at Lowes or HD as "soil conditioner" just look on the back of the bag and it will say what is in it. Blueberries like sun, as much as you can give them. They will tolerate partial sun but it will hurt production and growth. I would wait to transplant until late winter early spring though I guess you could do it after leaf drop if you absolutely had to.

I miss those elderberries. We use to drive the back roads and pick paper bags full to make jelly from......

Hi Somervillefan,
Take bamboo rabbit's advice about blueberries,He knows how to grow them.
Another plant that may work is one of the Serviceberries.I recently put a small Amelanchier alnifolia in the ground.They can withstand cold,do like sun but can have some shade,are not as needful of acidic soil like blueberries,have lovely white flowers in the spring followed by nice foliage and tasty blueberry like fruit,which people say has an almond like flavor and then in the fall depending on which variety,great leaf color,the Amelanchier grandiflora being one of them.There might even be some growing wild in your area.Brady

Currants grow really well in MA. I used to live close to CT/MA border and they were very happy there. Ilove black currents more, but both black and red/white currants will reward you with berries year after you plant them. No special care (like spraying is required. Just plant and enjoy. They will be much sweeter when planted in full sun, but fewer hours of sun will also work.
Whitman farms (witmanfarms.com)has by far the best selection of different currents. and the plan quality and service are great. Highly recommend.
Olga

Olga has far more experience than I, but I'll chime in anyways. Over the last two years I've planted more than a dozen types of currants and ten-ish gooseberry varieties. I can recommend both for this area. I haven't gotten much fruit from most yet, but the growth is good, even in limited sun.

The best so far has been Black Velvet (gooseberry). I got it from Rolling River nursery and have been very happy with them. One thing I like is that they sell potted plants, not bare root, so I can plant anytime.

Seeing my last post, it occurred to me that I should describe what I like about the Black Velvet GB.

1.) Strong growth- it has far outpaced the Hinnonmaki Yellows which are located near it (~8 4' tall shoots vs ~4 2' tall shoots)

2.) Fruit- It fruited early and more importantly, set enough so that some escaped the birds (unlike most of my other varities). It tasted pretty good too. Even my daughter liked it, while she only had a couple store-bought GB before saying "no thanks, I don't like these...".

Bob

Agree with Olga, Currants are good,..wish I didn't get the worms, never had a good crop until this year, they mostly fall off, this year I covered one black currant bush to see if it works, ..it did, have a nice little crop.

Have some Gooseberries too, but these I have the same problem, since I have to cover everything, was thinking to get rid of the Gooseberries because I like more the black Currants
and are so nice to pick, ...no thorns!

Thanks to all of you veteran berry growers for your helpful advice. I will try either black currants or gooseberries, and will hold off on transplanting my blueberries til Spring.
I appreciate your wisdom and generosity.