I'll be going big, but I plan on ordering in the spring after I really work the soil in the area where the fruit trees and bushes will go. My yard is big and it will take me months to get the space prepped. I have a lot in the ground already from the last two years (since I moved to this house). My reason for going big is a bit different - I'm in a panic that I will eventually lose my job and due to my age I doubt I will find work that pays as well as what I am making now (which ain't much!) so I'm spending lots of money fixing up the house and property with the idea that I won't have the money to spend later.

There are a few nurseries within a days drive of me so I will be trying to fill my orders by hauling things home myself before I pay to have stuff shipped across the country.

I'll be shopping for a Goldrush Apple, Magness Pear, Illinois Everbearing Mulberry, Climax Blueberry, Gage Plum, Autumn Olive, Aronia, Seaberry, Honeyberry and then maybe Azarole or Chinese Haw, Highbush Cranberry, Cranberry, a Fig I don't already have, more fruits that grow in shade, some of the day neutral strawberries.

My full sun and part sun areas are pretty full, all I have left after the above is purchased is one small patch of bright shade. Some of what I already have will fail and need replacing. I tend to grow the oddball varieties and I favor small berry type of fruit over large stuff since my yard is an odd shape and there is more room for bushes than trees.

I plan on ordering loads! I don't have any fruit trees yet and want pretty much everything that can grow here in Florida, so I will be ordering a lot of trees over the next year! I can't wait!

I imagine first on the list will be various berries (blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, tayberries, raspberries for starters), muscadine grapes, peach, nectarine, apricot, plum, plumcot hybrids, methley plum, cherry, papaya, pomegranates, etc.

herbal, I was indeed getting a bit of deva vu there :-) FYI I only got my Robada this year so I don't know how it will work out in this area. The rest of the stone fruits I think are winners in our climate.

So far I have no orders to speak of, mainly working on improving what I already have. I am moving or removing about 50 trees over the winter. I will probably be able to add a couple dozen once I get all the moves sorted out -- I am thinning the back orchard, which gets too little light, to be less dense and am adding one more row at 4' spacing in the front.

Scott

Picking these trees up from Just fruits and exotics this week or next:

MAEKAWA-JIRO NON-ASTRINGENT PERSIMMON
FUYU NON-ASTRINGENT PERSIMMON

ALMA fig

GULF BLAZE plum

GULF ROSE plum

sunburst tangerine

UF2000 peach

UF BEAUTY peach

UFO peach

For Arizona:

JF&E:

Tropic Sweet Apple
Gulf Beauty Plum
Gulf Rose Plum

Sanhedrin:

Acres Home Pear
Southern Bartlett Pear

Raintree:

Royal Lee Cherry
Minnie Royal Cherry
Sugarcane Jujube

Cummins:

Hawaii Apple
Williams Pride Apple

We get 400 chill hours where I live, so the pears may go into 15s until they prove that they can work here. It's an experiment.

Sorry Bay Laurel, not Raintree. Didn't order anything from them this year.

What I have already ordered for next spring from Raintree is:

Mirabelle de Metz Plum

Mirabelle de Nancy Plum

Five combo european Pear

That makes 15 trees for me which is all I have room for in my current orchard configuration. Very exciting! Will also add five blackberries and more 'Mara des Bois' strawberries.

I have 11 apple trees ordered, though I have had no luck with apples or European pears here. Asian pears doing fine, I have purchased Actinovate Iron in hopes of jump starting the apples because fireblight is a problem here. Also have 3 more mulberries coming and 4 more peaches in pots to plant.

If it's planting season, I plant & don't always know where I will put it 'til it gets here. Climate change has become a real problem.

As soon as I get my catalog from Schlabach's Nursery in New
York, I need to order one honeycrisp. Schlabach's has great selection, cheap prices and are wonderful to deal with. They only take orders by mail as Amish. No phone orders, fax or internet.

I chip budded a Cortland,Macoun, NorthWest Greening and Kidd's Orange August 2010. Since they are now 4' tall in my garden, they will move to my 20 tree orchard next spring.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one.
My largest order from Rolling River nursery just arrived.I'm so excited to plant. Now if the weather will just cooperate. It's been raininf for two days. I only have two holes prepared, and 16 plants to plant.Plus my usual horse maure guy gave me semi-rotted manure, instead of the beautiful black gold that he usually delivers. What's a girl to do...

Herbal,

I'm doing it big too- at least as big as the 1/2 acre yard will allow. I just moved in last spring (2010) and I've already got 90 types of fruit tree and berry planted (21 orders from 16 different sources). With my current orders, I should be at 102 by next spring (likely more, as something will catch my eye). Seeing what Scott did, I've updated my member page to list out what I'm growing. It will probably be a while before it can be helpful to others though, as I don't have long enough experience with most of the varieties yet.

I've ordered 4 peach trees from ACN for container planting: PF1 Flamin Fury, White Lady, TangOs NJF16, and Glohaven- a mix of early late, white and flat, at least 3 of them somewhat resistant to brownrot (as best as I can tell online).

I've also ordered 8 more apple, 1 cherry, and 2 pear trees from Cummins:
Ashmeads Kernal- G65
Goldrush- G11/B118
Kidds Orange Red- G11/MM111
Roxbury Russet- G11/MM111
Mother- G11/MM111
Egremont Russet- B9/B118
Pomme Gris- G16
Pitsaston's Pineapple- G16

Sour cherry- Northstar- Krymsk 6

Pear:
Honeysweet- OHxF 333
Harrow Delight- Qunice

A couple months ago, I planted a 20th Century asian pear, several gooseberry/currants, and 25 raspberries from Rolling River. A few weeks ago, I planted a Jujube (So) and a Persimmion (Tam Kam) from Just Fruits and Exotics. Just yesterday I added some Sweetcrisp and Emerald blueberries (FHN), which will be growing in the living room, at least for this winter...

I feel for you having to dig 14 holes under pressure. I'm trying to prevent another spring crunch, so I've started pre-digging for next spring. I figure if I've got more time, I can focus on one or two holes in a day and make nice big ones. I'm mixing in a little well composted leaf mulch (replaces the volume of the rocks I remove) and refilling once done- not leaving them as open pits to trip in, but it should still be pretty easy to shovel it out again next spring. Three down, eight to go...

Bob

SoTX, what sort of apple trees are you growing? What sort of chill hours are you getting where you are?

Bob, have you had early flowering issues from the southern high bush blueberrys in CT?

Not yet, as I haven't had any flowering yet. I planted a 2 gallon potted Southmoon this spring in the yard, so we'll see next spring. I've got 11 other varieties (all Northern Highbush or mixed) which I planted this spring and last. Most of the few berries produced so far have been eaten by the birds. One produced a huge number of blossoms (Legacy planted from a 3 gallon pot), but I was greedy and didn't thin it properly, so none properly developed.

I planted the Sweetcrisp and Emerald just a few days ago, but they were only ~7" tall, so it will be a while before I find out. From Fruitnut's comments, it sounds like they produce for him in his greenhouse, even when he doesn't bring in bees. I may give it a try to keep them indoors as house plants during the winter if pollination isn't needed.

Bob, how do you fit 100 fruit trees on a 1/2 acre? I would love to see a layout or pics :)

My shopping cart is still hovering at Starks with 13 tress at $550. Will pull the trigger soon, yet I am aghast...

$550 is pretty pricey for 13 trees. One of my orders is at 20 (apple/peach/pear/apricot/cherry) and is still not (quite) up to $550. I know there are some places where it is far less- I've ordered a few trees from one of them (~$7/tree + shipping) and will let you know how it goes.

As of spring, I'll only have a bit over 2 dozen actual fruit trees in the ground (just over half of that now). The 100 number was the number to types of fruits and berries (these take a lot less space). I've got a bunch of blueberries, raspberries, currants and gooseberries.

I've added a few things and the total number of varieties will move up by 5-10, but I haven't updated my profile yet. I think I'll wait until they arrive and are planted.

In order to fit more trees, I've decided to go into container growing as well. From my current orders, I've got 12 trees slated to go into pots this spring. I've ordered a bunch of different kinds of fabric pots to see which I like the best and have been reading up in the Container forum on what type of media to use.

I don't have any good diagrams. I've been using a combination of excel (indicates the area, which I've defined with a drawing) and Word to track what is where. The Word document has descriptions like "2nd tree from house in the raised bed near the split rail, next to the X". For one part of the yard, I assigned a coordinate system (rows of gooseberry/currants). Let me know if you have any suggestions for good software.

I've only been planting things for ~2 years. Scott is the one whose yard must be truly impressive.

I still haven't ordered anything other then 3 peaches from ACN. I want to pull the trigger on a few other things, but who knows. I really am running out of space. I also grow a lot of plants in pots. I have a large sun drenched driveway. Thing that sucks is the constant watering that pots require. Need to see up some sort of drip irrigation.

My shopping cart is still hovering at Starks with 13 tress at $550."

I agree $550 is a lot to pay for 13 mail order trees ($42/tree).

Adams County is one of the more expensive mail order nurseries and they charge $28/tree including shipping.

For 10+ trees, I've always wondered how well it would work to use one of these nursery brokerage services (Nursery Connection, Summit fruit tree sales, etc). They advertise they can get you trees from Adams, Vanwell, etc. at almost wholesale prices without having to meet the wholesale quantity.

The other thing to consider is that sometimes the wholesale quantity isn't that much. Vanwell offers a price break at 50 trees. They don't have to be the same variety or even the same fruit, the order just has to total 50 trees. The price break is significant. I ordered 70 trees from them for this year, and off the top of my head, I think the price was less than $8/tree excluding royalties and freight. Adams has a similar price break at 100 trees, but they charge a buck or two more for their trees.

You can get 10 trees for 199$ shipped from Peaceful Valley in CA. They are Dave Wilson Nursery trees. I got my order in a couple of weeks ago, trees came as described.

Here is a link that might be useful: Peaceful Valley

I'm trying to resist ordering anything new this year and, instead, finally get around to planting some of last year's order that is still in pots behind my house (I vow that every year, though). I'll probably order some Major and Greenriver pecan trees that I was too late in ordering last year, as well as a few hundred Earliglow and Honeoye strawberries (and maybe some of the more heat tolerant everbearers, like Monterey) from Nourse to start a new patch now that my existing one is 3 years old. I'll definitely make at least one spring trip to nearby Edible Landscaping for a few impulse buys.

I agree that the Peaceful Valley's $199 for 10 trees, shipped is really hard to beat. I'd be willing to bet it is unmatched for their combination of quality and non-wholesale quantity.

YES! I am going BIG! Planting my very first tree!! ever!! Hehehe. :)

Five new Poorman, Invicta, and Hinnomaki Red gooseberries. Five more Rovada red currants, 3 more minaj smyriou. 10 Octavia red raspberries, 25 more Himbo Tops, 10 ea Lauren, Nova, Polana, Encore. Jupiter, Reliance, and Himrod seedless grapes. 25 more Crimson red rhubarb and 12 Victoria. One Jonafree (decided against Jonagold for better disease resistance)and a Sundance. Two Monty cherries. One ea Encore, PF1 Flaming Fury, Glowing Star peaches. 28 new assorted blueberries with some older varieties (Ivanhoe, Duke, Draper, Atlantic, Berkely, Herbert). That's enough.

I placed orders for spring and fall. I already have 3 or 4 trees. Can not wait for spring!
fall orders
starks
crimson snow nectarine
starkrimson cherry
supreme plum
goldcot apricot
Ebay
American plum (to polinate Supreme)
Gurneys
Flat wonderful peach
-I canceled additonal orders from Gurneys, not satisfied with graft and size.
-Blueberries (from Ebay and D.wilson listing)
chandler, duke, patriot, legacy,blue crop, blue ray blue jay, elliot

Spring
From Bay Laurel
Grenade Pluot
Tomcat Apricot
4 n 1 asian pear
4 n 1 apple
Artic Glo Nectarine
Starks
Honey crisp apple
ichi ki kei jiro persimmon

May postpone the spring Starks order. I still need a polinator for the pluot (santa rosa plum?) and I am not sure if I have room. I was going to order Spring Satin Plumcot but I had to remove. If I have to wait till fall just gives me something to look forward to.

And Peaceful Valley is comparable to Stark?

The Peaceful Valley 10 for $199 is a good deal, but if you are getting fewer trees, shipping may not be such a good deal. With fewer trees, shipping is a flat $35 even if you are ordering just one tree.

That's one of the dangers of the PV deal. You start off looking at a few trees and then justify getting a lot more because of the flat shipping. I still think it is a good deal at about $26 for 5/8"-3/4" caliber, 4', very healthy, large rooted tree if you purchase at least 5 trees (and a great deal if you get 10).

I've ordered 30 or so trees from PV and my experience with Starks is limited to a few trees, but with this caveat in mind, I'd still be fairly confident in saying that PV at least matches Starks for quality (and my limited experience was they beat them). And they certainly beat them on price.

Yeah, the PV deal is only good if you want at least 5 trees. You could always try and pool with neighbors if you wanted less, or try craigslist or garden forums for a group buy.

I'm trying a lot of new peaches this year, some of which I'm excited about. I have about 30 varieties currently, but here's my list of new ones:

Rich May
Desiree
PF5B
Early Red Fre
Sugar May
Honeyblaze (nect)
PF9a
Glenco
Snowbrite
Sweet Scarlet
Galaxy
Starfire
Saturn
Salem
PF15a
NJF 17 donut
Johnboy II
PF17
Klondike
Glohaven
NJ252
Canadian Harmony
Sweet Cap
PF23
Sugar Giant
Gloria
PF24-007
Madison
Sweet Breeze
Glowingstar
Messina
PF25
PF 27a
PF28-007
Laurol
Snow Giant
Victoria
September Snow
Sweet Bagel

I'm sure a portion of these won't work out. Culling what doesn't work is part of the learning process.

Wow. That is quite the list Olpea. I've thought about ordering sweet bagel.

Hi Frank,

I'm trying to get my new planting going. It's generally not the way it's done commercially speaking (i.e. planting a shotgun approach of varieties). Most commercial growers plant large blocks of single varieties (for easier management). Then again Rick Godsil-Wagon Wheel orchard-seems to make it work with apples. Part of the fun for me is discovery, which is partly why I ordered so many different varieties.

Sweet bagel is one of the peaches that may not work here. I've ordered it because Scott Smith has raved about it, but he's also mentioned it's very prone to rot.

Olpea, I look forward to your report in a few years on all those new peaches!

This year the only expansion I am making is to try out some more apricots, and I already have many stumps to graft to so no more tree orders. Well, maybe a Stark Sweetheart could be in my future. Oh, I am also adding a few pears on quince rootstock, from Cummins and Tierra Madre Farms. I already have them on other roots but am getting sick of waiting for them to fruit. There is a good reason while most of the commercial pears in Europe are on quince -- it works!

Scott

I just spent a buck and a deuce on 2 pluots (4 in 1)... I'll container grow them and somehow try to keep the brown rot at bay.

alot of the stuff i want is already sold out in places. What is the consensus on raintree for cherry trees?

I went a tad overboard myself this year. I only intended to replace two plums which had left holes in my 10 tree orchard lineup. But we got irrigation water awarded to us last year, and on the assumption that we'd get it again this year, I folded and decided to put in the second line of trees. Plus it'd be nice to get some highway noise reduction started, so I.. well... I went a little bit crazy and...

1 each:
Emerald Beauty Plum
Bavay's Green Gage Plum
Blake's Pride Pear
Bosc Pear
Comice Pear
Ashmead Kernal Apple
Anna Apple
Cox's Orange Pippin Apple
Sunburst Cherry
Montmorency Cherry

1) Western Schley Pecan
50)Pecan: Carya-illinoinensis
50)Redbud: Cercis-Canadensis
50)Tulip Tree: Liriodendron tulipifera

So far, I have 24 or so in the ground, 63 potted up, and I'm flogging off the balance to any of my clients who also like to garden.

Next year, Tupelos and olives!

As part of the Gone Overboard Anonymous:

10 apple: 3 Goldrush, one each Winecrisp, N. Spy, Crimson Crisp, Spigold, Honeycrisp, Jonalicious, Sansa

2 cherries: White Gold and a red variety, name escapes me

2 Asian pears

3 peaches, all from the PF series

30 seedlings, 10 each hazelnut, seaberry and goumi

24 named varieties, 6 haskap, 3 seaberry, 6 hazelnut, 2 goumi, 4 Juneberry, 1 goji, 2 flowering quinces.

Finally placed my order
lapins and black gold cherry from raintree (one each)
seascape strawberries (lot of 25 - no idea where i am going to put them)
1-anne, 1-caroline, and 2-heritage raspberries
1-ouchita, 1-apache blackberry
1 reliance grape

all the remaining are from indiana berries.

Rounding out my backyard plantings with Cummins Nursery.

Kidd's Orange Red (G11)
Orleans Reinette (G202)

1 Montmorency cherry

I feel like I'm really underperforming relative to my fellow Marylanders... What is wrong with me?