Please note that our bare root availability list is always changing.  Use this guide to skim through what is currently available and avoid searching.

Click on the name of the tree to be linked to the product page >>>

Bare Root Fruiting Trees

Bare Root Berries

The post 2025 Bare Root Availability List appeared first on One Green World.

The Wedge Method

The first step is to collect your dormant scion wood. Scions must be cut while they are still fully dormant for the highest grafting success rate. Be sure to cut wood on new growth that is disease free and growing vigorously. The healthier and more vigorous your scion is, the greater chance of success when grafting and having a fast-growing young tree.

Once your scion is cut, label it and store it in the refrigerator where it will easily keep for at least a month until you are ready to graft.

Selecting rootstock is just as important as selecting what variety you want to grow. Most people think of height at maturity when thinking of rootstock, but disease resistance, vigor, lifespan, soil adaptability, suckering, and how well anchored the tree will be are other factors to consider. Most rootstocks are widely adaptable and resilient, hence their use as rootstock, but checking in with other gardeners/farmers in your area or your local extension agency can help you to choose the perfect rootstock for your location. And of course, trialing many different rootstocks for your location always yields valuable data.

We realized a few years ago in our grafting classes that using red fleshed apples is a great way for beginners to clearly see the difference between the pith, sapwood, cambium, and bark. The pith is that white spot in the middle, the sapwood is red in this case, and the cambium is the lighter layer beneath the dark red bark. The cambium is the most important part here as it is the layer that is lined up between the scion and the rootstock in order to get the vascular tissue to fuse and form a successful graft union.

Be sure to sterilize all of your tools before you begin grafting to avoid the potential spread of pathogens across plant material.

When choosing which piece of scion to graft onto which rootstock, it can be helpful to find diameters that are similar so that both sides of the graft match up, but this is not essential. Often the rootstock or scion will vary in size and if you can get one side matched up perfectly then you’ll have success.

The first and easiest graft that most folks start with is the wedge graft. The take rate on these grafts is typically pretty high and you don’t need to have that skilled of a grafter’s hand to have success with it.

First, make a split down the middle of the rootstock. It is important that the knife cuts the wood cleanly rather than having it split so that a more solid connection between scion and rootstock is achieved.

TIP: We often put our thumb on top of the blade and above the rootstock to ensure that the blade stops when our thumb hits the top of the rootstock. This ensures we don’t cut our other hand that’s holding the rootstock and keeps the blade from making too deep of a cut.

Next, cut the scion wood on both sides to form a wedge that tapers down to a very slim point. It is important to cut at a direct angle rather than “scooping” with the grain of the wood so that there are no air pockets between the cambium layers.

The scion should then fit neatly into the wedge you’ve created in the rootstock with no gaps between the two pieces of wood. It is better to line up one side perfectly than to put the scion right in the middle of the rootstock. Eventually as the young tree grows, it will fuse on both sides.

Once the scion is situated, wrap it up with grafting tape and tie a rubber band around to hold it tight so the rootstock is squeezed to the scion. Some growers will wrap the scion completely to keep it from dehydrating, but with apples it’s usually sufficient to put a small piece on the top like a little hat unless it’s a very old or dehydrated piece of scion that you’re trying to save.

The Whip and Tongue Method

Once you’ve gotten the hang of wedge grafting, you can try moving on to the whip and tongue method. The take rate is similar with both methods once you’ve mastered them, although, the whip and tongue has the advantage of lining up the two pieces in a more fluid way. It also has a bit more structural integrity for the young graft because of the interlocking wood.

To create a whip and tongue graft, you’ll make a cut about 3/4″ long from one end of the scion diagonally across to the other. After this cut, make the “tongue”, a little incision into the middle of the wood – usually right where the pith is. Create a mirror cut on the rootstock then interlock the two pieces together. The trick here is getting the two tongues on either side of each other. We’ve found the budding tool on grafting knives can be helpful for opening the tongues up a little more so they easily fit into each other.

The interlocking pieces will help the young graft be more resilient to anything knocking it out of place. Follow the same finals steps from above to secure it with grafting tape and a rubber band.

Final Steps

Pot up your newly grafted tree and put it in a frost-free location, but somewhere that is not too warm. We’ve found that for many of the more temperate plants, if they’re put into a warm greenhouse immediately the scion will break dormancy before the graft is fully fused and can then collapse. Other species such as figs and persimmons much prefer a hot environment while the grafts are fusing, but in the case of apples it’s best to either graft them after all danger of frost has passed or put them in a cool hoophouse or garage. The use of bottom heat can be helpful here too as it will cause the rootstock to begin growing and breaking dormancy more quickly while the cooler air above keeps the scion dormant. 

Grafting your own trees is a very fun and economical way to propagate young fruit trees. It is also an essential skill for orchardists, nursery workers, and anybody trying to conserve rare varietals. Experiment with different techniques, rootstock combinations, interstems, and materials and you just might discover a unique new way to propagate your favorite fruit trees.

Happy grafting!

The post A Step-by-Step Guide to Grafting appeared first on One Green World.

And what a tsunami it was! On top of the usual craziness of the season, it seems we always have some unforeseen event that throws a massive wrench in our operations. A few years ago the road was torn up so our retail customers and shipping trucks couldn’t access the nursery. Last year of course was navigating operations during the pandemic. And this year we were forced to tear up the entire front of the nursery for all of spring. Half of our usable space was gone and we had to shut down for many days while we anxiously watched a sewer construction crew tear apart the fences, tables, and plantings we’d worked so hard on creating the past few years. There are few things more torturous to me than digging up a prized plant we’d worked so hard to establish at the absolute worst time of year to dig them up and then watch many of them slowly die after being cut back hard and put in pots. During what is already the most chaotic time of the year, the Nursery Gods saw fit to turn the chaos dial to 11. Cavernous mote-like trenches welcomed our customers and the massive piles of soil and heavy machinery (that would sit inexplicably for many days at a time without work being done…) became the look of our nursery for so long this spring that we just got used to them being there. We forgot that plants used to live in the places where our giant soil and rock piles were. 

But there were a few very tiny silver linings through all of it. When else would we get the opportunity to dig a big soil pit and see what the soil horizons look like 12 feet down? Turns out it’s a whole lot of boulders gifted to us by the Missoula floods. Massive boulders that certainly help our drainage, and if these mulberries are any indicator, don’t seem to inhibit root growth. 

It’s wild how deep the root system is on these after only being in the ground for a few years! 

And look how nicely the Chilean Flame Tree’s stunning flowers matched the construction fencing and paint on the excavator…

Yeah, we were really scraping the bottom of the barrel looking for a silver lining on this situation.

And then, like clockwork, as soon as the spring season was winding down and we had our big end of the year barbeque the sewer construction project was finished! As if the Nursery Gods truly were just toying with us the whole time. Now for the work of replanting everything and getting the nursery put back together…

We have to send out a huge thank you to all our retail customers who navigated the nursery through all of this, called us from the gate when dump trucks blocked the entrance so we could bring out their plants, dealt with all the disorganization it caused, and still came to see us on the weekends and keep us going! We learn so much from our customers and you all inspire us to keep finding new varieties, bring back old ones and make this green world a better place to live. It’s been an insane last two years navigating the pandemic but we’re looking forward to seeing your full smiling faces once again soon, starting up classes and getting to interact like regular humans again! Thanks for all your patience and understanding throughout this wild time, and most importantly for keeping those gardens growing. After all this time spent at home, we’re hoping everybody comes away with a deeper connection to their plants and gardens and the satisfaction in knowing you can escape to any part of the world you want to with the right arrangement of plants. 

All of this time spent in town also meant we basically did nothing but work and we have a ton of new plants to show for it! We’re gearing up for our biggest growing season yet, with many varieties that have been in the works for years finally being introduced. We’re very excited about what’s coming for summertime and hope you’ll come visit us for what is our favorite time of the year at the nursery!

We’ve gone a little crazy with new fig varieties as of late. The list of stock plants is a bit dizzying, but we’ll be releasing some this year that we’ve been trialing for years and we are very excited for you all to try them in your gardens. Big Steve has potted up so many this year that he’s seeing figs in his dreams now. Perhaps it’s proof that it’s time to shift our focus to a new species.

We’ve tracked down a handful of varieties besides just Panache that have variegated figs! Many of them ripen too late for our season, but the allure of their striped beauty is just too much! We have a good crop of Martinenca Rimada coming on, (not pictured above, that one is for a later date), and we’re hoping this early season heat we’re getting will allow the fruits to ripen outside of just the trees in the greenhouses.

Though the above variegation is most likely not stable, it’s still fun to see a slightly variegated leaf in the rows every now and then!

While we haven’t been able to travel internationally the past year and a half, we’ve had a great time seeking out plants all along the West Coast. In the “Wasp Zone” of California, wild fig seedlings pop up in drainages all over the northern part of the state. We’ve found some really incredible figs, and some not so edible caprifigs, and now we engage in the anticipatory torture of seeing if they will be parthenocarpic, or common, figs and produce in Oregon without the fig wasp to pollinate them. So far, results have been whole heartedly disappointing with most plants teasing us with tons of developing fruits only to drop them after many weeks. Ugh…. We’ll keep trying though. One of the good ones has got to be common!

Keep an eye out for these as well as many new varieties of pomegranates, olives, citrus and a whole smorgasbord of plants we’ve never sold before but have long been favorites in our gardens. It’s a big old green world out there and we’ll be doing our best to bring as many of our favorite plants as we can to you all this summer. Thank you for all the support and we hope to see you soon!

The post Looking back on spring ’21 appeared first on One Green World.

While we often look towards analog climates the world over as a source for new plant material there is an astonishing amount of diversity to be found right in our own backyards! Wild seedlings with interesting characteristics, undervalued natives, unique hybrids and old homestead trees provide a treasure chest of new plant material for those willing to ramble around a bit and search them out. 

Thankfully for us we have the majestic Siskiyou Mountains in all their botanical glory just a half day’s drive from Portland! This area has long been a source for endemic species, subspecies and wild hybrids but we’ve yet to fully utilize the horticultural potential that lies within this magical area. 

Darlingtonia californica, also known as California Pitcher Plant or Cobra Lily is a native carnivorous plant! Growing in boggy, usually acidic, nutrient poor soils it gets much of its nitrogen from digesting insects that fall down its slippery cobra throat! It always gives us a thrill to see this one in the wild!

Notholithocarpus densiflorus var. echinoides, otherwise known as the Dwarf Blue Tanoak offers some of the most stunning blue foliage you might ever come across. We have a real soft spot in our hearts for this one! New growth emerges a bright and fuzzy pinkish blue before settling to the gorgeous gold you see above and eventually easing into a stunning powdery blue. Gorgeous!

Especially in the late afternoon sun and with the golden seeds ripening the whole plant looks like it is glowing! 

And don’t forget about the view from below! A soft whitish blue that looks like the underside of a guava leaf adds amazing texture to this already stunning shrub. Unlike the more common tree form of tanoak these little dwarf blue tanoaks only get 3 or 4 feet tall and are excellent plants for harboring wildlife of all kinds. Requires very coarse, well draining soil and little to no water once established. Growing on nutrient deficient serpentine soils these plants are tough as can be! A natural fit for parking strips all over the Northwest!

Chrysolepis chrysophylla, the Golden Chinkapin! Few native trees can match the Golden Chinkapin’s golden beauty but don’t let its looks fool you. The Chinkapin nuts are also some of the most delicious wild foraged nuts you might ever taste, if you can beat the jays to them! Tasting like a sweet caramel chestnut, the Golden Chinkapin is the top food source for just about every mammal in the area. It is unfortunately quite difficult to cultivate in a garden setting but that hasn’t stopped us and many others from trying.

Siskiyou Mountain Magic!

Something about the Siskiyous, maybe it’s all the drought and high heat, turns the leaves of so many of our favorite plants just a shade bluer than you usually find them. Though certainly not the most blue form of Evergreen Huckleberry, we thought this one was quite cute.

Old abandoned orchards on mountain roads are always a good find! As if we need any more mystery figs in our lives! But we just couldn’t help but take a few cuttings off these 3 giant old trees.

Currus neglectus

Wild plums are one of our favorite summer treats and this one was one of the best we’ve ever had! Surely a seedling of an improved Japanese or European variety these were one of my favorite plums of the summer! Growing along the Siskiyou River, our good man Evan Short who owns Southern Oregon Bokashi pointed this tree out. That guy lives the good life. Thanks Evan!

And then as we get a ways into California some real fig fun begins! As you come into the areas where the fig wasp (Blastophaga psenes) has naturalized, seedling figs begin to pop up along waterways, next to lakes, in old drainage ditches, all over the place!

We discovered this wild seedling fig growing out of the rocks near Whiskeytown while taking a quick dip a few summers back. Naturally we took a couple cuttings off of it because the leaf shape alone was so unique and beautiful. It wasn’t until this summer that we finally got to taste some fruits off of it!

And ooooh boy was it tasty! Incredibly sugary sweet, and not even at the full peak of its ripeness yet! Our original cuttings off this plant are still too young to be fruiting so we took some of the fruits home with us so we could sow the seeds and see if the fruits were indeed caprified by the fig wasp.

And just as we were getting over the excitement of finally tasting the fruit off that tree, we found another one! Just a half mile down the road!

This one even bigger, and quite likely the mother to our other beloved wild fig. It was along a very rocky stretch next to the highway so we had to swim along the shore to get to it.

And thank goodness we did! This tree was absolutely loaded with figs at peak ripeness! We picked as many as we could get back to the car and ate figs until our bodies told us to stop! 

The few figs that finally made it back to the nursery were our crew’s favorite figs of the entire year! Now the caprification might have a large part to play in that, as it is said that caprified figs are far tastier than common or San Pedro figs, so we saved a bunch of the seeds to see if they were viable.

And it turns out they are viable seeds! We now have hundreds of seedling figs coming up in the greenhouses. Which only adds to the mystery of if these trees will perform well up here in Oregon with less heat and no fig wasps to pollinate them. We’re crossing our fingers that they’re common figs and at least half as tasty as we remember them being. Only time will tell!

The post Summer 2019 Plant Explorations appeared first on One Green World.

Join us on a little photo journey of our summer to see what we’ve been up to and what fun new plants might be on the way in the future!

While we are very happy to have some lovely new neighbors we’re not as excited about looking at the 3-story tall structures where a row of trees used to be. Thankfully we love making diversified beautiful hedges so we reached deep into our bag of plant tricks and sought out the fastest growing evergreen trees suited for our climate. Thankfully these houses were built to the north of us so the entire length of fence is a perfectly toasty full sun microclimate with reflected heat for our young trees to take off! 

Also known as the Omeo Gum, Eucalyptus neglecta is one of the most bomb-proof eucalypts that can be grown in the Pacific Northwest. We are in a particularly cold and windy pocket of deep southeast Portland so we took the advice of longtime eucalyptus growers in our region when selecting species for this hedge. We planted this one out as a little one gallon pot in March, turned our back on it for a couple months and next thing we knew it was 5 feet tall! There’s nothing like the instant satisfaction that eucalyptus gives, not to mention the fragrance that will be filling the air as you enter the nursery now!

While we only had room for 3 or 4 eucalyptus trees around the nursery, the research endeavor of finding seeds of the most hardy varieties for our area and the incredible amount of research done by other nurseries and plant folks in the region inspired us to revamp our eucalyptus selection for summertime. We’re very excited about these incredibly fast growing, gorgeous, fragrant and evergreen Australian natives!

Aside from Eucalyptus we also incorporated the ever-finnicky Pacific Madrone (seen below). Though this is one of our most gorgeous native trees it is rarely seen around town because of its habit of being incredibly difficult to transplant. The folks down at Seven Oaks Native Nursery were even apprehensive to sell them to us because they have such a reliable habit of dying during the first summer. The trick seems to be getting them planted in winter, planting them in very gravelly coarse soil in full sun and giving them very little to no water throughout the first year and for the remainder of their lives. A lot of work and a big risk, so we planted out extra assuming we’d lose many or most of them. 

Maybe it was a stroke of luck, the right conditions and an especially mild summer but nearly all of our madrones have made it through the heat of the summer!!! It’s very possible they might give up the ghost in future years, but for now we’re just excited that this vastly underrepresented species has a home at our nursery!

Above is one happy looking Pacific Madrone tree planted even earlier in the winter than the others. It’s really taking off and loving life next to the nitrogen-fixing and equally drought-adapted Midnight Magic Ceanothus!

Other evergreen hedge species include the Emory Oak of the southwest! Perhaps the best tasting of any Quercus species, the acorns of the Emory Oak are not only lacking in tannins but they actually have a caramel sweetness to them! Typically thought to not be hardy here, we are trialing seedlings that our friend Sean Hogan brought back from a high elevation location that frequently receives very hard frosts. We’re crossing our fingers on this one and anxious to taste the delicious acorns from them.

The ever beloved Silver Oak, Quercus hypoleucoides, also from the American Southwest. This species is a tried and true street and garden tree here in Portland and we can’t get enough of them! Very fast growing, this tree was just 3 feet tall in a 2 gallon pot when we planted it.

 A hybrid of Strawberry Tree, Arbutus unedo, and the Marina Madrone, we’re hoping this hybrid discovered by Cistus Nursery proves hardy here as it seems to have a lot of the characteristics of Marina!

The builder next door was gracious enough to let us choose all the plants going in to the new development so naturally we planted all evergreen Cork Oaks and Holly Oaks along their side of the fence as a second layer of visual screening. Pineapple guavas, mulberries, huckleberries, figs, bottlebrush and Hebe’s fill in the rest of the landscape so the new tenants will have plenty of fruits to snack on!

Next, we will show you some progress pictures and tell you some of the staff’s nicknames that our Nursery Manager “Seaberry Sam” made up to keep everyone light-hearted and having fun while they work.

Other gardens built around the nursery this year include this “Kind of Blue” garden planted out by our very own “Stormo Johnson” seen below.

This garden consists of ‘Native Blue’ and ‘Sweetheart’ blueberries along the border, both of which have very blue or tinted blue foliage along with other very blue or silvery plants such as Quicksilver Hebe, Sunshine Daisy Bush and various California fuschias. An O’Rourke Fig sits at the middle of it all along with a Chilean and New Zealand wineberry hybrid known as ‘Abigail Gordon’ that we are very excited about! An ‘Advance’ Loquat relishes in the reflected heat off the house, a couple Tasmanian Mountain Peppers mark the entrance and a ‘Louis Edmunds’ Manzanita stands at the edge to show off its bark and keep our spirits high and hummingbirds fed with its late winter flowers!

The next garden to be built was a former bare-root storage sawdust pile and now future outdoor classroom! After all the sawdust was moved our crew got to work grading the lumpy soil out. One huge advantage of having it under weed mat for the past 2 years is when we uncovered the soil there were no weeds as they’d all been killed. There’s nothing we love more than a blank slate for planting a new garden in!

To create the feel of an outdoor room we planted the space very densely and filled it with some of our favorite new cultivars as well as many evergreen companion plants that will fill in to create a wall of green to enclose our new event and classroom space. Plants for this garden include Big Jim and Argelino Loquats, Hative D’Argentile, Black Madeira and LSU Tiger figs, a Kalamata Olive (hopefully hardy!), Nazametz Pineapple Guava, Crimson Sky Pomegranate, the New Zealand Wineberry, Chilean Wineberry, and a few wineberry hybrids. We also added companion plants such as Alpine Mint Bush, ‘Sunningdale Gold’ Jerusalem Sage, Variegated Thyme, Silver Lotus Clover, various forms of Olearia, Pittosporum, Corokia and Leptospermum for that Southern Hemisphere texture, an interesting Chilean tea plant known as Boldo (Peumus boldus), a gorgeous form of variegated Bay Tree called ‘Sicilian Sunshine’, Mediterranean Myrtles (Myrtus communis), and a few Grevilleas to provide nectar and habitat for overwintering hummingbirds that we hope will pollinate our loquats!

We’ve also been re-routing our irrigation runoff to a rain garden at the end of the driveway. After channeling our little river towards the water-loving plants we jackhammered and dug out a truckload of concrete that the previous owners had buried underground. Removing all that impervious concrete has really helped the water penetrate and now the Brazilian Gunnera, Aronia, Juncus grasses, willows, and Windmill Palms will be able to sink their roots deep and turn all that runoff water into plant tissues! Wahoo!

Aside from sprucing up the nursery and keeping everything watered the primary task in summer is potting up thousands of plants for fall and spring!

One of the best parts of summer at the nursery is tasting all the fruit that is constantly ripening around the nursery! A new fig we’re trialing called Ronde de Bourdeaux ripens its main crop starting in August, extremely early for a main crop and incredibly delicous too! We’re looking forward to incorporating Ronde de Bourdeaux into our catalog in the near future. It’s delicious and cute!

Saved the best for last!

Meet our newest staff member, office support and nursery cat “Jasper Persimmons”!

The End! And now we head into the fall harvest and cooler planting weather. Hope you enjoyed this fun tour of our Summer 2019 projects and unique plantings.

Up Next is our annual Fig Festival

Locals can join us for our most popular event – It’s all about Figs!

September 22 @ 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

The post Nursery Happenings Summer of 2019 appeared first on One Green World.

Adaptation in the Age of Warming

 As gardeners and nursery workers we have a keen eye on what we can expect from our local climate and what kind of weather we get in a season. While weather is constantly fluctuating our climate was historically thought to be relatively stable on a human time scale. Up until the Industrial Revolution we were in a relatively cozy and somewhat predictable interglacial period. The climate certainly fluctuated to some degree with the earth’s constant wobble on its axis and its predictable Milankovitch cycles. But not until incredibly recently was the earth’s climate sent on such a radically new course with over 400 parts per million carbon dioxide now in our atmosphere! The likes of which haven’t been seen for over 3 million years at a time when the earth’s temperature was on average 3-5°F warmer than today’s climate and oceans were 50-80 feet higher.

What we are heading towards, even if we reduced all greenhouse gas emissions to zero tomorrow, is a climate that we as a species have never seen before. And while we certainly believe that every effort should be made to halt these emissions as much as possible and sequester greenhouse gases as quickly as possible, irreversible climate change is already upon us and we have no choice at this point and even more so in the future but to adapt to whatever this new climate may have in store for us. 

As horticulturists, gardeners, designers, nursery owners, farmers, and botanists we have a unique duty and perspective on the climate challenge facing us because of our intimacy with the botanical world. As plants have historically shifted with earth’s glaciaciation and warming events in the past so they will again during this drastic time of climate chaos. The primary difference now being that their habitats have been fragmented or completely destroyed and the genetic diversity with which they might adapt to such radical changes has plummeted. This leaves us an extraordinarily challenging and unique set of tools with which to adapt to our already changing climate. 

Looking to analog climates

Forward thinking ecologists, farmers and permaculture designers have for decades been considering this conundrum of how we might adapt to this new climate, and have often looked to climates just a few degrees south in latitude for botanical tools that might be useful and well adapted to the climatic conditions we are beginning to face. We’ve seen the USDA Hardiness Zones shifting to the north over the past few decades and it is predicted that this movement will continue.

Though it should be noted that hardiness zone maps only tell you the average minimum temperatures you could expect in a given climate. A simple shift north in growing conditions might seem desirable, especially to those folks in the deep cold north, but a carbon charged climate is less predictable, more prone to extreme weather, heavy rainfall, heat waves, floods, heavy snowfall, record breaking frosts, and generally extreme conditions. When looking for plant species and varietals that might prove resilient in future climate scenarios we must look for those that are both more heat and drought tolerant as well as those that can handle record cold and precipitation.

This is a research endeavor that greatly excites us and one that we are constantly working on. For many years now we’ve been trialing plants from climates all over the globe that are similar to ours or similar to what is predicted for our future climate. No-brainers for us in the Willamette Valley include the incredibly rich diversity of the California Floristic Provence as well as plants from Mediterranean climates around the globe. Through the hard work of many a dedicated plant explorer we’ve discovered an astonishing plethora of species and varietals that thrive here in western Oregon.

Adapting to the climate we’ve left behind

And while we are looking to adapt and factor in botanical resilience to our farms, gardens, cities, and ecosystems of the future we also must realize that we aren’t particularly well adapted to the stable climate system we are leaving behind. The rapid loss of biodiversity, reliance on giant mono cultures, global deforestation and erosion of the continent’s top soils, to name a few, already had us in hot water. The compounding effects of climate chaos will only put more pressure on us to adapt to what comes next. 

On a recent bike ride through our verdant city this summer this dilemma was clearly showcased in the dying groves of birches, maples, and elms all over town. New England tree species dominate our city’s canopy and to this day much of the Northwest’s nursery industry. The nursery industry has for many decades grown these ill-adapted exotic species for shipment to the east coast and unfortunately our city streets, suburban neighborhoods and even rural hedgerows have been filled with them and are now succumbing to the heat and drought of the last few years. Perhaps from a lack of creativity but more likely a misunderstanding of our wet mild winter, dry summer climate we’ve set much of our cultivated overstory up for failure and fragility, especially in the face of a changing climate. 

But before we go too far down the doom and gloom path of the climate apocalypse we must look at the brilliant multitude of solutions that are currently at our fingertips!

Pandora’s Botanical Box is open!

Consider the potency of the time we are in. At the same time global biodiversity is plummeting at a rate akin to a mass extinction event we also have access to more plant diversity than ever before. Through the wonders of planetary interconnectedness via the World Wide Web and global air travel we now have access to a horticultural diversity that was previously only accessible to the queen of England via her many botanical explorers! With the click of a button we can have plants or seeds delivered from around the world. Global food crops and useful plants in general are now more accessible than at any point in human history. In the geologic blink of an eye we’ve gone from cultivating the first human food crops to cataloging millions of species globally and making them accessible through various seed banks, nurseries, governmental germplasm respositories, free scion exchanges and internet trade. This fact is utterly astounding and while the ecological outlook may be dark, the tools for solving these problems have never been more accessible. 

Short-term adaptation versus long-term

The various climate scenarios that are painted by the IPCC often seem daunting and sometimes even hard to imagine. Desertification along the equator, the poles turning tropical, and oceans swallowing up significant amounts of land are just a few of the distant views that are discussed when we look to what a deep future climate scenario might look like. But what about for right now? What plants can we be planting this summer or next spring that are better adapted and more resilient in an already changing climate?

Heat lovers

June and July of 2019 saw the hottest global temperatures in recorded history which makes us think that it might be a good idea to begin planting more heat loving crops. In the immediate future we’re focusing on more heat tolerant or heat loving varieties within species that we’re already growing. Some of these are already available while others will require extensive breeding work. Many blueberry farmers are transitioning from Northern to Southern Highbush blueberries for this exact reason. Low chill varieties of apples and pears are making their way into orchards in places where winters are becoming increasingly mild and not providing the amount of chill hours they had in the past and heat loving crops that were not seen as viable are now proving fruitful. In the northwest these include figs, persimmons, olives, pomegranates, pineapple guava, cold hardy citrus and jujubes!

On a recent project on Sauvie Island we added some resilience and interest to an old stone fruit orchard by planting a new orchard of figs, olives, persimmons, pineapple guavas, loquats, Yuzu Ichandrin hardy citrus, and pomegranates. It is farmers like these who will not only be better adapted to our increasingly hot summers but also already have a niche carved out for their unique produce and firsthand experience on which varietals work best for their property.

Here at One Green World (the nursery) as we were planting out a new garden space full of new varieties of olives, figs, pineapple guavas and persimmons this last week, all heat loving plants, we decried, “If the world goes down in flames, we’re going to go down planting!”

Urban forestry and the non-edible landscape

In conjunction with our needs for various landscaping projects we’ve begun focusing on climate adapted plants that much more closely resemble what has traditionally been the California plant palate, with species such as cork oak, holly oak, manzanitas, ceanothus, grevillea, eucalyptus, and yucca. While not all varieties are hardy enough for our northern climate there are an incredible amount that absolutely love it here and are proving far more climate appropriate and easier to grow than the rhododendrons, maples and azaleas that have long dominated Northwest landscapes. While not always edible these plants have multitude of other useful and ecological attributes and if we wish to sequester carbon in this warming world we will need as many woody species as possible to turn that atmospheric carbon into trunk, branch and leaf based carbon around our homes, cities, farmlands, and at some point our rewilding efforts will likely rely on introducing new species for we cannot restore a habitat that no longer exists with the same pieces it was previously assembled from.

Climate Pioneers

What we are heading towards is unprecedented in human history and while we gather as much information and as many tools as we can we are ultimately heading for a climate situation that will be very difficult to plan for and require extreme adaptation if we wish to carry this human experiment forward. While we may look to our southern neighbors for a hint of what is to come the truth is we may be heading towards a novel climate that is unlike anything seen in earth’s geologic history. Combine the quick rise in atmospheric carbon with the anthropocentric planet we’ve created and you have a recipe for ecological surprises at best and population collapses and even more severe global injustices at worst. 

The father of modern wildlife conservation Aldo Leopoldo said in his monumental Sand County Almanac, “to keep every cog and wheel is the first rule of intelligent tinkering.” He was referring to preserving the integrity of wild ecosystems by maintaining every species of plant and animal even if we don’t fully understand the interconnected relationships between them. And while Leopold’s world might be a thing of the past given the human imprint on even the most wild and “untouched” landscapes due to our greenhouse gas emissions, we might still hold on to that notion of keeping every cog and wheel, or at least as many as we possibly can. The machine we are trying to keep intact might eventually look like some Frankenstein steampunk assemblage of the planet’s biodiversity rather than the “pristine” American wilderness he envisioned but at this point it’s arguably all we got.

Other Sources

For more info on climate adaptation and brilliant solutions for a warming world check out:

Eric Toensmeier’s The Carbon Farming Solution: A Global Toolkit of Perennial Crops and Regenerative Agriculture Practices for Climate Change Mitigation and Food Security

Amy Seidl’s Finding Higher Ground: Adaptation in the Age of Warming

List of Heat Tolerant Plants

• Yuzu Citrus
• Southern Highbush Blueberry
• Fig Trees
• Persimmon Trees
• Jujube Trees
• Olive Trees
• Eucalyptus Trees
• Pineapple Guava
• Almond Trees
• Apricots Trees
• Pomegranate
• Mulberry
• Hazelnuts
• Grapes

The post Climate Adapted Gardens appeared first on One Green World.

Description

Origins: The Feijoa shrub is native to southern Brazil, northern Argentina, western Paraguay and Uruguay where it is common in the cool subtropical mountains below 3000’. The plant was introduced to Europe, New Zealand and the US around the early 1900s. 

Adaptive Climate: Feijoa can grow anywhere the temperatures do not fall below 15 degrees Fahrenheit. Growing best in temperate to sub-tropical regions with cool mild winters and moderate summers in the 80-90s. The minimum chill requirement is 50 days in order to get flowering. In California coastal areas especially around San Francisco, there is some commercial planting as well as it being commonly found in landscaping. Here in Portland, OR the climate is also perfect for these plants. We see the best fruit production in the south-facing position up against a hardscape or building here in the Pacific Northwest. 

Appearance: This evergreen shrub can easily reach heights of 12-15 ft. The top of the leaves are dark green and glossy. The underside of the leaf is fuzzy with a bright silver color. This tree is sometimes planted just for its attractiveness in the landscape. When planted close together they make a perfect edible privacy hedgerow and function as a dense windbreak. Birds love to nest in the branches too! The wood is very dense but small branches easily snap because of its brittle nature. Untouched the natural form of Feijoa is multibranched, however, it is possible to shape it as a single trunk. It is even possible to form an espaliered tree or make it reach 20+ feet tall. 

Flowers: Pineapple Guava flowers are stunning explosions of red with delicious edible pink to white sepals around the outside. It’s hard to describe the joy that a plant can provide not only for its fruit but also its flowers. This plant is incredible for just that reason. When the flowers come on in the spring the bush becomes a show of fireworks. The bush is literally covered in red, white on the backdrop of green leaves. The white edible sepals are thick marshmallow-like pillows of sweet melt in your mouth cotton candy. The smell and fragrance are beyond comparison but it is very much a preview of the smell of the fruit. It is best to hand pollinate the flowers while snacking on the sepals. 

Management

Pollination: The bi-sexual flowers are often self-incompatible so you must plant two or more named types together in order to get cross-pollination. Seedlings are also good as pollinators. It is thought that birds are the native pollinators, coming in to eat the sweet sepals we described above, but bees also do a good job too. The absolute best way though is to hand pollinate some of the flowers and ensure you get fruit. There are also self-fertile cultivars like Coolidge and Apollo. 

Feeding: Pineapple Guavas are heavy feeders and require good compost mulch and regular addition of a balanced fertilizer in order to maintain production and replenish nutrients. Mulching ensures that the shallow roots are protected as well. 

Location: Choose a site that is protected from wind and temperatures over 100 degrees. Make sure the site is well-drained with ½ day to full-day sunlight. 

Soil: Feijoas prefer sandy loam, well-draining soil with lots of organic matter. You can grow them in clay soils too so long as they are not saturated in the winter. Again adding compost to the soil is definitely recommended. pH should be around 6 – 6.5 on the scale.

Irrigation: While Feijoa is drought tolerant it must be watered in to get established. After about 3 years it can survive the dry summers of Oregon without irrigation. However, if you want to eat delicious fruit- which we know you do, then deep weekly watering during flowering through fruit formation is critical. If the plant perceives stress it will abort the fruit and diminish the yield.

Pruning: In commercial production, the plant is pruned into a single leader with the inverted umbrella shape and an open center. Although it is not necessary to prune in this fashion or even at all the idea is to get light and air penetrating into the canopy in order to ripen fruit. Be careful not to prune too much in the summer and avoid sunburned fruit. Some people prefer to hedge their plants which seems to work just fine and they still get a moderate amount of fruit. Some people find that they get too many fruits and can’t eat them all!! Yeah those people- you know who you are, just don’t forget to call us over so we can help you with that problem, okay?

Propagation: Pineapple Guava can be grown from seeds, cuttings, layering, and grafting. We use seeds, cuttings, and grafting in our production. Recently, we found grafting to be most successful achieving fruiting much sooner along with increased vigor. The downside to grafting is that one must watch for and remove root suckers. From seed, germination takes 3 weeks and about 4 years until fruiting. Cuttings from young wood taken in the fall root in 2 months with bottom heat and misting. 

Spacing: This depends on your situation but if you are planning an orchard the spacing should be about 8-10 feet apart with at least 15 feet between the rows. At home or in the landscape you can plant them closer and in hedgerows, we have seen them as close as 5 feet apart. 

Pest & Diseases: None to speak of currently. There is always the threat of new invasive insects like the spotted wing fruit fly, and moths causing fruit damage. 

Harvesting

This is the best part! All that work you did hand-pollinating is going to pay off now. So, depending on where you live and the season, the fruit ripens at different times and in stages over a few weeks to a month. The best way to pick them is by not picking them at all actually. If you have some way to put a net, tarp or cloth down and shake the tree you get the sweetest fruit to fall. If you decide you can’t wait to let them fall then pick them by touch. The mature fruit should be soft to the touch. You can let the mature fruit ripen fully on the counter. They can be stored in the fridge but the quality declines quickly within a couple of weeks. 

Bruising is the main issue for fruit quality and probably the reason why you don’t see this fruit offered much in the US. However, in New Zealand, the fruit has reached super-fruit status and is found in every supermarket and farmers market in the country during the fall season. During the rest of the year, the Kiwis enjoy a whole range of products made with Feijoa. The favorites being freeze-dried, juice, smoothies, and a unique and fragrant sparkling wine. But they even have breakfast cereals made with Feijoa fruits!

Our favorite way to eat them is fresh right after they have fallen. A fallen Pineapple Guava has a very limited shelf life- maybe only a few days, which means you must eat them right away, share them or process them into something yummy. The technique we share to eating & processing them is to cut an end off just deep enough to reveal the clear jelly-like center and then use a spoon to scoop out the pulp. Be sure to run the spoon as close as you can to the skin. The extracted pulp is like a desert but the skin can be eaten or used to too. Some people like to make jams and jellies from the fruit or even just the skins when boiled down and sweetener is added. All this talk about the fruit is making my mouth water! Some thin-skinned cultivars like Apollo and Nikita can be enjoyed when eaten whole. However, in most of the varieties the skin is often tannic and tart sometimes with little stone-like granules that need to be cooked to dissolve.

Cultivars

Coolidge – One the best varieties for Northwest gardeners, this early-ripening, self-fertile variety bears good crops of very large, dark green, tasty fruit.

Nikita – We found this attractive variety at the Nikita Botanic Garden in Yalta, Ukraine. Among the earliest to ripen, it is prized for its tasty fruit and its compact growth habit.

Apollo – Apollo has medium to large, oval fruit with smooth, thin, light-green skin and a blue-green surface bloom. Pulp well-developed, slightly gritty. Flavor very pleasant, quality excellent. Ripens mid to late-season. Tree upright and spreading, to 8 ft. tall, vigorous and productive. Self-fertile, and will pollinate our other varieties!

Mammoth – As its name implies, Mammoth Pineapple Guava is a very large fruit, in fact, it is the largest of all our varieties. Sweet and flavorful, Mammoth is also early ripening. Plant with another variety or seedling for cross-pollination.

Robert – A valuable, self-fertile, New Zealand variety, Robert is prized for its profuse flowers, large flavorful fruit, and compact growth habit.

And more to come in the future. At the time of this writing, we are growing Edenvale Improved Coolidge and Nemetz Pineapple Guava for cuttings to be used in future production.

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Cultivation: In its natural habitat you will find Wasabi growing on the shaded wet banks of cold mountain streams. When grown in a home garden Wasabi does best in full shade with steady temperatures between 50-60°F, although the Daruma variety is slightly more tolerant of heat and light. Temperatures below 40°F may slow growth and temperatures below 27°F can kill the entire plant. Temperatures above 80°F can begin to cause heat damage as well as increase the risk of pests and disease. So take this into consideration when selecting a planting site for your Wasabi. The most important tips to follow are providing year-round shade and plenty of summer watering.

Choose a well-drained location with sufficient organic matter. If you’re planting in a pot the container size should be 10 inches or larger (a 2.5-gallon minimum). Work in 10-12 inches of compost to a soil depth of 8-10 inches. Wasabi requires a neutral or slightly acidic soil pH of 6-7. Plant your start only deep enough to keep it upright. Being sure that all of the roots are covered, backfill the hole and gently press into place. Do not cover the rhizome, it needs to be exposed above the surface. Wasabi plants can reach 24 inches in height, so space plants at least 12 inches apart. Water well, but do not let the plant sit in drainage water. After initial planting irrigate regularly with cool water. Mist as necessary to keep plants cool and to avoid wilted leaves. Mulch may increase moisture retention, which will be especially beneficial during warmer months.

Leaves that have been wilted for a week or more should be removed to deter pests and lower the risk of disease. Keep the planting bed or containers weed free and fertilize regularly with a balanced, all-purpose fertilizer. Fertilizers or foliar sprays rich in sulfur may improve the flavor of the rhizome.

Pests and Diseases: Wasabi is a member of the Brassica family. Pests and diseases of this family include aphids, cabbage, and alfalfa looper larva, crane fly larva, and slugs. The best defense against pests and disease is to maintain the cool temperatures and stable irrigation wasabi prefers. Pruning wilted or diseased foliage, hand removal of slugs or use of slug bait, and removal of aphids and other pests are beneficial to the plant’s health. Use caution when using any insecticidal soap or any other insecticides. If any fungal disease is detected it is recommended to remove the plant away from all others to try treating it, or dispose of the plant entirely. Copper spray can be useful in the presence of any fungal complications.

Harvesting: If conditions are optimal, within 24-36 months from the initial planting, you may harvest a four-inch or larger rhizome. In the meantime, you may harvest the petioles (leaf stems), leaves and flowers that bloom in the early spring. All parts of the plant are edible. However, overharvest of leaves can lead to slower rhizome growth.

The whole wasabi plant is edible. Enjoy harvesting and eating the leaves and leaf stems raw or cooked while you wait for your rhizome to grow! When your rhizome is ready to harvest it is recommended to hand dig the plant out of the ground or pot. You can then remove the plantlets that have formed around the crown to be potted or planted and expand your wasabi crop. Trim away the roots and stems and enjoy your fresh wasabi.

Shop Wasabi plants

Read more details about growing Wasabi in this WSU publication Growing Wasabi in the PNW

The post Wasabi Growing Guide appeared first on One Green World.

Summer Fruits have arrived at One Green World.  We’ve received a few calls from people telling us their seaberries are already ripening!! This year’s warm spring and hot summer is making it an early harvest for quite a few fruits. In fact, some people are already enjoying apples and we were eating chardonnay grapes at the nursery yesterday! Figs are looking and tasting great. Plums are juicy and delicious. Early and mid season blueberries have been fun to snack on. Pears are starting to ripen, and we’ve already enjoyed amazing crops from raspberries, currants,gooseberries, mulberries and much more. What’s better than growing your own fruit and getting to taste it fresh off the plant?! Asimina triloba- Pawpaw This photo was taken on June 30th during my bike ride home in a SE Portland, Oregon. The owner spotted me spying on his trees and took me on a tour of his garden. It was nice to find out that most everything was from One Green World.

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Yacon

Yacon is quickly becoming the most popular of these ancient root crops as it is very easy to grow and produces abundant crops of gigantic delicious tubers. Although they look just like a sweet potato their taste is closer to a water chestnut, apple, pear, or celery. They can be eaten fresh, baked, or even cooked down and turned into a Yacon molasses. Yacon is very high in inulin and is now being used to help treat type II diabetes. The plant gets 4-5 feet high and is typically harvested after the first frost in the Fall.

Mashua

Mashua will look familiar to many gardeners, as it is actually a nasturtium that produces deliciously spicy edible tubers. Give this vine something to climb up and enjoy its beautiful edible flowers all summer long followed by a Fall harvest of its unique and beautiful tubers that taste similar to nasturtium flowers. These can be cooked and eaten on their own or added to a potato dish to give it a spicy kick. Mashua has also been used in South American gardens to keep out rodents that are deterred by the spiciness of the tuber.

We also have many new varieties of Oca that come in a dazzling array of different colors, from creamy white to bright yellow to sunset red. You will recognize the leaves of oca as being very similar to its close cousin, the common sorrel plant. These easy to grow tubers are perfect for adding some diversity to your garden and kitchen and are great for the gardener who doesn’t want to worry about any pests or diseases plaguing their crops. The crowns of Yacon and the tubers of Oca and Mashua can be stored for the winter and planted out again in the Spring just like a potato. Plant them this season and enjoy the unique taste of the Andes for years to come. We look forward to these amazing plants becoming a staple in gardens and farms across the country.

Available for purchase now:

• Yacón
• Mashua
• Oca

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