Seeking locations for wild berries
Posted: August 19th, 2019, 9:37 pm
Greetings and salutations,
I've been spending some of my summer looking for wild berries. I got this book called "Wild Berries of Washington and Oregon" by T. Abe Lloyd and it kind of inspired me. I'm looking for new and interesting fruit with which to make jam, syrups, etc. And I want to see if I can propagate these plants and grow them in my own garden. I think it's an interesting challenge and I could produce my own fruit and share the plants with other people.
But I can't really find them. The descriptions of their locations are usually general "grows in moist forests" and such. That's not very specific and I've been going all over hell looking for berries and not finding them. For example: I spent all day driving and walking around hunting for blue elderberries last week and only found some because someone on a trail told me where to look. I know they're out there. I just don't know where.
I was hoping some of the kind people here might have spotted these plants on their travels and could tell me where to find them. I want to get fruit and stem cuttings for propagation purposes. And I if I can find enough fruit to make a batch of jam even better. At the very least I would like to taste these things.
Home base is Oregon City.
I know the season is over for a lot of berries but at least some should be ripening now or soon. And some early summer berries may still be there at higher elevations (they seem about three weeks behind stuff at sea level).
Obviously I can't trespass on private property or harvest where it isn't allowed. I have no desire to dig up plants or damage the ecology.
I'll include the scientific names as well for the sake of precision.
I am hunting for: Salal (gaultheria shallon), currants and gooseberries (ribes genus), chokecherry (prunus virginiana), blue elderberry (sambucus cerulea), all huckleberries, cranberries, and blueberries (basically the entire vaccinium genus), smooth sumac (rhus glabra), wolfberry (lycium barbarum), honeysuckles (lonicera genus), netleaf hackberry (celtis laevigata), bunchbery (cornus unalalaschkensis), and black crowberry (empetrum nigrum). I'm open to suggestions for others, of course.
I think the season for thimbleberries, salmonberries, trailing blackberry, red elderberry and many others are done. Himalayan blackberries grow everywhere (incredibly invasive) and are easy to find.
I'll start by sharing myself: I was at Silver Falls state park today. In the South Falls day use area there is a ton of cutleaf blackberry but it isn't ripe yet. I estimate another two weeks. There is also some salal there (also not ripe yet) and earlier in the summer I found small amounts of red elderberry and thimbleberry. Salmonberry is all over the place there but we'll have to wait until next spring for those.
Thanks in advance.
I've been spending some of my summer looking for wild berries. I got this book called "Wild Berries of Washington and Oregon" by T. Abe Lloyd and it kind of inspired me. I'm looking for new and interesting fruit with which to make jam, syrups, etc. And I want to see if I can propagate these plants and grow them in my own garden. I think it's an interesting challenge and I could produce my own fruit and share the plants with other people.
But I can't really find them. The descriptions of their locations are usually general "grows in moist forests" and such. That's not very specific and I've been going all over hell looking for berries and not finding them. For example: I spent all day driving and walking around hunting for blue elderberries last week and only found some because someone on a trail told me where to look. I know they're out there. I just don't know where.
I was hoping some of the kind people here might have spotted these plants on their travels and could tell me where to find them. I want to get fruit and stem cuttings for propagation purposes. And I if I can find enough fruit to make a batch of jam even better. At the very least I would like to taste these things.
Home base is Oregon City.
I know the season is over for a lot of berries but at least some should be ripening now or soon. And some early summer berries may still be there at higher elevations (they seem about three weeks behind stuff at sea level).
Obviously I can't trespass on private property or harvest where it isn't allowed. I have no desire to dig up plants or damage the ecology.
I'll include the scientific names as well for the sake of precision.
I am hunting for: Salal (gaultheria shallon), currants and gooseberries (ribes genus), chokecherry (prunus virginiana), blue elderberry (sambucus cerulea), all huckleberries, cranberries, and blueberries (basically the entire vaccinium genus), smooth sumac (rhus glabra), wolfberry (lycium barbarum), honeysuckles (lonicera genus), netleaf hackberry (celtis laevigata), bunchbery (cornus unalalaschkensis), and black crowberry (empetrum nigrum). I'm open to suggestions for others, of course.
I think the season for thimbleberries, salmonberries, trailing blackberry, red elderberry and many others are done. Himalayan blackberries grow everywhere (incredibly invasive) and are easy to find.
I'll start by sharing myself: I was at Silver Falls state park today. In the South Falls day use area there is a ton of cutleaf blackberry but it isn't ripe yet. I estimate another two weeks. There is also some salal there (also not ripe yet) and earlier in the summer I found small amounts of red elderberry and thimbleberry. Salmonberry is all over the place there but we'll have to wait until next spring for those.
Thanks in advance.