Plump Plants

Did you know that Romeo and Juliet are Canadian? And from Saskatchewan, no less. These two might be lesser known than their Italian namesakes from fair Verona, but they deserve our applause as well.  The Romeo and Juliet dwarf sour cherry (Prunus cerasus x Prunus fruiticosa) are part of the Romance series that was released by the University of Saskatchewan in 2004, after 60+ years of research and development. The other varieties in the series are Cupid, Valentine, and Crimson Passion. What makes them so special? They’re cold hardy to zone 2. They’re sweet and tart and great for fresh...

My first introduction to the persimmon was as a teacher in South Korea. All of a sudden one day my local grocery store was full of gift boxes featuring what looked like hard orange tomatoes.  What could they be?  I asked my coworkers what was going on, and found out that it was persimmon season. The fruit is a popular gift during the national holiday, Chuseok, hence the elaborate gift wrapping. The persimmon fruit is technically a berry, and grows on a small-ish tree. The shape and size differs from variety to variety and a persimmon can be round and...

Can you think of a major city named after a fruit? Bananaville? Melontown?  How about Saskatoon?  That’s right—the Paris of the prairies is named for the Saskatoon berry, which comes from the plant’s Cree name, “misâskwatômina.” It’s a pretty big accomplishment for a pretty small berry. DESCRIPTION Sitting in my Saskatoon berry patch, I feel transported to the windswept plains of the prairies. The small berries are like purple jewels in a landscape where native fruit is scarce.  I’m not the only animal that likes to eat Saskatoon berries (Amelanchier alnifolia)—they’re attractive to smaller critters like squirrels and chipmunks, birds,...

Sea buckthorn shouldn’t be the northern edible darling that it is. It’s got huge thorns. The berries are so tart they’re almost inedible. It’s impossible to harvest other than painstakingly by hand (although there’s a trick I’ll get into later). It suckers like crazy and can overwhelm other plants if you’re not careful.   And yet, it’s all over permaculture, natural health, and northern growing blogs and websites. What gives? It’s no accident that sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) has the word THORN in it. The plant is technically a shrub, but it can grow to tree-like heights of 25 feet plus. The...

Sometimes I encounter a plant that has adapted so thoroughly to its native habitat that it blows my mind. The silver buffaloberry is one such specimen.  Other buffaloberry varieties propagate by layering (meaning the branches droop down and grow roots where they touch the ground). Silver buffaloberry (Shepherdia argentea) shrubs instead produce suckers underground. This means that they readily survive the wildfires that are a fixture in the prairie ecosystem. When a fire rips through, the plant that’s above ground gets burnt up leaving the healthy and robust root system below ground. Once the coast is clear, new shoots emerge and...

A wild raisin might sound like a shrivelled old grape you stumble across on the forest floor, but it’s not. It’s a whole plant! And it’s native to Ontario. The wild raisin (Viburnum nudum var. cassinoides) is similar to its viburnum cousin, the nannyberry, but distinct in a few ways. You can tell the difference based on the shape of the leaf, and the size of the drupe/seed. Not that it’s a huge deal since both are edible—this isn’t one of those plant identification nightmares where one type is delicious, the other spells certain death and there’s almost no way...