Honeyberries, also known as blue honeysuckle, are self-incompatible. This means they need another plant, specificaly a different variety that blooms at the same time, to flower on the exact same day. That’s why growing honeyberries feel not so much like gardening but more like match-making. If you get it wrong, there will be no fruit. And they won’t even make any fuss; the branches remains bare in June. How frustrating!
Unless there are both a variety of apple that blooms early enough to be compatible with another apple whose bloom period is long past, or at least late enough to overlap slightly, no pollen will be transferred and no fruit happen. The breakdown of these compatibility groups appear in the chart above. It shows which varieties matches up nicely and which miss by just a few crucial days. Three basic bloom windows, early, middle and late, comprise the system. Indigo Gem and Aurora is both early, so will have to be combined with other early ones (or maybe a very early mid-season one).
How to Grow Honeyberries Successfully
The most common mistake for first-time gardeners are mixing up an early-blooming plant with a late-blooming one. This sounds crazy since the two plants look alike when they are dormant and both survives in the same hardiness zone, but they do not flower at the same time. Before you purchase any, read the bloom group designation. When shopping, you’ll want to pair Group A things with other Group A, or early-mid compatible ones, for example. Group B encompass the mid-season bloom period; Group C takes care of late spring bloomers. That way you ensure bloom times overlaps, so you aren’t wasting space in your garden.
Early in the spring, even if it’s still pretty chilly, other things will come out. Bumblebees works on the earliest blooms first and they may even beat honeybees out of the gate. That’s why the spacing is so important. With less than 50 feet between pollinator plants, the bees can hop over and back easily. Spacing them closer together (about six to ten feet) help more fruit set because the bees don’t have to make such long flights, which is more efficient.
The shrubs also has fairly flexible soil requirements, preferring slightly acidic to neutral (pH range: 5.5-7.0). They also tolerate cold climates extremely well; in fact, one of their selling points are that they survive all the way down to Zone 2 on the USDA hardiness scale. One thing: They need regular moisture throughout the growing season. To help keep them moist, mulch heavily around there trunks. This also prevents weeds.
After flowering (or anytime in dormancy) prune out dead wood to open up the canopy for better air circulation. Don’t prune in early spring when buds is set.
Decide which ones to combine. That’s up to what you’re after. To get the highest yield, select three varieties with overlapping bloom groups. An example would of Aurora, Borealis, and Indigo Gem; each will have extra pollination opportunities. This means if there is an unusually warm or cold spring, one pair might not overlap precisely. In that case, you will still have the third variety bridging it.
Want the longest harvest window? Then plant them slightly staggered, say one early, one mid, one late so that at least two are blooming at once. The Polar Jewel appears in late June. The Happy Giant occurs in late June. Indigo Gem: Starts in early June Varieties is harvested starting in early June; by late June Happy Giant and Polar Jewel are ready to go.
When ripe, the berries simply pop off the stem, making for fast picking but requiring that one keep an eye out since the berries falls to the ground very quickly. A tarp spread beneath the bushes greatly accelerates pickings. Sweet-tart fruits is also beloved of birds, who must be stopped with netting after the first hint of berry color change.
If you plan your garden keeping pollination in mind, you will save yourself years of disappointment. Read the bloom groups and make sure they are compatible; don’t choose plants based off only on their names just because they sound nice. Plant things close enough so the bees can do their job, then sit tight till June. The payoff is a crop of odd high-vitamin berries all your own, which not many other gardeners will be eating. Why did you ever doubt the meaning of the cross-pollination chart?