St Lawrence Nursery News

[greyphase]

http://www.sln.potsdam.ny.us/

Click on the "Our 2015 catalog" line to read about their retirement and plans for the nursery. The nursery "may" be carried on by younger persons but there may be a year or two gap in availability of trees. Some may what to rethink their orders for next spring.

 

[Maya]

Hmm, I'm just 3 hours drive!

 

[chummer]

I am 3 hours too. I hope if they have a going out of business sale we hear about it. With no real website it is hard to get info from them.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Let me add my voice to the crying. SLN has been a SUPER place to deal with !!! I'll be buying whatever I can get from them before they retire. I love their trees, the hardiness of the stock, the advice, the catalogs, - everything. I'm bummed-out over the closing. I HOPE the younger folks taking over will keep the same program as the MacKentleys have had. If they don't, we'll all be losing a HELLUVA good tree source.

 

[bueller]

Sad news. I've got some pears growing that I purchased from them in recent years. I've been holding off on ordering more until I see what these trees look like with some years on them. The people at SLN were always great to deal with.

 

[chummer]

Happy to see the catalog in the mail today!

 

[Maya]

Happy to see the catalog in the mail today!

Me too!

 

[greyphase]

I should never have looked at my SLN catalog. Now I'm "lusting" for a Douglas Wormless & a Brown Betty :eek::D.

 

[sandbur]

I have received 6 nursery catalogs in the last 4 mailing days. They sure know how to hit us during the middle of the winter when we have early signs of cabin fever.

 

[sandbur]

Does anyone have experience with Minnesota 1734?

Or have scion?

 

[Bowsnbucks]

No experience, Bur. But it's funny you should mention that apple. I was looking at that one too for adding to my order. Sounds pretty good.

 

[Maya]

Has anyone tried their chestnut trees?

 

[chummer]

Has anyone tried their chestnut trees?

I was wondering the same thing. I was going to order from coldstream for a lot cheaper but if these are nice size and roots I would go with them. Most of my coldstream order comes with one root per tree

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

I planted both Chestnut and MN 1734 on my land in Rusk County WI a couple years back, but I can't remember off the top of my head how they are doing. The trees in my main orchard plot are all doing great from SLN, but I planted a couple along a shooting lane and those trees didn't get as much sun and are pretty spindly looking. I believe that's where my MN 1734 is growing, but I'm not 100% sure. But I know they lived through last winter up there but they're not old enough to start dropping apples yet. I received the catalog yesterday as well and I was pretty excited. And since it could be their last year around, I have a reason to order way more trees than I should yet again.

I did notice that the pear trees I bought from them didn't do too well last winter. I had some pretty bad die back in both NW WI and behind my house in SE MN. The apples did great though, so from now on I'm staying with apples. The pears didn't seem to die completely since they grew some new shoots from the trunk this spring, but they had issues that I think are cold related that I didn't have with the apples from SLN.

I think this year I'm going to order a number of the odd russets and crabapples from SLN. I have enough variety that eventually I should have every drop date covered, but it would be nice to have some late dropping crabapples or apples that could be a bonus winter food source.

I planted a number of random blueberries, juneberries and shrubs from SLN, but they are also too young to produce yet. I'll probably order a couple random shrubs as well and I was looking at the mulberries as well but I'm really not sure how they would do up here. I've never heard of a wild MN mulberry, so I have doubts that they could survive up here but I could be wrong.

I really like SLN, so I'm disappointed they might be finished.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

I haven't seen any here either, but I do know they'll grow in zone 4b central WI from personal experience. I'd think SE MN would have some native red mulberry and would expect white mulberries to survive there as well.

I've got an IL Everbearing mulberry in the ground now...so we'll see if it survives this winter or not. I think I'll give the Northrop from SLN a shot next spring.

If you've had them grow in central WI, I'm sure they would do fine in my area of SE MN. I think I'll also order one from SLN and see what happens.

I have a book that lists every tree grown in MN, so I'll have to look up the Mulberry. I thought there were some growing along the Iowa border, but I'd have to look back at the book to be sure.

 

[CrazyEd]

What's everyones thoughts on White Mullberry. From a little reading it appears its more than an invasive, it's considered a restricted plant in the state of WI. Seems like Red Mulberry is the better option? I was going to probably pull the trigger on a couple of these but now i've decided I should probably just look for a good red variety.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

I looked at my Trees and Shrubs of Minnesota book and the white mulberry is native to China and has been in the southern 1/3 of MN for 100 years. It says that this tree does not seem to displace native trees, so it likely won't take over your woods. The red mulberry can become a large tree, reaching 80 feet in central Iowa. It grows naturally in forested floodplains. There are only two documented occurrences of native red mulberry in MN, both from Houston County (most extreme SE county of MN).

My book says each tree will bear either male or female flowers, so I'm assuming that means without one of each you won't get fruit. Anyone know if this assumption is accurate for the mulberries available through SLN?

 

[sandbur]

I looked at my Trees and Shrubs of Minnesota book and the white mulberry is native to China and has been in the southern 1/3 of MN for 100 years. It says that this tree does not seem to displace native trees, so it likely won't take over your woods. The red mulberry can become a large tree, reaching 80 feet in central Iowa. It grows naturally in forested floodplains. There are only two documented occurrences of native red mulberry in MN, both from Houston County (most extreme SE county of MN).

My book says each tree will bear either male or female flowers, so I'm assuming that means without one of each you won't get fruit. Anyone know if this assumption is accurate for the mulberries available through SLN?

I often use that book for reference, also. It sits by my 'puter with the apple information that I have gathered.

 

[Freeborn]

Has anybody had any luck communicating with SLN? I traded a couple emails with them back in mid December but now I can't seem to get a response from them.

 

[sandbur]

I called last year and lady recommended some apples based on my zone and general preferences.