Looking for some huckleberries......

sassyalice · #1 March 21st, 2009, 07:24 PM

.......In cutting form. I am willing to travel to retrieve a cutting. I live in Falkland B.c. Canada and have not been able to find any local stores that grow them. I Have a nice array of seeds for trade (Too many kinds to mention)

kwil19 · #2 May 3rd, 2009, 10:03 AM

My great uncle has many huckleberry bushes. I'm sure he'd let you have all you want. Of course, he is in north Louisiana.

sassyalice · #3 May 4th, 2009, 10:16 AM

Thanks so much, but I am in Canada and have to limit my travel a little lol. My husband wouldn't understand ha ha. But Thank You I wish I was closer.

**Vancouver Island** · #4 November 3rd, 2009, 09:31 PM

Vancouver Island is a great place to find huckleberry bushes. Two wild bushes that have been growing in my garden produced enough berries for two jars of jam. The jam is the most beautiful colour of red and the taste is fabulous.

We live between Qualicum Beach and Courtenay. The woods are full of them. Apparently huckleberry has never been hybridized and is not considered suitable for farming at this time according to a local garden centre. This is probably why it is not generally available. They appear to grow fairly slowly. Older plants can get woody. They grow well in the shade of cedars and other trees. I find them to be a very pretty small leaf shrub.

The evergreen huckleberry grow on Denman and Hornby Islands from what I understand. I am now looking for large plants here. Many of the forest have been clear cut in this area so much of the understory vegetation is left in the open. I have selected several plants from these sites and transplanted them to my garden.

By the way, where is Falkland BC?

sassyalice · #5 November 4th, 2009, 08:06 PM

In the okanagan, Not known for its huckles. I am from revelstoke and remember going huckle picking as a kid and I think I can get them to grow in my yard here if I could find them, Thank you for the tip

April S · #6 November 19th, 2009, 11:33 PM

I'm on Gabriola Island and have an abundance of huckleberries here, in fact, I call my property Huckleberry Cottage. There are both the deciduous and the evergreen huckleberry. I haven't actually used the berries, but get great pleasure from watching the birds enjoy them.

April

**Vancouver Island** · #7 Yesterday, 12:51 AM

Do try huckleberry jam. It is fabulous jam. They are slow growing, require moisture but good drainage, and shade. They have been growing in my garden for years but this is the first year I actually harvested enough to make jam from two large plants (two 8 oz jars). These are wild plants that came up in the garden and were allowed to grow.

We have acquired more plants from roadside areas. They are not available from garden centers. Apparently they are not considered a garden plant and have never been hybridized to improve the amount of fruit produced according to several garden centre reps. Plants we have collected are usually small (two to eight inches) roadside plants. These plants are bulldozed every four or five years as they reclaim the road from potholes and forest regrowth and most are destroyed during the process. It will be interesting to see just how productive these plants will be and how long it will take to reach the productive stage. There has been very little information on growing this native plant.

April S · #8 Yesterday, 09:09 PM

And both the evergreen and deciduous are just lovely. So okay! I'll try huckleberry jam next year. Thank you for the nudge!

April