Interested in planting something new this season? TreeTime.ca has you covered with different species and cultivars every year. We’ve rounded up a list of our new and returning favourites for 2018.
New Items
Korean Pine
These delicious oily nuts are often used in salads, roasts, pastas, and especially pesto. If you’re not feeling that nutty, Korean Pine also has dense branches and a nice conical shape. It can be used in landscaping or as a low maintenance ornamental.
Dahurian Birch
This tough tree is a treat for the eyes. Dahurian Birch is a fascinating ornamental with shaggy curling bark and lush leaves that turn gold in the fall. It can be planted by itself, or it can be used in landscaping and naturalization projects.
V3 Apple Rootstock
This dwarf species is a popular rootstock among orchard owners. Cold hardy and disease resistant, V3 performs best with staking and regular watering. Better yet, its size provides a naturally easy-to-pick height and a more efficient yield per square foot of space compared to other rootstocks.
However, if you don’t own an orchard, V3 is an attractive ornamental by itself. This tree produces gorgeous white and pink blossoms in the spring. While it is not typically grown for its fruit, V3 tree can produce small red apples.
If you follow us on Facebook you might remember us experimenting with bud grafting V3 Apple during the summer. Follow up with our other projects here!
Martin Saskatoon
This list would not be complete without mentioning berries. Saskatoon plants have been one of our top sold items for years, and we want to expand this category as much as possible. Martin Saskatoon is a hardy prairie plant. Its berries have a large size and a delicious taste, perfect for eating fresh, baking, and jamming. Orchard owners have reported that this cultivar has an apple-like aftertaste and is sweeter than Northline Saskatoon. This species has a consistent yield, making it great for both orchards and small gardens. For those looking for a unique hedge, some gardeners like to trim their Saskatoons into an edible hedge.
Black Cherry
TreeTime.ca’s list of cherry trees has expanded to make room for the Black Cherry. This delicious variety is a close relative of the Chokecherry. Excellent for fresh eating, its fruit can also be used to flavour rum, brandy, wine, and jelly.
Black Cherry is a very attractive and useful ornamental, however the leaves can poison livestock as they contain cyanide derivatives and precursors. With that being said, this tree is often used in land reclamation with little risks to wildlife. Many have noted that deer still seem to browse this tree with no problem. Birds and other animals can eat the fruit as well.
Beautiful and useful, Black Hawthorn is a popular hedge species with tiny white flowers and dense, multi-stemmed branches. This plant is also commonly used in shelterbelts. Valued for erosion control and attracting pollinators, Black Hawthorn is a versatile plant. If you already have healthy soil for planting, Black Hawthorn also makes an attractive flowering ornamental.
Also known as Wild Raisin, Nannyberry is a trifecta – it’s low maintenance, has showy foliage, and grows prolific berries. This hardy shrub is known for attracting wildlife, its clusters of white flowers and tasty berries being suitable for bees, birds, and other animals. Nannyberry is also used in shelterbelts, urban yards, and landscaping. This shrub makes a beautiful ornamental and is small enough to grow underneath power lines. For the foodies out there, this shrub’s berries can be eaten fresh or used in baking and preserves.
Devilishly attractive, Diablo Ninebark is a small, multi-stemmed shrub planted to add texture and colour to any yard. It features flaky red to brown bark, clusters of white flowers, and long, maple-like leaves that turn dark purple in spring. Diablo Ninebark can make a dense and colourful hedge, or it can be an attractive ornamental by itself. Once spring begins, wildlife will flock to this shrub for food. Birds love the clusters of berries grown and may return to your yard frequently.
Great things can come in small packages. Dwarf Alberta Spruce is our smallest conifer tree, standing at about 10 ft once mature. However, it is also one of our slowest growing trees and may not reach more than 2 ft after many years. Therefore, Dwarf Alberta Spruce is perfect for small yards and city landscaping. This plant naturally grows into the classic conical shape, but responds well to shearing and pruning. Dwarf Alberta Spruce is hardy and disease resistant. However, its thick foliage can collect mildew. Consider planting this tree in an open space where the wind can dry out its needles.
Snowball Viburnum is a popular ornamental shrub with gorgeous prolific flowering that will make you think that it’s snowing. This plant is prized for its round clusters of white flowers that resemble snowballs, delighting children and adults alike. In fall, its leaves turn vibrant shades of red. Snowball Viburnum is sought after as a single accent shrub, but can also make a dense hedge or privacy screen.
Returning Favourites
Variegated Dogwood
You may be familiar with Variegated Dogwood already. This small shrub can be planted in first row of a shelterbelt or for soil stabilization, but is most popular as an ornamental shrub or eye-catching hedge in front yards. Variegated Dogwood has the same distinctive red bark and white flowers and berries as Red Osier Dogwood. However, the key difference between the two is the leaves; where Red Osier’s leaves are green throughout, Variegated Dogwood is mottled, showing a white outline around each leaf. This gives Variegated Dogwood a distinct look that our customers love.
Valiant Grape
Grapes have long been used to cover arbors and trellises. Valiant Grape is reported to be one of the hardiest of all grape varieties. This variety will produce bluish red clusters of fruit. Many like this variety for fresh eating, but they are also great for jellies and juice.
Grapes are a higher maintenance species, requiring regular care and pruning. If unchecked grapevines can spread and its fruit be eaten by birds. With that being said, Valiant Grape has one of the highest yields given how little space they take up.
Blackcurrant
Native to Europe, Blackcurrant is growing in popularity among gardeners and U-Pick owners across Canada. Many of TreeTime.ca’s customers are eager to plant these in their gardens – an interesting observation considering most of us that grew up in the prairies have not even tasted Blackcurrants before.
This shrub is low maintenance and fairly hardy. With leaves that turn a gorgeous scarlet in the fall, savvy gardeners have trained their Blackcurrants into edible shrubs. The berries are large and very sweet and juicy. We learned that they are especially good for jams and jelly making!
Butternut
Otherwise known as White Walnut, this returning favourite is one of the few Walnut varieties native to Canada. On its own, Butternut is a fantastic and hardy ornamental with dense leaves and lemon-shaped nuts surrounded by a green husk. While a single tree can produce nuts, you can expect a higher yield with two or more trees to cross-pollinate.
Staff at TreeTime.ca had the opportunity to taste a Butternut earlier this fall. Albeit, cracking the husk was a messy experience, we found the meat to be pleasant – mild, sweet, and very oily. It is very easy to see why this tree is so sought after by nut hunters.
Boreal Beauty and Boreal Blizzard Haskap
Otherwise known as Honeyberry, Haskaps are steadily growing in popularity in North America. Strides have been made in producing hardy cultivars with uniform production. Now, more than ever, is the right time to be thinking of joining the Haskap industry. These hardy deciduous shrubs produce delicious oblong berries that are great for fresh eating, baking, and jamming. The Boreal Beauty is great for mechanical harvesting and is an excellent choice for U-picks and commercial harvester type orchards. Its partner Boreal Blizzard Haskap has the largest and heaviest berries of any Haskap cultivar we offer.
In order to grow high yields of fruit, customers should buy pollinating plants as well as producers. These feature shrubs are part of the “Boreal” series from the University of Saskatchewan. They pair well with other plants from this series, but are especially good together.