Although an enormous range of fruiting plants are available,  few of these are outstanding.  American fruit growers have worked for generations, with support from our universities and the USDA, to produce fruit plants which had a range of desirable characteristics.  The plants must be hardy, able to endure the widest range of weather conditions and seasonal patterns.  It must also be disease and pest resistant since few people desire to use chemical controls and these are badly flawed. The quality of the fruit is also important, as well as season and taste (a rather intangible thing which varies greatly from person to person) as we;; as  the size of the plant itself.  One of the interesting things about our business is how many different sorts of tastes there are.

To growers another range of factors became crucial as industries developed, fruiting season, yield was always very important to growers, of course, but also season, when the fruit came.  "Keeping quality"  has also been important also and is one key reason why home orchards are so attractive to people.  Fruit is perishable and it is at it's best when picked ripe.  Unfortunately the way of our modern food system is such that fruit can never be harvested ripe and survive the process/time to the consumer.  Today, for instance, your food travels an average of 1,600 miles before it reaches your table, in addition to the other time-consuming activities which take place between picking and eating.

Consumers have a range of other concerns, chemicals are widely distrusted now and the only way to insure that your food is not affected is to produce it yourself.  The appearance of the bush or tree itself is also a primary concern to the home owner or landscaper whereas the size and appearance of the plants is only interesting to the farmer in so far as it affects cultivation or harvesting.

We have talked with farmers (few know these plants better than those who have lived and died from them for decades) as well as many sorts of specialists to determine which varieties of plants were most appropriate for our customers from the customers' point of view.  Since we have marketed our plants at all levels and done countless promotional activities involving our plants we have also come to know gardeners and horticulturists needs well.  Our experiences have pinpointed some unique needs of the garden center and landscape industries.

Bare root plants are not practical for a variety of reasons.  In order to successfully transplant them they must be dug and replanted in a matter of days and will not survive the process of conveying them to customers or landscapers.

Our plants are container grown for stronger and healthier root systems that transplant and survive well.  These plants can be held indefinitely at garden centers or landscape yards and will transplant well at any time because their root systems are intact.

We also realized in looking at mature fruit fields how beautiful some varieties were when considered just from this point of view of appearance.  Fruit plants are very beautiful at different times, when the flowers are on in their prime, when the fruit is young and also mature, in the fall when the foliage turns crimson, purpose, yellow or brown, in the winter when the canes are crimson or brown or more unusually green as is the case with several blueberry varieties.

The range of fruits is endless apparently.  People's tastes are also of endless variety.  Often it is a matter of matching what is in their minds from a former time with our modern lives .  A farmer who raises fruit and sells it to the public can always give you an extensive lecture on taste.  There are also often many colors and flavors on the market.  Raspberries have six colors in our catalog, for instance.  It is not well-known but there are many colors of blueberries and cranberries.  Green cranberries, yellow cranberries, black cranberries, blue cranberries, they are all known quantities and growing in USDA plots for your examination. 

Although our specialty is small fruit we also offer a complete line of container grown fruit trees which have been selected particularly for small spaces.  Items such as the Fruit Cocktail which provides four different kinds of fruit on a single tree and Patio Peach trees which reach a mature height of 6 feet are unique additions to your landscape.  More conventional trees have been selected for their practical aspects and will provide the fruit which you are familiar with for a lifetime.

A basic line of semi-dwarf and dwarf fruit trees are also offered in addition to a number of unique specialty items which include:  patio fruit trees, evergreen ground covers, fruit cocktail (a tree with four fruits grafted onto it) as well as a broad range of berries.  We have also added a number of outstanding trees, most of which are technically fruit plants (such as crab apple trees, pears such as Cleveland Select or highbush cranberry plants) which are outstanding landscape plants.  One unique offering is a dwarf, weeping redbud, Covey's Lavender Twist, truly an American original as are many of our plants.