I am trying to find anyone who has a Sloe berry or Blackthorn berry trees. These berries are used traditionally in England for gin making. Anyone have them in their yard that I could possibly get a cutting from?
I've never seen one over here. But they do get listed by nurseries - try a web search for "prunus spinosa price".
Rather than plant a potentially invasive species, try experimenting with local native Rosaceae fruit? Working on the lines of why sloes (rather than other plums) are used in Europe, try the most bitter-flavoured one you can find.
I have researched the invasive claim and those that are growing it in Ontario and in England don't seem to have that issue I have volunteered for many years doing invasive removal at urban parks and forests so am weary of invasive plants. This is not for my consumption but for a local distillery. I am trying to find things to grow that have a market. Hard to make a go as a small farm on the Coast.
You have telephoned nurseries all over Canada or just in your area? (Note I typed "try a web search" - you will be hoping to find a grower somewhere in Canada that is offering it). And I would think that if you are looking for enough material to enable you to supply a distillery with a sufficient quantity of fruit anytime soon you would be wanting to find a number of already growing plants with some size to them. And get them at wholesale prices, since you are apparently describing a business activity. Otherwise if you search relevant herbarium web sites you will find collection records for this species. Which you could use to locate possible places to collect propagation material from wild living examples. Because it covers pretty much all herbaria in the region the best to use would be the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria but my saved link to that is currently opening with a Burke Museum message about their databases being inaccessible at the moment. I did follow this up with a separate UBC Herbarium search that produced two records for Prunus spinosa, one from overseas and one from BC (dating from 1998). But I did not see how to get more than the most minimal details of each to display - maybe with how the site of that particular herbarium is formatted a body always has to click on the Download button to get that.
Our recent attempt (2019-2022) at germinating seed failed. I've wanted to have a specimen tree in the Garden for quite a while.
I have searched the web and called nurseries in other provinces, even in Ontario. Overseas is the only place I have been successful so far but they dont ship to Canada. I have been searching and researching for over 2 weeks. Prefer not to try with seeds as to slow and hard to germinate.
For what it's worth, I can easily collect seeds here. I can't get the documentation needed to send them to Canada, though! It isn't invasive in England, because it is native here - in terminology, you can't invade your own home, it only applies to those coming in from outside. But it is certainly very aggressive in growth, spreading readily by root suckers (up to at least half a metre per year) as well as seed. Very difficult to remove, if it gets to where you don't want it - you have to dig out the roots as well as cut the very hard, stiff, spiny stems. I've often seen well-established footpaths close up and disappear as the root suckers fill in the gaps. That's why I consider it has significant invasive potential in the similar climate of west coast BC; that needs to be taken seriously.
Thank you that is helpful. I also grow seabuckthorn and it is similar in growth and needs assertive pruning twice a year. Usually I take about 3 to 6 feet of growth off a year for each shrub.
Overseas is the only place I have been successful so far Searching the phrase "prunus spinosa price" (as well as "prunus spinosa plants for sale") continues to bring up forestfarm in Oregon at or near the beginning of results I get using Bing. Of course, that is outside of Canada but definitely not overseas. In addition to other nurseries in various locations the first phrase of course brings up sites offering preparations rather than plants. So the second one might be the one to use. Or maybe try "prunus spinosa plants for sale canada".
I consider it has significant invasive potential in the similar climate of west coast BC Already known to be present there as well as elsewhere in North America; if the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria access point via the Burke Museum web site was working at the moment details of various collection records could be seen. Roadsides; 0–1000 m; introduced; B.C., N.S., Ont.; Conn., Idaho, Maine, Mass., Mich., N.Y., Oreg., Wash.; Eurasia; n Africa. As past flora writers (C. L. Hitchcock et al. 1955–1969; E. G. Voss 1972–1996) have noted, the distinctions between Prunus spinosa and P. domestica are not clear. Some researchers consider the hexaploid P. domestica to have been derived from the tetraploid P. spinosa, often in a scenario involving hybridization with P. cerasifera. It should not be surprising that some of the characters used in keys to separate these three taxa (spininess, indument, leaf size, pedicel length, numbers of flowers per bud) are subject to variation within each species and overlap among the species. Prunus spinosa in Flora of North America @ efloras.org
I bought some seed from a seedsperson in the UK or maybe France who didn't seem too worried about it being invasive in the Yukon. Germinated very well, but predictably didn't survive the first winter.
Well, yes, no risk of it being invasive in Yukon, the climate there is all wrong for it, as you found out! Different matter in southwestern BC... Yep, good summary; an additional useful distinguishing feature not mentioned is fruit maturation time; somewhat simplified: August in P. cerasifera, September in P. domestica, October in P. spinosa. The fruit of P. spinosa are also significantly smaller too of course.
