Will any of the Honey Berry cultivars take hold in zone 8b? We have the ability to provide cover/filtered sun during the heat of summer. My research has given conflicting input would like two varieties for cross pollination .

Thanks

Hi John.

Can you update your formation to include your city and state or country? That will help us help you. Honeyberrys don't like the heat but there are some that will grow in zone 8 depending upon your winter lows. USDA Hardiness Zones are based on the average annual minimum winter temperatures. That means that Zone 8 has the right number of chilling hours to grow Honeyberry but I suspect if you are in a southern latitude, you will have to provide shade.

Look for plants rated to zone 8 and check what the suggested pollinator is. Hopefully, you can find two that will live in your area. For instance, Blue Velvet and Blue Moon are both hardy to zone 8.

Hope this helps,

Daisy

You will likely have to do some trials on your own. There is a huge range of genetic material out there, and if you are able to find plants whose heritage is from Japan, rather than Korea or Russia, you will probably be better off. First start as Daisy says, and be sure to choose two cultivars that bloom at the same time. There many are whose bloom time will not overlap sufficiently, and you won't get good cross pollination. When I started growing them in the late 1990s, there was little information known about this, but now it should be easy to ferret out. Here in the north, Honeyberries can be invasive, but down where you are that won't be a problem.

Stark Bros. has done a good job of sorting some of it out:

http://www.starkbros.com/produ...