Thanks, Ed. Do you know if they ship?

Patty S.

Yes, they shipped mine to NY. I think there's a phone # on the website. Connie's email address is:

horners@dishmail.net

I just called up Connie, I'm giving up on FHN. She is selling 12"-20" Sweetcrisp plants for $5 each plus shipping. She is just starting to ship them, she was only selling locally but is getting calls so is now shipping them. She seems very nice on the phone, we will see what the plants look like but it sounds like we have a winner here.

Scott

I just ordered 10 from Connie. She needs a non propagation agreement that I have to sign and send back. At least that sounds professional. Hopefully this will work better than FHN. I did get $80 cash in the mail from FHN but no replacement "Sweetcrisp" plants yet.

Good news. From what I read they are a good operation. The commercial growers really are the best sources. Resellers....some of them can bite you as a lot of people seem to have found out.

Just curious if you got your plants yet and how they look. Mine are still alive. The leaves looked a 'little' pale upon arrival. I just gave them a 'little' nitrogen. But, the good news is that they are still alive. Will be interesting to see how these do, being in containers in Z5!

I wonder, though, if they can ship to California. Often growers will not due to all of our ag restrictions. Anyone know by chance? If not, I can try calling. I don't see an email for them on their web site.

Patty S.

Their email address is horners@dishmail.net

Thanks, Ed. I gave them a call. Apparently, Fall Creek has the wholesale monopoly on shipping Sweet Crisp blueberries to California. I've left a message for the folks at Fall Creek to see what retail nurseries in my area of Calif. buy from them.

Patty S.

It's funny,when I visited Raintree last Fall,they had never heard of Sweetcrisp.I told them then that Fall Creek was involved with growing them and after my glowing report,they seemed very interested and said Fall Creek is a supplier of theirs.Maybe they are still a new plant at Fall Creek. Brady

I got my four plants from Connie yesterday. The plants looked nice and healthy; they had about double the root mass of the FHN ones. Some had a fair amount of septoria spot on them but I guess thats common in the south. One thing I found unusual is she shipped them bareroot and I never heard of shipping a leafed-out plant bareroot. But they seem to be looking perfectly good and maybe it works for blueberries since they are semi-evergreen.

Scott

PS I had emailed Connie pointing out the above two points and here was what she sent me:

I am an organic farmer, so leaf spot is a challenge especially in the South.
You shouldn't have any trouble with the bare root plants, but if you do, let me know.
I'll replace the plants for you.
Farmers dig plants and leave them for weeks at a time in trailers before they get around
to planting them. They are tough plants.

-- Overall I think Connie can be counted on.

The Sweetcrisp from Connie are older plants that are not actively growing. My replacements from FHN are younger plants in active growth. Those from Connie have much more root mass and as Scott said are bare root. Those from FHN were plugs with a root/soil ball about 2 inches by 4 inches or less.

I think both will grow well if I do my part. FHN had much better packing. Connie's package torn badly and was placed in a plastic bag by USPS. I think she is just starting shipping. I'm pleased with both.

Picture of plants, Horner left, FHN right.{{gwi:72013}}

Thanks for the pix fruitnut. I haven't received my FHN replacements yet and just pinged them.

Scott

I talked to Connie Horner and they can't ship to Washington State and probably some other states.She directed me to Island Grove Ag Products in Florida.The shipping is kind of expensive from them.I may get some sometime.Brady

I talked with Island Grove when I was looking for the second set of sweetcrisps and their prices were insane.

The Sweetcrisp I got from Connie looks just about the same as yours. Kind of stuck in neutral. The Farthing I got looked a little better. A few buds visible. So far both are surviving. I used a little Osmocote and are giving them weekly shots of 21-0-0. Hoping they'll kick into gear with some warmer weather. Kind of getting tired bringing them in and out every day. Looks like freezes here for the next 3 nights, then things relax a little.

I've got my FHN ones coming finally. It will be interesting to compare which plants get going faster. The FHN non-bluecrisp I got last year were doing great when I dug them up last week to give to neighbor.

Scott

Is there a source for Sweetcrisp in CA? Any retail nurseries that carry them?

I just got a msg from Fall Creek that they only sell to commercial growers and not retailers.

Try contacting Berries Unlimited. They had Sweetcrisp and were willing to ship to California.

http://www.berriesunlimited.com/southern-blueberries/cat_38.html?page=2

Patty S.

Thank you, Patty!

Thanks to this site I was able to get in touch with Connie at Horner Farms in Georgia (http://www.hornerfarmsinc.com/) for Sweetcrisp. Her nursery mostly deal with commercial growers.

I was looking for fruit and berry plants for my Sister's birthday. Since I had never planted blueberries before, I did not want to buy larger size plants. Connie had the smaller Sweetcrisps for $2. For a small order like mine, she took a lot of time to answer my questions and to find out what is the best shipping rate for my order. She also took the time to select plants with several flowers which were much taller (12") than I had expected (I expected up to 6" tall liners) with good root system. She was extremely thoughtful and included a couple of extra plants just in case the flowers did not survive the shipping.

All I can say is wow and I am glad that I had the chance to see her contact information here and get my plants through her. She also have a huge selection of over 200 different daylilies now that I will order when I move to Austin, TX in a year or two.

This post was edited by Chris_999 on Thu, Mar 21, 13 at 23:19

Sweetcrisp was not listed on the berries unlimited site. After much research I did find that Berries Plus had them and was able to order to CA. They should be here in 2 weeks.

Fyi, in case anyone searches and finds this thread like I did, when I contacted Connie, she indicated they are no longer selling blueberries.

If anyone has information on where to get SweetCrisp, IndigoCrisp, Raven, and Ventura varieties at reasonable price, please post the information. I am looking to add these varieties in my backyard garden but can't find anywhere including FHN (they have only SweetCrisp but already sold out).

FHN probably never had Sweetcrisp. Brady