We Grow Useful Plants

Malus domestica. Old world varieties that still grow with ease and newly bred disease resistant varieties. Some of these varieties are great for cider! More varieties coming soon! Grafted on semi-standard rootstock, either MM-111, Bud 118, or G 890. If you want a smaller tree we recommend pruning heavily, these trees will not require staking or irrigation once established, unlike more dwarfing rootstocks. Plant two or more for pollination. If you have heavy shaley soils like us plant on a mound and amend with lots of organic matter. 12’ – 18’

Pyrus communis. Old world varieties that still grow with ease and newly bred disease resistant varieties. Some of these varieties are great for perry! More varieties coming soon! Grafted on semi-standard rootstock. If you want a smaller tree we recommend pruning heavily, these trees will not require staking or irrigation once established, unlike more dwarfing rootstocks. Plant two or more for pollination. If you have heavy shaley soils like us plant on a mound and amend with lots of organic matter. 12’ – 18’

Pyrus pyrifolia. It’s a pear that is crisp like an apple! With a great storage life. Plant two or more for pollination. If you have heavy shaley soils like us plant on a mound and amend with lots of organic matter. 12’ – 18’

Prunus persica. Peaches taste awesome, we focus on growing ones that are disease resistant on seedling rootstocks. If you have heavy shaley soils like us plant on a mound and amend with lots of organic matter. 8’ – 16’

Diospyrus virginiana. Seedlings and varieties grafted onto American persimmon rootstocks. Some, like Deer Candy, Deer Magnet, and Wonderful drop fruit during deer hunting season, others grow large fruit for you to eat. Seedlings are unsexed and can be either male or female. Generally considered that a female will produce fruit even without a male pollinator. Up to 70’

Morus spp. Mulberries are like black berries that grow on trees! Fruit comes in different colors and sizes and ripens over different periods for different varieties. It used to be considered that one mature everbearing mulberry could feed a 100lb feeder hog for the 3 months that it was dropping fruit! Consider how a few trees could change the feed bill for your hog or chicken operation, or just feeding your kids! Also, the leaves contain a lot of protein and make an excellent fodder for all livestock. But wait, there’s more! Mulberries are long lived beautiful shade trees and at the end of their lives can be turned into durable rot-resistant fence posts or long burning firewood! Cultivars grafted onto Morus alba seedlings. Pollinator not required. 20’ – 60’ Varieties (M alba unless noted): Illinois Everbearing (M alba x M rubra), Oscar, Kokuso (M latifolia), Silk Hope, Varahara, Miss Kim, Weeping, Pakistan (Zone 7 Morus nigra), Shangri La, Hicks

Asimina triloba. North America’s largest native fruit! Man are they delicious, and always a tropical flavored surprise to come across in West Virginia! Pawpaws benefit from shade in their earlier years but fruit best in full sun. Easily maintained to 8’ and very ornamental and tropical looking. Requires consistent moisture throughout the whole year. We have select seedlings from grafted cultivars, and locally adapted trees (seed actually harvested near Paw Paw, WV). Deer will not eat the tree, but they will rub their antlers on it. In deep pots or bare root. Grafted cultivars coming in the future. 8’ – 30’

Prunus spp. Bush cherries coming soon. We are still trialing them for their ease of growing and disease resistance.

Amelanchier spp. Also called saskatoon, shadblow, and Juneberry. A beautiful shrub in the rose family with a blueberry like fruit that has almond flavored seeds! Varieties: Seedlings, Autumn Brilliance, Regent Coming in the future. 6’ – 30’

Aronia melanocarpa. The fruit of this native shrub is the highest in antioxidants of any temperate fruit! It kinda tastes like it too, hence the common name chokeberry. We let the fruit hang on the bush late into the Fall then harvest and freeze them to mix into smoothies or baked goods with other fruit. Up to 5’.

Sambucus canadensis. A 6’ -12’ vigorous shrub. The flowers make wonderful medicinal tea, you can harvest 10% of them without affecting berry yield. Make that syrup you know you will need in the winter. An easy way to harvest the berries is to cut off the whole head, put it in a paper sack, and freeze it. Then you can open the bag and shake the stem and the berries fall right off. Make sure to cook, don’t eat elderberries raw. Self-fertile but more productive with a pollinator. Varieties: Adams, Bob Gordon, Jumbo (Sambucus nigra), Nova, Wyldewood, York, and some plants that we have propagated from our local area.

Actinidia arguta. A vigorous vine from Siberia. The flavor is like a more intense version of the fuzzy ones found at the grocery store. The fruit is about the size of a grape and fuzzless, you can eat the whole thing, skin and all. Will require a trellis or large support to grow on. For fruit you must have both a male and female plant. One male can pollinate up to 8 females, but produces no fruit itself. Varieties: Ananasnaya (Anna), Geneva, Prolific, Hardy Red, Male (pollinator)

Vaccinium corymbosm. High bush blueberries grow 4’-8’ as a long lived suckering shrub. They don’t much like our native soils so make sure to amend the soil with lots of pine needle mulch. They will respond to the care you give them. Varieties: Chandler, Patriot, Duke, Blueray, Blue crop, Herbert, Berkeley.

Vitis spp. Grapes for home use. We are trialing several disease resistant muscadine varieties to see if they can survive our winters, available in the future.

Rubus spp. Several varieties of thornless blackberries. They are easy to grow and very productive. You can let them go wild but they are easily managed with a simple trellis. The leaves make a nice tea. Fruit in August Varieties: Chester, Triple Crown

Rubus ideas. Everbearing (primocane) raspberries produce two crops of berries a year. They fruit from August until frost on the new canes that grew from the ground in the Spring. Then, those same canes fruit again in June of the following year, after which they will fruit no more. Red raspberry leaves are usually a component of pregnancy tea. Thorny, but not too bad, but usually enough to fight off the deer. Self-fertile. Varieties: Caroline: Red raspberry, very high in antioxidants, great flavor; Anne: Golden raspberry with very delicate flavor.

Rubus occidentalis. Cane fruit, awesome flavor. Usually thorny enough to keep the deer away. Fruit in June.

Ficus carica. Some hardy selections of figs. Still make sure to plant them in a protected place, like the South side of a building out of the wind. This microclimate will give them a longer growing season so they can ripen more fruit. Self-fertile. Varieties: Chicago Hardy, Brown Turkey, LSU Purple

Castanea x. Hybrid and American chestnuts. We have seedlings from hybrids and cultivars selected for quality nut production. We also have hybrid and American seedlings selected for timber growth form. The American seedlings will almost certainly be susceptible to blight, but we are growing them anyway. We have hopes to coppice them for rot resistant poles. We have recently found a source for 100% American seed from a blight resistant stand in an area with blight and are very excited to be working with this seed in the near future.

Juglans regia. Cold hardy Carpathian (English) walnut seedlings. Just like you get at the store, but from your backyard and not radiated in the importation process. Grafted cultivars coming in the future. To 70’

Juglans nigra. Our beautiful native black walnut. Awesome timber tree. These seedlings have been selected for easier cracking nuts. You need want a serious nut cracker to get into them. We like our <Master Cracker>. To 100’

Juglans cinerea. Also called White Walnut. Native, but somewhat rare, butternut. They deserve the name. The tree does not grow as tall as many of our other decidious hardwoods and therefore is less likely to be found deep in the woods. Beautiful shade tree, with nice wood for wood working. The nuts are pretty hard, with a <Master Cracker> you can crack out halves of the nuts. Seedlings. Grafted cultivars coming in the future.

Juglans ailanthifolia. Heart shaped, easy cracking Japanese walnut. Fast growing and disease resistant. Seedlings (very likely to be very similar to parents, but sometimes the heart shape differs).

Carya illinoiensis. Huge, quick growing (for a nut tree) shade tree. Seedlings of varieties that are able to ripen nuts in Zone 6. To 100’+. Grafted cultivars coming in the future.

Carya illinoiensis. Huge, quick growing (for a nut tree) shade tree. Seedlings of varieties that are able to ripen nuts in Zone 6. To 100’+. Grafted cultivars coming in the future.

Pinus koriensis. Grows and looks similar to Eastern White Pine, but not quite as fast. Edible pine nuts. To 100’

Corylus spp. Hybrid hazelnut seedlings of Jefferson and Yamhill, two of the most productive cultivars. Produce your own hazelnuts in a few years! Shrub, up to 8’. At least 2 required for pollination. Cultivars selected for high production on the East side of the country coming in the future.

Salix spp. Willows come in all shapes and sizes. Some grow as giant majestic trees and others are one foot tall shrubs. Some are used for cut flowers, some for weaving, some for fodder, some for stream bank restoration some for all of the above! Some varieties are deer resistant, the deer will nibble and treat them like a medicinal, other varieties are super nutritious and will be eaten by deer. Varieties: Weeping, Golden Curls, Cambertiana, American Mackay, Chocolate Curls, integra Pendula, Tortuosa, Coradoc, Hakero Nishiki (rainbow), Packing Twine, Eugene, Bleu, Fish Creek, Curly Matsu, Sunny Twist, Astree, hybrid

Populus x. Super fast growing shade and fodder tree. Highly palatable foliage for livestock from a vigorous tree that will keep growing back. Can grow 8’+ per year to become your instant hedge row. Beautiful tree related to quaking aspen with a similar leaf. Harvestable timber in 10 years.

Cornus sericea. Native shrub happy to live in wet spots. Bright red stems in winter. Cornus mas. Coming soon. Also known as cornellian cherry. Small red, edible fruits from an easy to grow shrub. Up to 20’.

Lonicera sempervirens. Our native honeysuckle vine. Major pollinator and hummingbird attractor.

Robinia pseudoacacia. Fast growing, nitrogen fixing, native tree. Epic firewood and rot resistant wood. Tasty white flowers, also loved by bees!

Salvia rosmarinus. The herb you know and love. We sell “Arp”, a variety hardy to Zone 6, it may die down to the ground in winter, but will usually come right back.

Rosa rugosa. Super thorny producer of rose hips. 6’ and indefinitely spreading

Schisandra chinensis. Perennial vine. One of the 50 most important plants in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Also known as five flavored fruit, somehow it really has five flavors! Varieties: Eastern Prince coming soon

Ziziphus jujuba. Chinese date. Eaten fresh or dried. Coming soon.

Amorpha fruticosa. Great nitrogen fixing chop and drop shrub. Plant it near your fruit trees to chop and release the nitrogen.

Eleagnus multiflora. Not to be confused with it’s much maligned cousin Autumn Olive, Goumi is not know to get out of control. Super productive shrub of small fruits.

Ceanothus americanus. Small nitrogen fixing shrub, can be used for tea. Up to 3’

Ribes spp. Small shrubs with tasty fruit. Most have enough thorns to compete with the deer. Varieties: Invicta, Welcome, Jahn’s Prarie, Jostaberry

Coming Soon

Maclura tricuspidata. A fruit from China. Grafted onto native osage orange. Varieties: Seedless, Hwang Kum #3

Prunus dulcis. We are starting to trial almonds now. Varieties: Hall’s Hardy

Gleditsia triacanthos. Thornless honeylocust seedlings and grafted cultivars. High feed value pods can sit on the ground all winter and be harvested directly by livestock when they need extra feed the most. Dappled shade tree, perfect for silvopasture. Some cultivars can produce 100’s of pounds of pods per year when mature. To 75’ Varieties: Thornless seedlings, Millwood, Ashworth, Hershey, Tavern

Maclura pomifera. Osage orange is a small thorny tree. Makes an impenetrable hedge when planted closely. The wood is more dense and burns even longer than black locust, and it is at least as rot resistant. Up to 60’

Levisticum officinale. Giant perennial cellery!

Lavendula angustifolia.

Symphytom spp. Comfrey is the quintessential permaculture plant! A dynamic accumulator and biomass producer. Use it to feed your livestock, heat up your compost pile, mulch your tomatoes, or make a salve. It will be covered in bees as long as it is blooming. Varieties: Bocking 14 about 3’x3’, Running about 1’ high spreading indefinitely and vigorously.

Silphium perfoliatum. A herbaceous perennial growing 8’-10’ tall each year. It’s great big leaves cup and hold water when it rains. Birds, bees, and mammals will drink the water. The small sunflower like heads come at the end of summer. The leaves make great fodder and are highly palatable for all livestock we have fed it to. Alan Bergo, the Forager Chef, says you can eat it too but we haven’t tried it yet. At the end of the year the thick square stems make great kindling. Used as a biomass crop in Europe.

Clumping French and running sheep sorrel ground cover.

Phyllostachys vivax. Coldest hardy edible shoot timber bamboo. Coming soon.

Zingiber officinale. Not cold hardy, protect it with lots of mulch or dig it up and keep some to replant in the spring. Wonderfully fragrant flowers.

Rudebekia lacinata. Called Sochan or Cut-leaf coneflower. Herbaceous perennial growing to 8’ each year. Eat the flavorful tender young leaves in Spring and again in late Summer.

Eupatorium . Herbaceous perennial and pollinator attractor extraordinaire! Up to 8’

Mentha spp. Fragrant native groundcover. Apple mint is the best for mixed drinks! Varieties: Peppermint, Spearmint, Applemint, Chocolate mint

Coming soon

Urtica diotica. It stings but it also heals. Excellent tea and medicinal. Once it is dried or cooked it no longer stings. Great to add to your compost pile.

Achillea millefolia. Medicinal ground cover.

Equisetum spp. Great accumulator of silica. Likes to grow in a wet spot.

Herbaceous perennial, grows about 2’ tall. Pungent roots.

Bee Balm, Pollinator plant, perennial