Anchorage Berry Bushes and Fruit Trees

Our Fruit Trees and Berry Plants are hardy to South Central Alaska and are available from May through October. The plants are all second year and will produce fruit or berries the same year they are purchased from us.

Many berry bushes and fruit trees can handle Alaska’s cold temperatures. Fruit trees have been successfully grown near the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. If they can grow there, they can grow nearly anywhere!

Fruit Tree Growing in Alaska

Growing fruit trees and berry bushes in Alaska can be a challenge. Although most fruit growers in Alaska can grow almost any fruit tree inside a heated home or greenhouse, that is impractical for many garden enthusiast. Crabapple trees are the best apple tree pollinators and the Oregon crabapple and the Siberian crabapple tree are often used as a pollinator or as a cold hardy rootstock for fruiting apples like the Lodi apple. Cherry trees such as the North Star Cherry and the Montmorency Cherry are recommended for Alaska if grafted onto a cold hardy rootstock.

Blueberry plants are the most cold hardy, and blueberries are a favorite native bush to grow in Alaska. Blueberry plants are native to Southern Alaska soils. During the Fall the leaves of the blueberry plant turn a brilliant scarlet color. Plum trees can be grown in Alaska, but some winters the plum tree is not as cold hardy as cherry trees or apple trees.

Research has shown that Alaska has unique growth periods, because the tissue hardening time-line in late summer is accelerated by drastic day length shortening and steep, progressive temperature drops. As the plant cells harden off due to the decreasing temperatures, the cells become progressively less hydrated by water and thus, more cold hardy. Centuries of genetic cold hardy selection has evolved races of plants and trees in Alaska that grow faster, become their environmental growing season has been constrained and only the most cold hardy species have evolved into a faster-growing tree, and that has been translated into a characteristic of fast growing, cold hardiness. Only a few species have become in the evolutionary cycle removed from the tundra, because of the extreme temperature fluctuations leading to a low biotic diversity.

Some of our fruit tree selection:

• Apple Trees:  Norland, Parkland, Goodland
• Aronia, Chokeberry
• Bearberry, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi
• Blueberry, Northsky
• Cherry- Nanking, Carmen Jewel  (Bush)
• Cherry- Evans  (Tree)
• Crabapple- Dolgo
• Currant- Ben sarek Black
• Goji Berry
• Grape, Concord and Niagara
• Honeyberry, Haskap
• Jostaberry
• Kiwi, Arctic Kolomitka, Male and Female
• Labrador Tea
• Lingonberry
• Raspberry- Boyne (Red), Fall Gold (Gold)
• Rhubarb, Red Crimson
• Saskatoon, Serviceberry
• Sea Buckthorn
• Strawberry, Honeyone

We’re open seven days a week and conveniently located just a short 15 minute drive from Anchorage. We’ve been in business more than fifteen years serving the Anchorage, Eagle River and Palmer / Wasilla areas. Our knowledgeable and friendly staff are here to assist you in selecting just the right tropical plants for your home or office environment. It’s always spring at Mile 5.2 Greenhouse!