WHY ARE YOUR CHRISTMAS TREES SO NICE? Because we take the time to check on the crop in the field. See herefor a 'behind the scenes' look.
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Bambinella pears originate from the island of Malta, where they have been grown for thousands of years. While they are not very well-known here, they are one of the most sought after pears in the U.K. for their sweet and crunchy taste and diminutive size. Those found at Grobe's this year originated from a chance meeting at Canada Blooms between our grower and an avid fruit tree enthusiast named John Attard who resides in Mississauga. After seeing the images of the gentleman's now established tree laden with delicious small mini pears (about 1/2 the size of a regular pear) it was decided to collect cuttings, bud them on root stocks and give them a go. Grobe's is fortunate to have some of the very first of these trees available in Ontario for sale this year. Our fall tour found these young trees in the field with a few fruit upon them.. and they are DELICIOUS! They will grow to small trees of about 15 feet tall by the same wide in full sun. Bartlett and Clapp's Favourite will pollinate these trees.
You likely have never heard of this pear - so here's what makes it special. It originated on the farm of Peter Kieffer in colonial Philadelphia (so it could be considered and 'heirloom' pear) and it is said to have been an accidental cross between a European and an Oriental pear. A fast-growing tree, it produces a heavy crop of large, tasty fruit that are sweet, crisp and juicy - making it excellent for fresh eating, canning, preserves, and baking. Best of all, this tree is self-fertile (only one tree is required) AND fortunately it is also on a dwarf root stock. This makes it perfect for the person wanting pears in a small space. Ripens mid-September to mid- October.
These naturally dwarf, hardy, disease resistant columnar trees (only 8-12 ft. tall at maturity) are covered with white blossoms followed by lots of large, juicy, sweet, greenish-red apples with a red blush and crisp, sweet, white flesh produced on short spurs along the trunk. Good for eating and baking, it is an ideal choice for small gardens and large patio pots. Plant with Golden Sentinel for pollination. Fruit ripens in mid-late Sept.
These naturally dwarf, hardy and disease resistant, columnar trees (only 8-12 ft. tall at maturity) become a pillar of white blossoms followed by large juicy, sweet golden yellow apples produced on short spurs along the tree trunk. Ideal for fresh eating, baking and cider, this is an excellent choice for small gardens and large patio pots. Plant with Scarlet Red Sentinel for pollination. Fruit ripens in mid-Sept.
Blushing Delight is from a series of columnar trees bred in Czechoslovakia that produce their fruit on spurs along the main stem. It has green fruit with a red blush over it, and the fruit that sweetly flavoured. They have been bred for disease resistance, flavour, and ease of growing in small spaces, and they have a narrow upright habit. While best in our climate planted into the ground, it's possible that with insulated containers they may survive planted in them through the winter (plant at your own risk). They grow to about 8' tall by 2' wide. Like other apples, you will need two different urban apples for cross pollination.
Tasty Red is from a series of columnar trees bred in Czechoslovakia that produce their fruit on spurs along the main stem. It has bright red fruit that is juicy and sweet. They have been bred for disease resistance, flavour, and ease of growing in small spaces, and they have a narrow upright habit. While best in our climate planted into the ground, it's possible that with insulated containers they may survive planted in them through the winter (plant at your own risk). They grow to about 8' tall by 2' wide. Like other apples, you will need two different urban apples for cross pollination.
Golden Treat is from a series of columnar trees bred in Czechoslovakia that produce their fruit on spurs along the main stem. It has beautiful golden fruit with a lovely sweet flavour. They have been bred for disease resistance, flavour, and ease of growing in small spaces, and they have a narrow upright habit. While best in our climate planted into the ground, it's possible that with insulated containers they may survive planted in them through the winter (plant at your own risk). They grow to about 8' tall by 2' wide. Like other apples, you will need two different urban apples for cross pollination.
For those fruit tree lovers with limited space, Grobe's offers a varied selection of grafted multiple varieties on one fruit trees. Each individual grafted branch is a different variety of the same fruit, ensuring cross pollination on a single tree. Available for 2024 are Combo Apples, Combo Pears,and a limited number of Combo Plums, Combo Cherries, Combo Asian Pears and Combo Espalier Apples.
In addition to our feature apple trees shown above, Grobe's offers a number of very hardy apple trees that are great for fresh eating or baking. Varieties available on site for 2024 include semi-dwarf Ambrosia, CrimsonCrisp, Honeycrisp, Royal Red Honeycrisp, Royal Court, McIntosh, Rising Sun Fuji, Smoothee Golden Delicious and Northern Spy on semi-dwarf rootstock (Malling 106 or 7). There are also a limited number of Honeycrisp and Red Delicious apples on dwarf root stock (Malling 26).
Some of these tree varieties may not be familar to you - here's a primer on the very newest:
Royal Court® - a limb sport of an original Cortland cultivar. Jacob Hartenhof discovered the apple variety in Nova Scotia. The apple has a solid blush color. The fruit tends to ripen in early October. Royal Court® apple tree is considered the superior of all the Cortland strains.
Royal Red Honeycrisp - Similar to it’s parent, the famous Honeycrisp Apple, the Royal Red Honeycrisp (RRHC) is more uniformly red, sweeter and has better storage capacity than the original.
Rising Sun Fuji® - another apple tree discovered as a limb sport by Chuck Gilmer of Augusta, Michigan. This is an early ripening Fuji apple with a beautiful, brighter color and smoother finish than other early Fuji’s. It is mildly sweet with a great crunch that consumers love. Ripens in October.
Ambrosia - while perhaps not as rare as those preceding, Ambrosia apples are a Canadian bred success story, and one of the most popular of the sweet apples. It has a distinct honeyed and slightly perfumed flavour. The skin is smooth, with a bright, almost iridescent pink blush over a creamy background. The flesh is tender and juicy, with a very fine, crisp texture.
Crimson Crisp - Deep crimson skin covers sweet, crisp, subacid yellow flesh. Tree is upright with a round canopy. Disease-resistant to apple scab. Ripens early to mid-September.
These are super winter hardy Saskatchewan-bred sweet/sour cherries in bush form grow to 7' tall. Juliette andRomeo offer an amazing taste experience as they have as much sugar content as a sweet cherry, but with the refreshing zip of a tart one. (It's been likened to 'sour cherry' candies). Excellent for eating, or for baking.
Grobe's offers a number of tasty sweet and sour cherry varieties. Provincial shortages of sweet cherry varieties continue, but some that are still available in limited quantity for 2024 are standard Stella Cherryand sour cherry Montmorency. 'Prairie Cherry' or Saskatchewan Cherry varieties mentioned above are 'technically' a 'tart' cherry, but they have a higher Brix rating (sweetness) which makes it much more desireable to eat fresh. They grow generally more 'bush' like in form. To meet the demand for smaller growing trees, there are also a limited number of Bing, Stella, Lapins and Vandalaydwarf cherries as well as Meteordwarf sour cherry varieties for 2024. Sweet cherry trees are not well suited to soils that do not percolate moisture away from the root zone, nor are they cold hardy for all locations.
Grobe's offers European and Japanese plums for home gardeners. For best fruit pollination, European types should be crossed with other European, and Japanese with Japanese. In addition to the Combo Plums mentioned elsewhere, the available European varieties for 2024 are Mount Royale, Dwarf Italian and Dwarf Yellow Egg. Available Japanese varieties include Early Golden and Santa Rosa. Plums are not suited for rural or northwind exposed planting locations, do not tolerate heavy soils, and are not warrantied if inappropriately sited.
Grobe's offers a varied selection of delicious peach trees in both freestone and clingstone. Varieties for 2024 include Coral Star, Redhaven, Redstar, and Reliance. All peach trees are container grown trees that are self-fertile. Peaches are not suited for rural or northwind exposed planting locations, do not tolerate heavy soils, and are not warrantied if inappropriately sited.
Harovin Nova and Harovin Rouge are vigorous, productive trees that bear freestone, attractive, medium to large sized sweet tasting fruit. The fruit softens quickly near maturity, yet it still carries a good level of resistance to bacterial spot, brown rot and powdery mildew. Self-fruitful, they ripen in late August. Nectarines are not suited for rural or northwind exposed planting locations, do not tolerate heavy soils, and are not warrantied if inappropriately sited.
Sweet luscious summer pears are easy with these hardy pear varieties. Pear varieties available for 2024 include Bosc, Bartlett, Flemish Beauty, Red Bartlett and Summercrisp. Pears like Bartlett and Flemish Beauty are excellent pollinators for the others. There are also a limited number of Dwarf Pears such as Bartlett and Kieffer , as well as Bambinella Blush Maltese Pears and Combo Asian Pears.
While relatively new to Canadian gardeners, sea-buckthorn (sometimes known as seaberry) has been popular in Europe for years, and it's berries are highly prized. These berries are a recognized 'super food' containing 12x the Vitamin C of an orange, with high amounts of protein, fibre, anti-oxidants, high omega fatty acids, vitamins and minerals. The benefits of using the fruit of this plant (both externally and internally) continue to mount with new uses continuing to be found.
The plants are 'dioecious' (which means that male and female flowers exist on different plants) meaning that a male and female plant needs to be present to have the fruit form on the female plant, fertilized from the pollen produced by the male. A single male plant can pollinate as many as 7 or 8 female plants. The plant is a large, hardy, sun-loving, thorny shrub with attractive silver grey leaves much like Russian Olive, and it offers protection for birds and small animals. It will not tolerate wet conditions, preferring well-drained, loamy soils. It offers valuable protection for birds and small animals. Trees generally grow to 16 ft. tallby 12 ft. wide. In addition to the Male Seabuckthorn, Grobe's offers female Orange DelightSeabuckthorn, specially bred to bring some of the heaviest fruit crop possible. **N/A 2024
With their reputation as a 'superfood' due to their anti-oxidant laden berries, blueberries continue to grow in popularity. Among the 10 varieties on offer this year are three highly sought varieties that offer the latest in breeding. 'Razz' has the great flavour similar to its siblings Bluecrop and Blue Ray, tasty Sweetheart has the potential to bear more than one crop of berries in a season and 'Cabernet Splash' has, in addition to delicous berries, ever-changing foliage that emerges a deep, dark purple colour that is a mottled green in season before becoming a fiery red in the fall. There are new varieties from the Bushel and Berry dwarf series - Silver Dollar and Pink Icing - that offer pretty foliage in addition to tasty berries. Additionally, we will have a good supply of 3 in 1 Blueberry plants for those with limited space.
There is nothing sweeter than being able to harvest your own little snippet of summer flavour with strawberries that bloom and produce fruit all season long. 'Berries Galore' is perfect for small containers, while 'Seascape', 'Berried Treasure Pink' and Berried Treasure 'Red' are available in larger pots that can be put into your own favourite pot or plot in the garden. An easy way to get the little ones interested in the garden - but watch out - you might never see any fruit yourself!
While originally only planted to attract birds, Chokeberry or Aroniaberry is being introduced into gardens for human consumption as well. Grobe's will offer both the native Black Chokeberry (special order) as well as the excellent cultivar 'Nero'. This plant bears a heavy crop of black berries that are high in antioxidants, anthocyanins, fibre, Vitamin C and are excellent for making jams, juices or eating fresh. Growing 3-5 ft. tall in sun, it has white spring flowers and red fall foliage that make it landscape worthy as well!
Looking like blueberries, but with 5 times the anti-oxidants, this honeysuckle cousin produces heavy yields of flavourful berries that taste like a blueberry/raspberry combination, and are in huge demand in Japan (where they are known as honeyberries). Plants bear heavy flowers in mid-April, with fruit ripening in late June/early July. A product of many years of breeding at the University of Saskatchewan, Grobe's has a limited supply of Aurora, Borealis, Blizzard and Smart Berry Blue (pollinator) available. These are well documented as the very best combination of varieties for use to ensure large yield.
Additionally, we offer Japanese haskaps (which are also known as Yezberry) with varieties Solo, Maxie and Keiko. These do not pollinate with those previously mentioned (but amongst themselves). They flower a bit later, and the fruit is larger.
This tropical-looking shrubby and rare Carolinian tree is covered by drooping large green leaves and eventually will bear chubby aromatic green fruit. High in vitamins and minerals, it is a deliciously sweet, rich treat with a ‘custard-like’ texture akin to banana. It seldom grows taller than 25 ft. and while tolerant of some shade, it does best in sun in rich well-drained soil. (Note: Plants are 2 gallon shrubs - late available).
This revolutionary, thorn-free dwarf raspberry (Raspberry Shortcake) has a compact habit and is ideal for large patio pots or small gardens. It requires no staking and bears full-size, sweet fruit in July. Cut dead canes each spring to the ground, leaving older wood with new growth emerging for this year's fruit production. The ample ground sprouts will become fruit bearing canes next year. A Grobe staff favourite.. they are the berry bushes we almost hope won't sell out!
Baby Cakes Thornless Blackberry is a dwarf, thornless blackberry perfect for container gardening with its compact habit. Spring and early summer bring bright white flowers. In summer, large, sweet berries present on top of the plant in a fireworks-like spray of fruit. The plant has a somewhat round shape with upright growth reaching 3-4' in height. In most regions, this blackberry will produce twice with a mid-summer floricane crop and a mid-fall primocane crop. Tasty and prolific.
Blueberry Varieties
Blue Crop
Bonus
Cabernet Splash
Peach Sorbet Dwarf
Pink Icing Dwarf
Silver Dollar Dwarf
Duke
Northcountry
Razz
Superior
Sweetheart
3 in 1 Blueberries
Currant Varieties
Ben Nevis Black
Titania Black
White Pearl White
Red Lake Red
Other Fruiting Plants
American Hazelnut
Hardy Fig Olympian
Hardy Fig Chicago
Firecracker Goji Berry
York Elderberry
Native Elderberry
Issai Kiwi Vine (self-fertile)
Red Candy Lingonberry
Regent Saskatoon Berry
Northline Saskatoon Berry
Honeywood Saskatoon Berry
Nero Black Chokeberry (Aronia)
Fruiting Weeping Mulberry
Rhubarb
FRUITING PLANTS - FAQ
IS IT POSSIBLE TO ORDER SOMETHING NOT LISTED HERE?
It is sometimes possible to order specific fruit and/or edible plant varieties that are not shown on this page. If you have a variety of interest that does not appear here, email us or call and we will do our best to source it for you either during shipping season (spring) or when we place our yearly fruit tree order (usually mid-September to early October) for the following season.
DO YOU SELL BARE ROOT TREES?
Bare root planted trees generally have higher incidences of loss, and for that reason we do not offer this type of plant for purchase. Almost all fruiting trees and shrubs available have been container grown for one season to ensure there is a vigorous root system for transplantation.
WHEN ARE YOUR PLANTS AVAILABLE TO BE PURCHASED?
Our sales yard opens to the public in early to mid-April (and this is dictated by the weather) should you wish to pick out your tree or bush. Fruiting plants are generally the first items we make available for sale in our yard.
We will take pre-orders for plants in advance of this time starting at the beginning of April.
Fully paid pre-orders are selected out by our senior horticulturists from the best of the crop and set aside ahead of our yard opening. They are not 'upon approval'.
These pre-orders are also subject to a 10% per day maintenance fee if not picked up before two Sundays have passed from the date of purchase. Deletions or changes to pre-sold orders are subject to a 20% Restocking Fee. No pre-orders are taken AFTER our yard opens to the public.
DO YOU SHIP YOUR PLANTS?
At present we have not found an economical method to ensure that your plants would arrive to you in good condition. Therefore, we do not ship nursery stock outside of regionally to us in Waterloo Region in Southern Ontario. We do not deliver into the Greater Toronto Area. Phytosanitary requirements preclude our shipping of product over the US border.
WHEN DO YOU 'CLEAR' YOUR STOCK BEFORE WINTER?
As you can see from the pictures below, we have the ability to winter store any unsold stock indoors for the winter. Usually this will equate to a tree or plant of greater value the following season, so it is unlikely that there will be such a 'sale' at the end of the season. A tree sold in fall has had the benefit of our care all season long, and we do not charge extra for this value added benefit.
HOW DO I KNOW IF WHAT I WANT WILL BE IN STOCK BEFORE I COME TO VISIT GROBE'S?
We do post a daily updated availability prominently on our website that would indicate that fact (from late March until the end of October).
As with all Grobe plants, if you are coming any distance we will be happy to answer any emailed inquiry on plant supply ahead of your visit.
Please use our Contact Us page for these inquries.
Fruiting Plant Images
Please find here a small gallery of what we would consider typical for our fruit selection. It's true that this can vary a little from year to year depending on supply - but this is pretty much what you can expect to find if you choose to visit.
