Bare Root Plants for Sale
Thank you for your interest and happy growing!
PLEASE READ: If you are local or regional to the Finger Lakes area (able to pick up in person), feel free to reach out to hello@edibleacres.org with a clear wish list of plants as an alternative to ordering here and we will work to arrange a pickup.
We update our offerings on March 1st for Spring bare root sales and September 1st for Fall bare root sales. If you are visiting this page and see all plants as sold out, please make a note in your calendar to revisit at our next ‘opening’ and pick up some lovely plants!
Our Fall offerings tend to have higher numbers of trees, shrubs, cuttings and a medley of our abundant and Fall appropriate herbaceous perennials. Spring will generally have more herbaceous perennials and grasses, and a smaller number of trees and shrubs. We weight our inventory in large part based on seasonal appropriateness for establishment. We hope you understand and visit again if you don’t find the plants you are looking for this time.
If you are super eager to get plants now, we now have a Permaculture Nursery page that lists friends of ours with ethical and thoughtful growing practices. We strongly encourage you to check them out and get some awesome plants from them too!
Please be aware that some plants are considered ‘illegal’ in some states. It is possible that some of our plants are not allowed to be planted where you live. If you are in doubt, you can search the plant and your state and see if it they are prohibited or ‘illegal’ to plant and if so please don’t order them. Thanks.
TIP: Use the tags above to help filter our offerings by characteristic (ie. click on ‘fruit’ to find any fruit bearing plants we offer, etc.) As we add more and more it is a helpful way to find a plant to fit your goals…
Goumi
Goumi
Elaeagnus Multiflora
Goumi, also spelled Gumi, is a very lovely shrub in the Elaeagnus family. This is an incredibly self-sufficient and vibrant Nitrogen fixing, fruit bearing shrub that gets up to 8’ or taller in many site conditions. In late June as the first currants are ripening and some raspberries are darkening Goumi shrubs may put on many hundreds if not thousands of deep red, richly flavored nourishing fruits. Faintly reminiscent of their cousin the Autumn Olive, the fruits are rich, tangy, have hints of sour and sweetness and are surprisingly filling! Their lycopene content is through the roof along with tons of minerals and vitamins making it a true superfood for early summer. Unlike Autumn Olive, they do not seem to expand into the environment around them by seed.
Their deep green foliage, beautiful small flowers early in the season, extremely low needs (minimal to no browse from deer, drought tolerant, don’t need fertility, on and on!) make them worth growing just for their amazing selves… The unbelievably large yields of tasty and nourishing fruit makes them a must have for any good permaculture garden. They also support whatever plants are around them with nitrogen fixation! So generous!
You generally get best results with 2 or more plants. We offer seedlings grown from selected cultivars Sweet Scarlet, Red Gem and Carmine. The pollen from all three mother plants may be involved making our seedling offering unique and diverse and quite promising.
Our main Goumi plant offering is for a 1st year seed grown plant that is at least 8” tall or taller and ready to really establish in your gardens and orchards for next year. Our ‘grade b’ option is a 1st year seedling that is below 6” tall but quite viable and would do well to be planted in a nursery bed for a season (you can stool layer them as they grow for extra copies!)
Size:
Goumi can be pruned as needed over time to maintain a certain size but seems to like to get at least 8’ tall and can be quite wide and full.
Site Preference:
Goumi can fix Nitrogen so it does not need extremely fertile soils to thrive. They do not seem to enjoy wet feet and prefer a fuller sun context although they are content in partial shade so long as they ideally get a mid-day sun situation.
Hardiness:
Zone 5A, perhaps a little colder. We have friends in Vermont who have Goumi that get winter damage every few years but have been alive for 10+ years, they are soundly zone 4
Easy Instructions on how to propagate Elderberry and other hardwood cuttings. This would work with the cuttings you get from us in the mail:
