by Mark Gilson

People often ask why Lake County became such a mega-center for nurseries. 

In the beginning, 1854, the first nursery resulted from the vision of one man, Jesse Storrs, who moved his family and nursery to Painesville from Cortland, New York.  Four years later, he was joined by another visionary, JJ Harrison, an English immigrant, and they became partners in what would become the largest departmental nursery in the world.  Transportation undoubtedly played a role in attracting Storrs to Northeastern Ohio.  The railroads arrived in 1852 and connected local farmers, finally, to eastern markets.  But there had to be more than transportation attracting these horticultural pioneers and the additional 200 nurseries that followed.

A study of the nursery locations in eastern Lake County reveals a ‘Nursery Belt’, three to seven miles from north to south beginning near the Lake Erie shoreline, and twenty miles wide, extending from County Line Road in Madison (a few historic nurseries were located to the east in Ashtabula County) and then westward through Mentor.    

To understand this Nursery Belt we need to look back over our geological history to the glaciers and the formation of three ancient lakes…four if we include present-day Lake Erie…from which we derive such gentle topography and such a diversity of unique productive soils. 

During the most recent ‘ice age’ (known as the Wisconsin period extending from 11,000 to 100,000 years ago) Lake County was covered at least five times by glaciers, sometimes up to a mile high.  Some glaciers extended well into Southern Ohio but the most recent reached only into southern Lake County.  With each glacier came sand, gravel and rocks from the north.  With each thawing and retreat, lakes were formed.  The beaches from three of those ancient lakes gave rise to the ridges we recognize now.

Whittlesey was the highest ancient lake, 150’above current-day Lake Erie.  Deposits of sand and gravel up to 20’ thick follow its irregular path from Unionville, through Madison, Perry, Painesville, and westward through Willoughby, conforming to a great extent with the current South Ridge Road (Rt 84). This ancient beach defines the southern edge of the Nursery Belt since soils beyond it generally become heavier and less hospitable.  The nurseries of Wick Hathaway (1877) and Ed Wetzel (1917) were founded on South Ridge Road in Madison.  Wetzel, like many others, began as a childhood worker at Storrs & Harrison Nursery at age 11.  Gerard K Klyn Nursery began in 1921 on Center Street in Mentor, across from the current Mentor High School, but moved to Rt 84 in Perry in 1966.  LCN began as Zampini Nursery and Champions Nursery in Perry Village but relocated to South Ridge Road in the 1980s on the site of the former Nick Mesman Nursery. These two operations continue to dominate the high ridge above the Nursery Belt.

Soils throughout the Nursery Belt were formed from glacial till then shaped and reshaped by waves and wind.  Some contain abundant organic matter like the strip of black muck that runs just to the north of North Ridge.  Some are more sandy, especially as they near the current lakeshore.  Some have higher concentrations of clay rendering them ‘heavier’ like those in Mentor favored by the Rose Growers.  The true story is this: Lake County is not just blessed with ‘good soil’…but with a unique diversity of fertile soils.  A review of the soil map for the Nursery Belt reveals over 17 discrete types.

At 120’ above Lake Erie, the ancient shore of Lake Arkona defines the Middle Ridge, which follows a discontinuous line along ‘Middle Ridge Road’ in Madison and Perry, following ‘Narrows Road’ as it nears Painesville and joining with Johnnycake Ridge Road in Mentor.  Early nurseries founded in Perry near ‘Middle Ridge’ included L. Green & Son (1865), Merriman Nursery (1868), Call’s Nursery (1874) Champions (1891), TB West Nursery (1893) which later became Champions, and Dugan Nurseries (1908).  More recent nurseries include Maple Bend, Frank Square’s Nursery, Cottage Gardens, Don Stallard’s Nursery and CM Browns(1970) in Perry; Crawfords, Turkenburg , Cass-Mill and Bluestone(1972) in Madison.

North Ridge, closest to modern Lake Erie and rising 100’ above it, conforms to Lake Warren as it winds, splits and reforms along North Ridge Road (Route 20), becoming Erie Street, Mentor Avenue and Euclid Avenue on its way to downtown Cleveland.    Many still remember the Rt 20 of the 1950s prior to the interstate highway system.  Trucks and cars lumbered by at all hours on their way from Buffalo to Chicago.  Numerous small motels with guest cabins operated in every community along the way. 

Interspersed in the traffic were tractors, farm wagons and stake-trucks, driven by Italians, Puerto Ricans, Hungarians and every other nationality as they attended to the daily demands and realities of The Nursery Capital of the World.

Well-drained soils on beach ridges and terraces throughout the area include Chenango, Chili, Conotton, Oshtemo, Otisville and Tyner, although the last four do not hold together well for digging, balling and burlapping.  Poorly drained soils such as Fitchville, Stafford, Painesville and Red Hook offer better digging qualities once the fields are tiled and drained.  Some areas such as Perry were originally covered with wetlands.   ‘Elnora loamy fine sand’ to the north of Rt 20 in Perry is a productive nursery soil when artificially drained with tiles.  The ‘Elnora’ soil is often interspersed with fast-drying ‘Colonie loamy fine sand.’  To the south of North Ridge Road local growers in Perry encounter ‘Tyner loamy sand’ on the post-glacial beach ridges.  These soils are accessible to tractors and equipment early in the season but require irrigation for summer crops.

Productive ‘topsoils’ range from three to eighteen inches deep.  Since topsoil can require 500 to 1000 years per inch to occur naturally, depletion of the surface levels over time is a serious concern.  Fortunately, digging and shipping of balled and burlapped nursery stock depletes the topsoil very slowly over many decades.  In addition, modern nurseries specializing in field-grown material employ aggressive soil re-building techniques, such as cover cropping and the introduction of fresh organic matter each season in the form of nursery compost, leaf compost from local residential neighborhoods and specially formulated ‘county compost’ from local sewage treatment plants.  These materials are cultivated into the subsoil each year and provide a sustainable model for future nursery production.

Read Part 2 next week! 

Sources:

1. White, George W., Glacial Geology of Lake County, Ohio, State of Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Geological Survey, Columbus, 1980.
2. Ritchie, A. and Reeder, N.E., Soil Survey of Lake County, Ohio, United States Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service, January 1979.
3. Edgar, Chad, Lake County Soil and Water Conservation District, April 2018, conversation with Mark Gilson.
4. George ‘Josh’ Haskell, local attorney and historian. 
5. Bob Endebrock, Ohio Department of Agriculture Nursery Inspector (retired)
6. James Schroeder, Mentor Rose Growers.
7. Perry Historical Society.
8. Morley Library.
9. Thanks to various additional sources associated with Nursery Growers of Lake County Ohio, Inc.
10. Photos courtesy of Perry Historical Society, NGLCO File and Mark Gilson.  

Mark Gilson is a third-generation nurseryman and past-president of Nursery Growers of Lake County, Ohio. Visit: http://gilsongardens.biz/category/marks-corner/

by Lois Rose

Figs:  you say, what?  These trees are mentioned in the Bible and grow abundantly in the Mediterranean area.

Yes, I grow figs in the ground, in Cleveland Heights, have for about twenty years. Before that I followed the local wisdom that they had to be brought indoors in large barrels each winter or they would not survive. I got tired of transporting them and getting almost nothing from the tree.  So, I took a risk and planted it in the ground. And lo and behold, it grew and grew and produced a ton of fruit. That tree got so big that I had to move it, thereby gaining many small fig trees in the process.  I have since accumulated about five different kinds of fig trees, all of which have their own personalities.

Before the terrible polar vortex winters of 13-14 and 14- 15, I had been harvesting hundreds of figs every year—perhaps five hundred in the summer of 2013.  I gave many away, made preserves, ate them every morning for breakfast, had a snack in the afternoon—you get the point. But that first winter knocked them down to the ground.  They have been recovering ever since.

My figs get a special treatment in the late fall, around November, when all of the leaves fall off. The fruit remaining on the trees is removed. They are tied into bunches with heavy cord, then wrapped in large tarps (using grommets can be helpful), then bent to the ground and weighted with heavy lawn furniture or big stones and slabs. When very young and pliable, for example after the years they were killed to the roots, the new stems and branches could easily be bent down. Some people cut off the roots on one side and bend the trees into a prepared ditch on the other side. In Brooklyn it was traditional to build a cage around the fig tree, wrap it up and stuff the cage with leaves, and cover the top with tar paper. I have my own method which works most years—but not in those two terrible winters. We then had two very mild winters and the figs grew very nicely, producing about thirty fruit the first summer and last summer about 150.  This winter was of course another bad one, and it is still coming. I never open my figs up until the weather is totally settled—in May usually. If you take them out too soon, even if they have small leaves already, the leaves could be killed by a late frost or freeze so I wait.

Some fig trees produce an early crop, called a breba crop, which can ripen in early summer.  But the big crop for all of mine starts with tiny figs in the middle of the summer—last year a full month ahead of itself because of the very warm spring. By September, and into October, some fruit ripens every day. You are fighting other creatures for the figs of course—squirrels, birds, ants. Ants are perhaps the most insidious.  You must wash them away with a strong stream of water or soak your figs in a pan of water to disgorge them.  Even with the attrition, it is very gratifying to walk into the yard and find figs here and there hidden in the foliage, drooping over from their stems when they are ripe and ready for picking.

I have a white fig (Bianca), Chicago Hardy and Brown Turkey and two unidentified types. They are fairly easy to find from local nurseries.  If you do not take the time and energy to cover them over the winter, however, you start from scratch each spring with nothing there except the roots. Some people do not mind doing this—that is, nothing. But they do not get a big crop needless to say.

Medlars: Most people do not know about this tree.  Shakespeare wrote about the fruit in several of his plays—it has been around a long time, cultivated since Roman times.  The fruit looks like a small brownish apple or pear, but the calyx end has a peculiar quality—in Shakespeare’s time it was referred to as a “dog’s ass”.  (See Romeo and Juliet.)

The other peculiar thing about it is that it is not eaten from the tree when ripe because it will not ripen there. You must remove it before hard frost and place it in a cool and dark place, on sand or newspaper, protected from mice, for a few weeks while it blets, or ripens.  When it is soft to the touch it can be eaten or made into jelly.  It is something like a spicy applesauce in taste.

The tree itself is quite charming, with very large leaves and beautiful white flowers in the early summer.

It has gorgeous fall colors—reds, oranges, yellows-and grows slowly.  Plant your medlar in well drained, fertile soil in a somewhat sheltered location in sun.  They do not seem to be attractive to insects or diseases. My first and oldest tree was unfortunately deer rubbed early in its life, and then a few years ago when we had a November ice storm, it was severely damaged because the leaves were still there.  Pruning in late winter, as you would a pear or apple tree, helps maintain a good shape, and encourages flowering. My three trees are all grafted.  (Mespilus germanica can be ordered from several good nurseries on the West Coast, like One Green World and Raintree.)

I hope I have not intimidated you with too much information.  Try a little small fruit in your garden—perhaps you will get hooked as I have been.

by Lois Rose

Do not be alarmed.  This is not going to be a technical and challenging article giving you too much information about how to grow your own fruiting plants at home. 

I am going to attempt to tickle your interest in the subject and provide you with enough information to get you started on your own. 

Some personal history:  I happened to live for seven years in an old house on Bluestone Road near what used to be the quarry on Belvoir. Our honeymoon tiny house—650 square feet—had belonged to the parents of the quarry master and they had planted a lot of old fashioned fruit and flowers.  The red currants formed a short hedge and were pretty much neglected to the point of never producing anything. I became interested in them and gradually coaxed them into production.  When we moved from our little sanctuary into a larger property, I immediately wanted to plant currants, and raspberries.  And figs. And then I added medlars and kiwis.

So, I will share with you some of what I have learned over the past 50 years of growing. 

Currants:  I grow four kinds of currants—red, black, pink and white.  Red, pink and white are self-fertile.  Red is the most commonly found, from which red currant jelly is made.  Black currants are made into jelly but more importantly, in France, they become crème de cassis, a liqueur which was made popular near Dijon where the story goes that they had too many of the fruit and someone—the mayor? —devised a special drink called Kir—crème de cassis with white wine—and Kir Royale—crème de cassis with Champagne.

Making crème de cassis is one of the great pleasures and challenges of growing black currants. But that is for another day. (Jane Grigson’s Fruit book has a terrific recipe.)

Red currants (Ribes sativum) are easy to find at nurseries and come in many varieties.  Black currants (Ribes nigrum) are more difficult to find and there is an added bugaboo—you cannot grow certain varieties in Ohio because the plant can carry the White Pine Blister Rust which can cause havoc if you are near a stand of White Pine. So, the state regulates what varieties can be brought in. 

Personal History note: A Russian friend came for dinner in 1989 and after dinner we walked around the yard and he saw that I had red currants but not black ones.  Why not he asked?  I explained the difficulty of getting them in Ohio.  He strongly advised me to try to find some that could be imported. I tried for a while and eventually found some that I was allowed to grow. Since then many other varieties that are resistant to the Rust have been put on the ok list and I grow quite a few of them. They are all far superior to the original plants that I planted in the 90’s. More about that later.

A brief note about pruning currants.  Black currants need to be pruned in a very specific way, removing the fruited branches down to the base or to a side shoot which will take over as the new fruiting branch in the next season. I have a developed a system for doing this which is not usually listed but nevertheless I have used it for years.  I cut the branch of the currant that is full of fruit down to a lower side shoot, then put the fruit laden branch aside until I have cut back all of the fruited branches on that bush. Then I remove the fruit from all of the cut branches rather than picking it off of the bush. I do not know if this is an entirely kosher method but I love it.

Red currants are pruned in a different way. The oldest canes should be removed after about three years, and weak and damaged wood can be removed as well. A mature shrub can have 9 to 12 canes. Fruit is produced on one, two and three-year-old wood so keeping some of each makes sense.

Site selection is a first step for growing all small fruit.  Full sunlight is really best but partial shade can be tolerated by most.  Well drained, moderately fertile soil is preferable.  Good air circulation helps foliage dry faster, but too much wind is not an advantage. Avoiding the area where previously diseased plants grew is imperative.

Small fruits need a pH range of 5.5 to 7.5 except for blueberries which need much more acidic pH.  (pH is a measure of acidity. Each number represents a ten-fold increase over the previous number—so 6 is ten times more acidic than 7.) A soil test will tell you pH values and help you to decide on amendments to bring the soil to the required level. (The University of Massachusetts soil test lab is a good site.)

Organic materials such as compost are helpful in improving the soil before planting.

Your fruit will need a water source, convenient and easy to use. Sprinklers, drip irrigation or soaker hoses are all possible water providers.

Raspberries are brambles, in the plant genus Rubus. 

They have perennial roots and crowns, but their canes (branches) live for two summers only. 

Most bear in the summer.  In the first year, a new cane (primocane) grows leaves and enlarges its stem. It develops a brownish bark and becomes dormant over the winter. In its second season it is called a floricane which produces flowers and fruit in early or mid-summer and then dies. New canes are produced each year for continual fruit production.  They are self-fertile, best pollinated by bees.

Numerous new canes develop from the base of the floricanes of red and yellow raspberries and from buds on the roots which become underground stems.  These stems can spread in any direction and must be pruned to be kept in check.

Black and most purple raspberries produce primocanes only from buds at the base of the floricanes. They live in clumps or “hills” in the original location.

Everbearing red raspberries, called “fall bearing” or “primocane fruiting”, can produce flowers during the first year beginning in late May or early June.  The fruit is produced at the tips of the primocanes. In the second year they may have a summer crop on the lower part of the same canes. Pruning can determine whether there will be a summer crop and a fall crop or just a fall crop. I cut my canes down in late winter and get a fall crop only.

I grow summer bearing raspberries, red and purple, as well. Their floricanes which have already fruited are pruned in the fall.  Remove all of the pruned canes from the area to prevent disease or insect issues.

Purchase disease -free plants from a good nursery. Do not dig them from a neighbor or friend. Once a virus gets to your berry plants they are doomed.