Can you grow Cloudberries in the U.S; Detroit area specifically if possible

Cafe Society
1

I had some in back in collage, from Northern European friends. And I remember they were so good.

My yard when I moved in had a nice raspberry patch. But, over the years the patch seemed to die off by 20% each year, until the point where it is now not even worth weeding. I was looking over it a lot the last couple days, as I have been leaf blowing through the ball-ass weeds I didn’t bother to terminate. And thinking of replacing the fruits.The it occurred to me that I have long had the memory of Cloudberries in the back of my head, the weather is similar, and the whole thing looked fairly similar to the raspberries that used to live here.

Does anyone in the U.S in a similar climatological area grow them? Is there a reason why I should let one more dream die? Obviously not the season for plantings, but any advice to prepare as Spring will eventually…Spring.

2

Cloudberries appear to be difficult to grow in a garden setting. They grow in cold peat bogs, and that’s very hard to reproduce in normal gardens. Norway seems to have made some progress in developing cultivated varieties, but those wouldn’t be available here.

I suggest you’d be better off either rehabbing your raspberry patch (which, if you read up on growing raspberries, needs some renewal every year, which is why yours died out), or trying an easier rare bush fruit like lingonberries or saskatoons.

3

Gardeners successfully grow cloudberries in some northern states (Minnesota, Maine and Alaska for instance).The Detroit area would probably provide enough cold, but summer heat might be a limiting factor. You’d also want to provide a damp location with acid soil.

I have installed several honeyberry plants in my orchard area, which is close to the southern limit for this unusual fruit (somewhat similar in cultural requirements to cloudberries but much less picky about soil, not needing or wanting boggy conditions). They are very winter-hardy but could struggle in prolonged summer heat. I think it’s worth the experiment.

4

Here’s what wikipedia says:

In North America, cloudberries grow wild across Greenland, most of northern Canada, Alaska, northern Minnesota, New Hampshire, Maine, and New York.[

I kind of get the impression that Detroit might be too hot for them. That’s often the catch with plants- many have evolved for relatively narrow ecological niches, and too cold, too hot, or the wrong day length will cause them to not grow at all, die because of heat or cold, or just not set flowers/fruit.