New berry plants for the landscape gardening at agro-tourism farms

Abstract

The popularity of agro­tourism continues to grow in Lithuania during the last decades. People are fond of spending time in the countryside. New horticultural plants with valuable decorative and economic properties should be used for landscape gardening at farms of agro­tourism. The seasonal development, winter hardiness, resistance to late spring frosts as well as morphological properties of genera Actinidia and Vaccinium were investigated. The lianas Actinidia kolomikta and A. arguta are suitable for planting in arbours and pergolas. Male plants of A. kolomikta are more ornamental because of their intensive leaves variegation, meanwhile female clones are also valuable because of berry yield. A comparison of both Actinidia species revealed high cold tolerance in winter, however, the cultivars of Actinidia kolomikta were more winterhardy under Lithuanian climate conditions. The bushes of highbush blueberry (Vaccinium × covilleanum) are very attractive during flowering and berry ripening phases as well as because of their dark purple coloration of leaves in autumn. The early and medium­early cultivars of highbush blueberry ‘chandler’, ‘reka’, ‘earliblue’, ‘Nui’, ‘toro’, ‘spartan’ with long period of berry ripening should be used for landscape gardening in agro­tourism farms. American cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) and cowberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) are evergreen species which are very popular horticultural plants in Lithuania. The most decorative cultivars of cowberry ‘erntekro­ ne’, ‘erntesegen’, ‘red Pearl’ as well as some clones were selected and recommended for growing in the garden­plots. American cranberry cultivars look very attractive during blooming and they produce very valuable berries in autumn.