Silver Creek Nursery Ltd.

September Gem Goji Berry

Species: Lycium barbarum

History: Goji berries are native to China where they are an important commercial crop. They spread to the UK in the 1700s where they have remained popular as hedgerows and have become increasingly common in North America due to the health benefits of the berries.

Why We Grow It: Goji berries a.k.a. wolf berries are well known in the health food industry for their high antioxidant levels. The plant grows prolifically, and must be trellised or grown against a wall due to it's weeping growth habit. The fruit itself is sweet, with a mild fruity flavour, however the seeds are a bit bitter and seem to sweeten after a mild frost later in the season. The fruit dries well, and makes for a unique tasting jam!

Fruit Specs

Recommended Use: Juice, cooking, baking, drying, tea

Fruit Size:

Storage: Keeps up to a week in the fridge

Harvest: August - Late

Growing Specs

Canadian Hardiness Zone: 3

Soil Preference: Prefers sandy loam

Flowering Time:

Bloom Colour: Pink

Pollination Requirements: Self-pollinating, this variety will produce fruit without a different goji berry variety but will produce more and better fruit if one is present

Sun/Shade Requirements:

Full sun (approx. 8-10 hours of sun daily)

General Growth Habits:

Shrub reaches 1-3m high, weeping growth habit so needs to be trellised. Harvest late August to September.

Shipping vs. Pick Up

CLICK HERE to see how shipping compares to pick up.

Shipping: Every year we ship thousands of trees across Canada (except BC due to CFIA regulations). We carefully bag roots in damp sawdust, then box them and send them out via courrier. CLICK HERE to see our shipping policy.

Pick-up: We also have thousands of trees picked up from our nursery each year. The pick-up options is free, though you must wait until you have been emailed a confirmation that your order is ready to pick up, which will have further information such as hours, locations, etc. We really appreciate if you can make an appointment to pick up, then we can be as organized as possible during our busy season.

Size at Purchase

Goji berries are divided into the following grades:

1 year plant - pruned to ~30cm, extensive root system

There is some overlap in size since we are also taking the age of the plants into account. Some older plants may not have put on quite as much vegetative growth but will have larger root systems.

Unless specified, heights exclude the roots since seedlings and some berries will often have a lot of root growth but relatively little vegetative growth (ex. our Shagbark Hickories seedlings are often 5-15cm above the soil but will have roots that reach 20cm+ in length).

Not all of our berries and seedlings will be available in all of these grades since growth rate can vary significantly across species and even varieties. While we remain competitive in our plant size, it's also worth noting we don't use synthetic chemicals to push vegetative growth, therefore you may find conventional nursery stock larger in some instances comparatively.

Why plant small? It's best to transplant when a plant is young so it can establish its roots before it has a lot of vegetative growth. This is much less stressful on it and bareroot plants tend to catch up and even surpass larger potted ones planted at the same time, after a few years.

Orders that are cancelled last minute due to size (being "too small"), will still incur the applicable cancellation fees if the plants are true to our grading standards as per the agreement of sale when the order was placed.

Size 1 year plant

Quantity