"If reasons were as plentiful as blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion" -- William Shakespeare
A third look at delicious berries on bushes for the home garden, here's on that--unlike most--may be raised in light shade. Prolific from their second year on, also referred to as 'brambles,' the fruit have solid centers, unlike raspberries which are hollow.
Bearing on long, trailing canes, they require a fence or some form of post-and-wire support. In training them on to such, one drawback is quickly apparent: like their wild relatives, blackberry vines have thorns. True, horticultural wonder man Luther Burbank created a thornless form that might be worth search for. He also was responsible for a thornless
Opuntia cactus to be used for cattle food. But then advantage of training thorny brambles along a fence is that they offer a fine deterrent for larcenous attempts.
Apart from thorns, as with so many cultivated
Rubus selections, all brambles are a susceptible to several diseases. Purchase new plants only from reputable dealers. Prune to avoid crowded canes and watch for aphids, spreaders of many virus diseases.
Blackberries have frequently been utilized crossed with raspberries in the creation of new forms of berried fruit. These include Loganberries, Youngberries, Tayberries and Boysenberries. Unless you garden in much milder conditions than much of North America or are prepared to await climate change, these have limited uses.
"Such tenderness, these afternoons and evenings, saying blackberry, blackberry, blackberry," observed Robert Hass and so right. Fresh out of hand, breakfast fruit, jams, jellies, pies, served over vanilla ice cream, opportunities abound for this wonderous fruit.
