Wonderful Wineberry

We've added a new variety to our berry collection, in the form of Japanese Wineberry. This plant is fast gaining popularity, but I first found out about it the old fashioned way - from a fellow allotmenteer who has a very impressive specimen on her plot.

Wineberry is a cousin of the blackberry, and like it's relative it forms a handsome plant with long green arching stems, but unlike the blackberry it has very few thorns and is instead covered in a downy halo of burgundy hairs. Wineberries fruit on last years growth like a summer-fruiting raspberry, so we don't expect any fruit this year, but hope these shy little twigs will burst out of dormancy any moment and put on some nice healthy grown. Our newly planted addition:

A word of warning - as a vigorous grower more than capable of tip rooting, this plant does have the potential to become invasive if left to it's own devices. However with regular pruning it can be kept easily at bay and thanks to that vigour it's happy in the conditions that other, fussier plants might turn their noses up at. We've stuck it in the narrow and often dry bed on the road side of our garden shed. We had grown a few flowers here last year but it seemed a shame to waste that lovely warm wall space. Once the wineberry puts on some new growth we'll tie it in to a trellis on the wall and make use of the previously wasted vertical space.

One of the most beautiful features of this plant is also it's great selling point - each flower bud, and later each fruit, is protected from birds and other pests by a striking calyx covered in bright red, sometimes sticky, hairs. These catch the sun and look simply magical.

The berries themselves appear in bunches, but each ripen at a slightly different rate giving a lovely long season of pickings. As they ripen the berries become translucent and simply jewel-like. Certainly a stunning garnish on any sweet dish, but with a flavour that puts me in mind of pomegranate with a hint of blackberry I think they could stand up to savoury dishes, too. My neighbour on the plot has been growing hers for years and swears that the birds never steal the berries, so we don't plan to net it. Our other berries are decimated in a matter of hours if the fruit cage is left open, so the idea of a "bird proof" plant is definitely worth a try.

Now we just have to wait until next year for (hopefully) our first lovely harvest of ruby-red berries. We'll let you know how it goes!