On Tue, 12 Jul 2005 12:29:23 +0000, kate7
wrote:


Hello,
In the depths of my local nature reserve, there is a blackberry bush
that produces abnormally large, sweet blackberries. None of it's
neighbours have similar atributes and for the last three years I've
been harvesting this one bush for the best freezer jam you've ever
tasted.

Does anyone know the best way to propagate from this bush?
I don't have room for blackberries in my garden, but I'd like to try
and plant some in the wild, or maybe pass some on to some other people


I know brambles are weeds, but we are talking about blackberries that
could cover a two pence piece here!

Just as an aside..
I've got a number of blackberry bushes dotted around my garden, and I
found that some produced significantly larger berries than others - so
I lifted offshoots from these bushes and planted them alongside the
other bushes in the hope of beefing up the main picking area.
By the time the bushes fruited I was rather miffed to find that the
fruits weren't anywhere near as large as the ones on the host
bush..and never have been.
The conclusion I drew from this is that the bushes are of the same
variety, but the environmental conditions ( assuming a minimum, of
course ) play a major role in determining the size and quality of the
fruit.
Strangely enough, the best berries come from a patch that only gets
the sun for the morning and is overgrown with ground elder.

So you may find that whilst you can propagate new bushes, you might
not get the huge fruits you expect. Gotta be worth a try though!

Regards,



--
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
www.shwoodwind.co.uk
Emails to: showard{whoisat}shwoodwind{dot}co{dot}uk