GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post - Blackberry with rose-like habit

David Hill · 11-10-2012, 10:57 AM posted to uk.rec.gardening

On 11/10/2012 10:13, wrote:
In article ,
Charlie Pridham wrote:

I was clearing the corner of a friend's garden in Cornwall, and
the blackberry puzzled me, because it had perennial stems like
a rose. It wasn't any of the foreign blackberries that I recognise,
nor like most of the UK ones. Other than that, it was a very
ordinary blackberry, just like most of the other UK ones.

Does anyone recognise such a thing? My guess is that it could be
an extreme Rubus fruticosus (perhaps in section glandulosi), or a
hybrid with a foreign species.

I have always assumed that they just behaved liked that down here so I will
be interested in any informed responses, several of the ones in my hedgerow
send up very tall woody stems that last for 5 years or so and behave like a
rambling rose, but I do grow one of the American thorn less varieties in the
fruit cage so a hybrid is more than possible. just wish they had inherited
the thorn less habit as well!

That's what I encountered. It's a bit odd, because CTW implies that
3-4' is about the limit of 'free' height, and two identical hybrids
is pushing plausibility a bit far. I suppose that it could have
been one that was popular for fruit 60+ years ago, and escaped.
Himalayan Giant certainly has in some places, but it wasn't that.

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

I've never known black berry shoots die off after just one year, I wish
they would