Ever Thought of Planting Luscious Blackberries in Your Landscape?
March 14, 2023
By Rick Bogusch
These small fruits are easy to grow, attractive in bloom and have long-lasting fall color. They also produce an abundance of tasty fruits, especially if you prune them when dormant.We just finished pruning our blackberries. We start by removing the dead canes that flowered last year and thinning live, dark red canes to 5 or 6 per plant. These are topped at 4 feet and any lateral or side branches are shortened to 12-18 inches. It doesn’t take long and is worth the effort in extra fruit. There are summer pruning regimens you can also follow to increase and extend production.
Though trellising is usually recommended for blackberries, they also make attractive landscape plants if given lots of room and planted in the right situation. They are great for naturalizing along a woodland edge or the edge of an unmown lawn or meadow.
Blackberry species (Rubus spp.) are often circumboreal and most plants, both cultivated and wild, are hybrids of multiple species. Southern dewberry (R. trivialis) and highbush blackberries (R. allegheniensis) are 2 species recognized to be native to eastern North America. They’ve given rise to many thornless commercial varieties suitable for the home landscape, including Caddo, Loch Ness and Natchez, all of which you can see at Bridge Gardens on your next visit.
Rick Bogusch
Garden Director, Bridge Gardens
rbogusch@peconiclandtrust.org