Interesting. Does anyone know when they will start shipping? It looks like the variety is available now for purchase on their website.
I plan to grow a wide mix of rubus including:
Yellows (cascade gold, Anne)
Reds (Joan J, Josephine)
Black (Tahi)
Purple (Glencoe)
Tummelberry
Thimbleberry
European dewberry (rubus caesius)
Balloon berry (Rubus illecebrosus)
I’m planning to grow them in a row with a simple trellis that will hold floricanes and primo canes separately.
Does anyone have advice with respect to growth habits and grouping? I was thinking of grouping the reds, yellows, and thimbleberry, and grouping the black, purple, tummelberry, European dewberry, and balloon berry.
interesting, never heard of Tahi, Tummelberry, or Balloon berry
advice with respect to growth habits - I’ve learned that, for Blackberry at least, some grow crazy long rope-like vines and some grow strong erect canes. Some spread underground like crazy and pop up 6 feet away, and some stay very contained and only spread by tip rooting. I believe raspberries are similar in their diversity
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Thank you for the advice! I’m scared of them running away from the spot I’ve set up for them in my garden. If all goes according to plan, I’ll be growing them in 2 8ft metal tubs which should slow down their inevitable escape.
Tahi is a new thornless black raspberry (born free is the other one)
Balloon berry goes by several names, but there’s not much info about it. I’ll report back on flavor, texture, and harvest amount.
Tummelberry is more popular in the UK I think, it’s a cross between raspberry and blackberry.
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Same issue here as well with five of these plants in an attempt to improve yield over the previous year. It’s a shame because it’s a nice size berry with good flavor when fully ripe. I’m thinking about hand pollinating and feeding more regularly next summer to see if it helps.
I am hoping that planting another variety will help them set fruit through cross pollination. It is possible that they just don’t set fruit well self pollinating since they were my only variety.
Maybe they just dont make a lot of pollen in the first flush, or maybe they are sensitive to heat or something. I would say we had a dry summer, but my plants are all under mulch and the soil stays moist for weeks without rain like in this current drought
Tahi is the same as born free.
If you buy josephine from the vendor that we have discussed dont expect it to be the one from previous discussions.
Tummelberry isnt available in the US as far as i know.
YMMV with seeds being sold online. Could end up with something better could end up with a Frankenberry.
I was planning to buy Josephine from : handpickednursery. Do you think I should expect a “good” Josephine or a bad one / not the right type/ switch vendors?
Lots of discussions in this forum. Not sure if you searched before posting?
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Yikes I’ll definitely switch vendors. Thank you!
Which vendor are you going to use for Josephine?
Good eye… i mentioned it over a month ago with no interest… hopefully your post will get folks interested.
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I kind of want to buy thunderhead and celestial, but i have a bunch of Rosborough and some Dormanred on order from Womack, plus several varieties I hope to get from you… I’m just completely out of room in my back yard lol. Plus I worry thunderhead might have that “U of Ark” flavor…
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Im getting rid of Black Gem, Sweet Giant Black Magic., etc if u want them. Fruit set is october onward here on pcanes.
i have a flower bud that hasn’t even opened yet on my Black Gem…
Black Magic maybe, how does it taste?
All of the primocane ones taste fairly the same to me. Sweet Giant was pretty good though and PA45. I never do the floricanes though… maybe they are better. Its always super confusing seeing all of the folks raving over the primocane fruits of them in June…when i know that they are floricanes.
Thunderhead is PA Freedom X PA45 So that doesnt really interest me much… basically a PA Freedom with less thorns than PA45 but with production like PA45 which is very high. So to me its a more user friendly PA45…which is very thorny. I dont think it will survive the US desire to grow market myself… maybe overseas.
I see you were giving this grower of Black Gem some insight and talking about Black Magic.
This guy seems to love his Black Magic Blackberries and does well in Ukraine.
More info on ‘Black Magic’
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are you sure that’s right? everything I read says that it’s a cross between PA Freedom and an ORUS variety
edit: oh I see that PA45 is parent of that ORUS variety, so PA45 is the grandmother or grandfather of Thunderhead. I wonder how much of a royalty ORUS has to pay to U of Ark for this? I also wonder why the University of Arkansas agreed to let them do that since it could take royalty payments away from them down the line
yeah I’m even less interested now, since I already have lots of Prime-Ark varieties including Freedom, Horizon, 45, and Black Gem
I first commented because during the video he said he didn’t want to name the nursery he bought Black Gem from, however we all know there is only one place he could have bought it from
In case anyone else is interested, the Indiana Berry 2025 catalog is now available online. They will start accepting online orders beginning December 1st. First year over the last few that the catalog was made available online before I received a print copy.
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Bought 3 canes of jewel red and jewel honey and it was significantly cheaper than other places. Came out to 10$ a cane vs 80+shipping.
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