That is just fascinating to me. I had never imagined that the weather my great great grandparents had was potentially a lot warmer from where they moved to in the US, and adapting what they grew as they literally worked on farms all their lives. Maybe growing gooseberries wasn’t possible back in Cornwall but they began once moving to the US?
Sorry that is off topic, but it literally is my late great gramma that is the sole reason why I am interested in trying gooseberries.
Cornwall does tend to be pretty warm, I think zone 9 or 10 depending on where they were? My family is from Poland and Ukraine, and my dad’s never been able to get gooseberries to grow after all his years of trying, in south central Pennsylvania (around Amish Country, basically). He mostly struggles with mold / fungal diseases, I think.
Climate and ancestry are both fascinating! Happy to chat more in DMs so as not to derail the thread.
Fruit is starting to set and after a very mild winter doesn’t look promising:
Sure you can direct message me to discuss farming and family history in many locations.
I am concerned that people in my county do not preserve farmlands, do not consider it important to educate youth on how to grow fruit or food in general, and that boring landscaping is what real estate agents use to determine value instead of fruit trees so apartments are nearly always banned from growing food resources.
Just in case anyone is interested, starkbro has 8.99 bareroot Hinn. Red gooseberry with free shipping. I got one today and it was a lot bigger than I was expecting, in case anyone is looking for one. Pretty good deal.
Colossal gooseberry has been my absolute favorite on the farm. We have many varieties, but colossal is the one I recommend to everyone.
How thorny is it? Is it upright or floppy?
It has many small thorns, it gets me pretty good every year. As for growth mine have all grown thickly / compact and stayed about knee high. Not too floppy like the others im growing nearby.
Now I might need to squeeze that in somewhere 
I need more yard space
My Oregon Champion is three times more vigorous than my Poorman
Black Velvet, John’s Prairie, or Jeanne. Bad news is it has very few fruit. None this year even though it flowered heavily.
i had to tie my Jeanne up to chic wire. otherwise, it flops and roots itself everywhere. never seen such a heavy cropping Ribes as that one.
I just put one in at my parents house, along with H. Yellow, H. Red, black velvet, so should be a pretty broad selection to try next year 
Awesome! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. I need to get myself a yellow as well, heard good things but have yet to get one.
Yeah I tried to plant all the varieties that people on here consistently said they had and liked, especially if it was lesser known variety… If it’s not that great just eating on its own, it will become jelly 
I was originally kind of put off by colossal because the berries look weird in the pics online lol. Glad you chimed in !
My OC is loaded with green berries right now, but whether I get any before the birds do is another question.
My Jeanne and Poorman have some berries on them, but the plants aren’t half the size of the OC, but it’ll be nice if I can get some fruit off them. I’ve tasted one Poorman and no Jeanne berries.
All my plants are overrun by weeds, but it hasn’t seemed to slow them down too much.
I’ll give my OC one more year to set fruit. If it doesn’t I’ll remove it. It is a nice looking healthy plant.
@danzeb I am pretty sure I got OC from you a few years ago. I removed it this spring. It is the only gooseberry that ever got the axe at my place. No productivity. There were plenty of flowers, but it only produced things that looked like black teardrops (and not many of them).
all my gooseberry were loaded with flowers and looking really promising. then the aphids attacked. I lost almost every flower and fruit start and a lot of leaves. predators didn’t keep up so I ended up spraying two entire plants in a drench with Eight. no more aphids but no fruit this year either.
my black velvet died to the ground over winter and is coming right back up in big leaves now, very spiny. no flowers though. maybe next year. I think I say that every year.
my green berry are going to make some fruit this year and I like those best anyway, they were labeled “white gooseberry” and the fruit looks like the ones my grandma grew.
the golden currant that I bought as a gooseberry is of course doing better than all the rest
Where did you get the white gooseberry?
from a local farm store, when I was in PA visiting family. it’s been a few years. it was just labeled “white gooseberry”, a dutchie woman had a few plants at her farmer market stall in Allentown PA.
it likely could be the same kind of plant as I grew up right by that area so it might be common thing there. if I get fruit from it this year it’ll have seeds and there’s no other related fruits growing nearby, I could send you some to try to start, or a few sticks of it once it’s dormant.
I’ll get photos when the fruit comes in too. they’re green with white like veins kind of.
edit: I looked at some photos and the closest is whitesmith. Invicta the berries look bigger and darker than what it makes
