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Salmon Berries
ALPINE CURRANT (Ribes alpinum)
The Alpine Currant is a small and suckering member of the currant family that although preferring a neutral-acid soil, is otherwise easy to grow, tolerating quite dense shade. It is said to perform well in poor soils, getting to be about 1m high and wide. As both male and female plants are required for fruit, it is often used as a low growing hedge or ground cover, spaced about 50cm apart.
The berry is like a redcurrant though sweeter and less acid and about 5mm in size.
Seedling: £5.50
Female: £8.00
Male: £8.00
APPLE ROSE (Rosa ssp.)
R. pomifera R. rugosa
We have two species of roses that produce large hips. Rosa pomifera or villosa, known as the Apple Rose, is a handsome shrub in its own right, growing up to 1-2 metres tall given the chance, with single pink flowers and large bristly hips. It likes a sunny sheltered spot but almost any soil that isn’t water logged will do. The Ramanas Rose, Rosa rugosa , not generally as tall as the Apple Rose it has larger hips that are round like golf balls, soft and fleshy though, and it is sometimes grown as a small informal hedge. Easy to grow doing well on even on the coast in sandy soils, it has large single flowers of either dark pink or white.
Everyone knows how good hips are, full of vit C, they make delicious syrup and wine. Do be sure to remove all the hairy stuff round the seeds though, as this can irritate the gut. (Naughty schoolboys once used it as itching powder.)
£6.00
Unknown, now ASIAN BRAMBLE (R. alceifolius hybrid)
Many thanks to Barry and his National Collection of Rubus for the info on this plant and I am happy to go with this for the moment, though if anyone knows or can think of a better common name I would be grateful...
Barry says it's a natural hybrid between R. alceifolius and R. reflexus, which are both species from Southern China. I have found it to be a good ground cover here in the shade of my lovely weeping silver birch, similar to Rubus tricolor but much more productive, being less aggressive and easier to manage. With white flowers from spring onwards and large green leaves with brown markings on them it brightens up wherever it is and is easy to grow. The arching stems have soft bristles and are probably shorter when grown in full sun (under the trees they are about knee height) and you will also get more of the tasty orange fruit too, which is available through the latter half of the summer and into the autumn. On at a special 2012 price!
£5.00
BEACH PLUM (Prunus maritima)
A rare and particularly useful member of the plum family being small and tough. A native of the North Eastern side of the USA, as the name suggests, it is used to seaside conditions tolerating a good deal of wind and cold, and poor sandy soils. It only grows to about 2m, being more of a shrub than a tree and can be semi-evergreen in habit depending on the cold.
The fruits are usually purple in colour and about 12-25mm in size. Much used by locals where it grows wild, it can be eaten out of hand or cooked for pies, jams and jellies etc being sweet/acid in flavour. Not easily come by.
£6.50
BILBERRY (Vaccinium myrtillus) YOUNG PLANTS AVAILABLE
Our native Bilberry is a sweet little shrub in more ways than one. It has many local variations on the name, (round here its known as the Whinberry) a testament to its long and constant use as a wild food. Not growing more than 0.5m high it is at home in either woodland or open moor so it can cope with anything the elements throw at it. Tolerant of deep shade, it will fruit better in the sun. Although this is a plant that desperately needs an acid soil, I find mine do very well in pots of lime free compost made up of composted bark and loam, indeed, they seem to fruit better than the plants in the local woods. They are self-sterile though, so you will need more than one for fruit.
The berries are like miniature Blueberries, to whom they are closely related and so can be used in similar ways. They do make a very good muffin and have been much used for tarts and home made wines over the years.
£6.50
CHILEAN CURRANT (Ribes gayanum) NEW
The Chilean Currant is a useful addition to our stock, as it will take over an awkward corner with spreading suckers though rarely getting more than 1m high. Bushy and evergreen with emerald, velvety bright leaves and tiny scented yellow flowers in early summer, though only really hardy in the southern half of the country, it is not fussy about soil and although it will thrive in sun or shade, will fruit better with more sun. Produced in July-August, the currants are rather small and a bit hairy but have a good flavour, and can be used like any other currant.
£6.50
CRANBERRY (Vaccinium macrocarpon)
The Cranberry is currently very popular in the form of juices and dried fruits. In spite of its preference for a very moist acid soil, it seems to do quite well in containers if kept well watered (with rain water if possible) in the summer. It does best in full sun and having a very prostrate habit it scrambles and roots where it goes. Pretty pale pink flowers and dark red fruits. Ours are the wild American type, cultivated forms can now be got quite easily in some garden centres, but we find ours are hardy and pest resistant producing reasonable sized fruit.
In America they are harvested in the autumn with a sort of large wooden comb, or on a commercial scale the beds are flooded and the fruit some how floated away and corralled. We can usually pick all we need for a bit of jelly, or a source by hand but it is a bit fiddly.
We also have a few plants of the native species of Cranberry, (Vaccinium oxycoccus) available. Not so useful in the fruit production department but great for your bog or wildlife garden, or even your rockery if the soil is lime free. It's a much more delicate plant altogether, looking for all the world like a miniature version it's American cousin...
£5.50
CROWBERRY (Empetrum nigrum)
Called Dearcan feannaig in Scots Gaelic this is a truly wild plant at home on the peaty moors of Scotland. Actually, ours are happy in containers though we have yet to see any fruit (but then they are only babies.) If you have a shady, peaty spot then so much the better and it would probably be good as a ground cover in such conditions. Looking a bit like heather and growing up to about 30cm, it is hardy and evergreen and also said to do well in rock gardens or under other acid loving shrubs.
The fruit, a small black berry born in clusters, is ripe in the autumn and some say it has turpentine like taste, slightly acid. It is rich in vitamin C and used to be eaten raw and was once made into a sort of drink with sour milk. Perhaps just adding them to a fruit salad would be preferable.
£6.00
DEWBERRY (Rubus caesius) NEW
A close relative to the blackberry but by no means as thuggish so much easier to accommodate in most gardens. The Dewberry is a less common native, found on sand dunes and poor chalky soils to which it is well adapted. In habit it is like a mini blackberry, low growing with slightly arching or creeping stems and the familiar white flowers in the summer are followed by delicious bloomy black fruits used in any way you would a blackberry.
£6.00
HIMALAYAN CREEPING BRAMBLE (Rubus nepalensis) SOLD OUT
A big name for a small plant. Small but useful as it will cover any ground any where, it’s even doing well here on the tarmac. Though it will tolerate deep shade it will fruit better with a bit of sun. Creeping along the ground it never gets very high, sending down roots as it goes. Single white flowers shoot up through the summer followed by shiny red bramble like fruits through the autumn. I like nibbling them as I am pottering about though I should think they would make a nice pie if you could be bothered to pick enough.
£5.50
HONEYSUCKLE (Lonicera caerulea)
The Blue Honeysuckle, is a small shrub from Eastern Europe that actually has yellow flowers early in the spring, blue-grey foliage and purple berries which are one of the earliest fruit crops of the season. It is very hardy and would look good in any garden. Cultivated forms are grown commercially in parts of Russia though we find the fruit can be variable from plant to plant, some being a bit on the bitter side, not that the birds will mind.
£6.50
JAPANESE QUINCE (Chaenomeles japonica)
A hardy deciduous shrub about 1m high with a spreading habit and spiny branches, its profuse, bright orange flowers are often seen in gardens during the spring where they give a welcome splash of colour. Growing in any soil, it looks good as a hedge, flowering and fruiting more in full sun. The bees love it too.
The fragrant yellow fruits are about 40mm across, they are quite freely produced and are better cooked, making a scented pink jelly or adding an exotic aroma to an apple pie.
£5.50
LINGONBERRY (Vaccinium vitis- idaea) SOLD OUT
Lingonberries are native to the cold north of the world where they are much prized. A low growing, spreading, evergreen shrub only reaching about 30cm high, it needs a fairly moist lime free soil and prefers some shade. It has delicate white flowers in the summer, followed by red berries in the autumn that are about 10mm in size and similar to their cousins the Cranberries. They will do quite well in tubs.
In Scandinavia they are often used, amongst other things, to make a source served with Rain deer meat.
£6.50
OREGON GRAPE (Mahonia repens) SOLD OUT
Loved by the bees for their profuse and early yellow flowers are these tough and useful evergreen shrubs. Doing well in deep shade, they will put up with almost anything but water logging and eventually spread by suckers to form a good ground cover under trees etc. They are generally trouble free and easily produce clusters of bloomy dark blue berries through the summer that cook well and are similar to Blackcurrants in taste. Much used in USA, as the name would suggest.
£6.00
SALAL (Gaultheria shallon) SOLD OUT
Another native of the Western United States, the Salal is a woodland evergreen shrub that is hardy and spreads by underground suckers in the right conditions to make a good ground cover under trees. It needs a moist lime free soil in a shady spot. With its bristly reddish stems and pale pink flowers in late spring it is ornamental as well as useful.
The abundant dark purple berries are about 10mm in size, juicy and pleasant. Try adding them to fruit salads. The North American Indians used to dry them and turn them into cakes.
£6.00
SALMONBERRY (Rubus spectabilis)
One of our most productive, this plant is often grown as an ornamental. Although a bit on the prickly side it is easier to manage than other members of the Raspberry family to whom it belongs being more upright and shrubby in habit. Attractive foliage and bright pink flowers opening in early spring it makes a decorative hedge about 1.5m high. Sun or shade seems to suit it and any soil.
The fruit is usually ripe several weeks before the Raspberry, which it closely resembles except that it’s shiny and a lovely amber/orange in colour. It is very tasty and rarely gets as far as the house, watch out for the birds though.
£6.00
SAND CHERRY (Prunus besseyi)
A useful member of the Cherry family being small and shrubby, rarely getting over a metre in height. It is hardy coming as it does from the Rocky Mountain area of the US, and easy to grow so long as you have plenty of sunshine. With narrow grey-green leaves, clusters of tiny white flowers in May and good autumn colour it is well worth growing even without the benefit of the round, sweet bloomy black fruit which are 8-12mm in size and eaten raw or cooked.
£6.00
Sea Grape (ephedra distachya)
Also called Shrubby Horsetail, giving clues about it’s curious appearance. It forms dense patches of short spiky, stems on which the leaves have been reduced to tiny scales and would make a good groundcover on dry sandy soil where, so long as there’s full sun it’ll be happy. The rather non existing flowers are followed if you’re lucky, by bright red berries said to be sweet and juicy. This plant is also highly sort as the source of ephedrine, much used in herbal medicine for all sorts.
£7.00
SUMACH (Rhus ssp.)
There are several members of this family that produce edible berries, all are decorative shrubs or trees sometimes grown ornamentally for their rich colour in the autumn. Easy to grow, they like full sun and a well-drained soil, with the added bonus of being resistant to honey fungus. .
All produce downy red berries of about 6mm, acid and lemon like in flavour that are often used to make a lemony drink by just soaking them in cold water for 10-30 minutes and sweetened as required.
We have two shrubby types currently available:
R. trilobata, reaching to about 1.5m. £5.50
R. aromatica, reaching to about 1m, scented foliage. £6.00
WINTERGREEN (gaultheria procumbens)
A useful groundcover plant this, especially for a shady spot. Low growing and evergreen it prefers an acid soil though here it thrives on our neutral one, doing all right under conifers it tolerates deep shade but will perform better with some dappled sun. It flowers, pale pink, right through the summer and produces its bright red berries right through the winter. These are used as a flavouring for chewing gum amongst other things…
£5.50
WOLFBERRY (Lycium barbarum/chinensis)
Or Matrimony Vine, or Chinese Box Thorn, or more commonly known these days as the Goji Berry, for which there so are many extravagant health claims that the juice has become available even in some supermarkets. The Wolf Berry can make a good hedge, especially in exposed sites, or be trained up a fence or trellis eventually reaching about 1.5-2m, with spiny, arching stems. Fine grey-green leaves and funnel-shaped purple flowers through August to November, followed by the highly prized, small egg-shaped orange or scarlet berries of about 25mm. Not only that but in China the leaves are often used as a flavouring, and for making tea, which accounts for another of it's common names Duke Of Argyle's Tea Plant.
£7.00
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