Chinese Blackberry
Dinah
Posts: 294
in Fruit & veg
Hello gardeners,
I'm planning where to put some Chinese Blackberry (should be red-berry, don't know why we call them blackberry) plants. I kept them in pots last year and took lots of cuttings so I can do a weed cover blanket in one of my somewhat shady orchard corners - but, like a fool, I've forgotten if they like dry or damp areas
and I can't find the details, since I lost all my bookmarks and history in a computer crash in the autumn.
They look lovely with their hairy under-leaves and red splodges stems, and the leaves are more like begonias than our native blackberry - very intriguing - I'd hate to kill them off by planting them in the wrong place.
Last edited: 27 February 2018 02:46:13
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Hello Dinah. Can you give an alternative name for this plant as I have never heard of a Chinese blackberry?
Ladybird 4 - it was Rubus Tricolour. It is low mat forming. I couldn't say more because the crows around here have learn't (and passed on to one another) to pull lables out of pots, and then the lables dissapear (somewhere there is a vast nest made of plastic lables I presume).
I've found it, I've found it! Mystery solved, you are right - not blackberry - that explains it, I had the common name wrong in my memory it's Chinese Bramble -
.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/16150/Rubus-tricolor/Details
I had if from "Home and Hearths" on ebay. The stems are truely hairy, ginger colour in winter, deep red on the new growth in summer.
Hmm, should have thought of looking on ebay for the name before, but it was the begining of last year so I kind of thought it was lost in time - I'm really not a dynamic, clear thinking person at this time of year because my head is full of seeds and plans.
Thank you Freddies Dad. I am sure now it is damp or moist, well drained soil now I've found it on the RHS website, and if most Rubus perfer damp, as you say, that is good enough for me. It isn't the one on the link you sent me - but thank yuo anyway, that will be another plant for me to try and get for my collection - weight loss!! wow, that is for me!. I can say for sure that my plants have survived the winter here without even loosing many of their leaves, despite the snow and frost, they look a bit leggy now, but look semi-evergreen to me, even better!
This plant is both tough and decorative. Great for colonising damp shaded areas.
Dinah - so glad that you found your plant. It does sound nice
Borderline, yes I agree with you. If the plant's perfomance last year in pots was anything to go by it will be great. I found taking cuttings was almost to easy to believe, when I stuck bits of stem in soil they rooted so quickly and were away on their own in no time.
Could it be that the mass of hairs on the stems are primed to turn into roots if they toach ground?
I haven't tried winter cuttings as I think I now have enough plants, but the spring, summer and autumn ones all rooted very quickly - I kept the late autumn ones under glass for the first part of the winter, until it became clear that they were looking to get out there with the others.
Dinah, you can take hard-wood cuttings from your mature plant and also multiply your plants in the winter time. Just cut into the harder/older wood and stick them into the soil or prepared pots. They should root quite easily. The easiest way is to take layer cuttings if you grow them in the ground because of their growth habit. This can be done throughout the summer. Just part bury the stems into the soil and hold it down with a hair pin or even a stone and the stems will root eventually. You then just snip off from the main branch and dig away your new plant to your chosen new location.
Thank you Borderline, I think that will be a very useful method once they are in the ground so as to spread them over the area into bare patches as they grow. I'ts good that they will start rooting through the winter too. It sounds like it will give them a good start, and be easier to do in the absence of weeds growing up and needing to be removed between the plants in summer. Summer is always so busy with other things too.
Hair pins? what a good idea, I had never thought of using them in the garden.
Thank you again
Dinah.
Last edited: 28 February 2018 19:40:40
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