North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Diane Whitehead <voltaire@islandnet.com>]

Yes, they taste good.  My children phone to check on when they are  
ripe and then come over to the Island to pick them.  Friends in the  
Interior come down to the coast for blackberry season.  A Japanese  
student who stayed with us one summer was thrilled to pick them and  
learn how to make jam which she took back as gifts to Tokyo.

I have tasted thornless berries and was not impressed.  Our wild  
Himalayans taste better.

However, they don't have the delicious flavour of our trailing  
blackberries which is present only in Cascades.  My Cascades are ripe  
in July and the Himalayans in August and September.

I wouldn't neglect them.  I keep one cane from each plant and support  
it.  Side branches come out along the cane and these have the berries  
on them.  Then I select one new cane, so I have two canes in berry  
season: this year's producing one, and next year's.

If you neglect them they build up into enormous mounds of dead  
branches and it is a very prickly business to pick the berries. Also,  
it is neglected ones that tip root and gobble up acreage.


Diane Whitehead
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
maritime zone 8, cool Mediterranean climate
mild rainy winters, mild dry summers
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I just checked Raintree to see what they say about Cascades:

Popular in backyards 40 years ago, but long since unavailable. Many  
still ask for it because it has the unmatched wild trailing blackberry  
flavor but has much larger size and productivity. It is thought to be  
a cross of Loganberry and wild Cascade trailing blackberry, which it  
will pollinate. Ripens in July.

Climate Zones: 7 to 9

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