To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Himalayan blackberry - Why it is called Himalayan.
Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2008 09:24:40 -0700
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.
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.