In Praise of the Japanese Wineberry
Blackberries, raspberries, Loganberries, Tayberries, Josterberries and Worcester berries have all received plaudits over the past few months, but the little known Japanese wineberry is worthy of note too.
This is not usually regarded as a garden fruit but rather an ornamental shrub - Rubus phoenicolasius. Indeed, it is a beautiful plant with long elegant arching canes and attractive leaves that are silver on the underside and in August also bear bright red fruit. Tasty to eat, these have all the charm of wild fruit. They resemble perhaps a raspberry in taste, although possibly sharper and seem to me best eaten simply - fresh with just a little sugar and cream.
The canes have prickles like a raspberry, but not aggressive thorns like a blackberry, so picking is easy. Fruit is small, however, a fiddle to pick and rather sticky, but growing a Japanese wine berry could not be easier. It appears disease free and will spread easily if you let it. Canes bend over and root at the tips, so you can soon get a thicket, but it can be trained over a fence. Once you have it, you will never be without as it freely seeds itself. It seems to prefer growing in semi-shade, which is yet another bonus for its multipurpose reputation.
Joan Morgan
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