Hello first post!... I live in Prince George BC and ( I think zone 3 or 5 ?) I would like to know what blackberry plants would work up here, and which are thornless?. The plants will likely reside in the greenhouse. Home Depot is currently selling Marion and Ebony King species and I would like to try some
'Marion' perhaps still remains unsurpassed for flavor but is an incredible huge thorny beast of a plant. Don't know anything about the other one, or most other blackberry cultivars for that matter. Since these are comparatively cheap I might consider establishing a comprehensive trial except I would never keep up with the pruning and training.
Most of the current blackberry varieties available are only rated to zone 5. Doyle's thornless is probably the hardiest I've seen-30C. You could try Chester, Black Satin or Triple Crown (-25C) up there but you will have to provide winter protection. Marion or Ebony King lack sufficient hardiness for your area. Kato's Nursery in the lower mainland has a good selection of berries. You could also try Art Knapps to see what they have as well. There are also other hardier blackberries like Illini Hardy or Darrow that might work for you there. The hard part is obtaining the specific plants for your climate. A lot of the material may have to come from US sources. There is also a blackberry grown in NS called Balsor's hardy black that might be worth trying there. It's been around for over a 100 years and they have good luck with it in Nova Scotia.You can contact me off list for more info.
Hi. The Marion blackberry is supposedly hardy to zone 5, however I was able to grow it on my hobby nursery near Golden (zone 3) without difficulty. The reason - Marion canes are very flexible and relatively thin and so grow close to the soil during the growing season. With the significant snow cover in winter there, the canes were well protected until late March when the night frosts were relatively mild. By late April I would train the canes onto a wire trellis. They always produced lots of fruit. Other blackberries have stiffer canes and would have to take the brunt of winter and suffer for it. I have since moved to Vernon and have tried to grow the Marion here (zone 5) but with more difficulty because of the lack of snow cover. What I do now is train the ground hugging canes in line with the row during the growing season and cover the canes with leaves in October to a depth of 20 or so cm. In late March I gently remove the leaves but do not raise the canes until well into April (Even with the cold snaps this April, there appears only to be damage to the thinnest canes- next year I won't raise the canes until end of April). Incidentally, I use the same procedure for boysenberries and even there lies some success. A couple of years ago I waited until early May before removing the leaves of both. That was too late as fresh tender growth had already begun and raising the canes only resulted in deterioration and death of the tender fruit spurs. The wonderful flavour of these berries is to me well worth the investment of effort, time and a good pair of leather gloves. Art Martens
Very informative post. My garden has one Marion and two Ebony King, blackberries. Your information will be put to use as required. Thanks.
Art -That's interesting you could grow Marionberry and Ebony in Golden. I grew Boysenberry, tayberry and loganberry in the Ellison district( near Kelowna) I layed them down over the winter with straw or foam. I liked the idea of flexible canes and the covering protected them from the cold. What kind of a crop did you get from your plants in Golden. I was able to grow Chester, Triple Crown and Black Satin at the site without winter protection. I had a commercial grower in Winfield growing these. Good luck with the stuff in Vernon. My uncle grew all kinds of berries & grapes in the Coldstream area. Cheers
Hi Durgan, I grew only the Marion Blackberry, Tayberries, Sunberries and a collection of raspberries. I did not grow the Ebony King. Sorry to have misled you there. The Tayberries and Sunberries did not seem to need any speciall protection but the Marion obviously did. All of my Rubus efforts were on nursery trials/home garden scale and so did not have large plantations of any of them and I did not measure the amount of fruit produced (which I should have done to be more scientific!). However I was very pleased with the amount of the Marion fruit hanging off the wires.
I will be pleased with a few pounds of fruit. I have two gooseberry bushes, one black current, fruiting mullberry, bing cherry, and raspberries, ground cherries (annual), and get more than enough fresh fruit for our requirements. I use to pick and eat blackberries in Stanley Park when visiting Vancouver at the appropiate season, and considered the berries amongst the best of any small fruit. I might add that the BC blueberries on farms near the Vancouver Airport are the best I have ever encountered, and easy to pick.
