Soft Fruits Gallery Introduction

Site Map Links Case Studies Companion Planting Garden Construction Garden Design Garden Maintenance Glossary Home Library Offbeat Glossary Plants Soil Tool Shed Useful Data Site Map Links of Plant Photographic Galleries Aquatic Bamboo Bedding Bulb Climber Colour Wheel Conifer Deciduous Shrub Deciduous Tree Evergreen Perennial Evergreen Shrub Evergreen Tree Fern Grass Hedging Herbaceous Perennial Herb Odds and Sods Rhododendron Rose Soft Fruit* Top Fruit Vegetable Wild Flower Introduction Page Links of Wildlife on Plant Photographic Galleries Ant Beetle Bird Butterfly Dragonfly, DamselFly Earwig, Cockroach Grasshopper, Cricket Harvestmen Minibeasts More 2-Winged Fly More 4-Winged Fly Moth Pest Plant Galls Pond Animal Soil Animal True Bug Two-Winged Fly Wasp, Bee Webless Spiders Web-Making Spiders SOFT FRUIT GALLERY PAGES Site Map for Soft Fruit Description Pages and Comparison Pages with photo content(o) Introduction SOFT FRUIT BLOSSOM COLOUR Orange Blossoms Other Colour Blossoms Pink Blossoms Red Blossoms White Blossoms Yellow Blossoms SOFT FRUIT FOLIAGE COLOUR Bronze Foliage Green Foliage 1 Green Foliage 2 Green Foliage 3 Purple Foliage Yellow Foliage TRAINING OF SOFT FRUIT PLANT Blackberry 6 feet high Blackcurrant 4 feet Bush Blueberry Bush Cranberry Prostrate Shrub Gooseberry Half Standard Gooseberry Currants Bush Gooseberry Currants Cordon Gooseberry Currants Stooled Grapes Glasshouse Grapes Outdoor Hybrid Berry 6 feet high Kiwifruit Espalier Raspberry 4 feet high Strawberry Early MidSummer Strawberry Midsummer Strawberry Late Summer Strawberry Perpetual Rhubarb SOFT FRUIT PLANT FRUIT COLOUR Green Soft Fruit Colour Orange Soft Fruit Colour Other Soft Fruit Colours Red Soft Fruit Colour Yellow Soft Fruit Colour FLOWER BED WITH SOFT FRUIT PLANT PICTURES Garden Pictures 1 Garden Pictures 2	Ivydene Gardens Soft Fruit Gallery: Introduction "Grow Your Own Fruit" by Ken Muir, Honeypot Farm, Weeley Heath, Clacton-On-Sea, Essex. CO16 9BJ Tel: 01255 830181 provides the information on cultural practices in a clear and concise manner. It is strongly recommended that this booklet is read before growing Soft Fruit or Top Fruit, so that correct plants for your soil can be purchased by you and to give you a good fruit yield. The Soft Fruit Site Map GIVES YOU DIRECT ACCESS TO the plant description with its photos for ALL THE 5 SOFT FRUITS detailed in this Gallery IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER. This plant gallery has thumbnail pictures of soft fruit blossoms in the following colours:- Orange Other Colours Pink Red (o)White Yellow This plant gallery has thumbnail pictures of soft fruit foliage in the following colours:- Bronze (o)Green Purple Yellow This plant gallery has thumbnail pictures of soft fruit plant fruit with its colour:- Green Orange (o)Other Colours (o)Red Yellow If you click on a thumbnail another window opens with up to 9 larger images (Blossom, Foliage and Fruit - for Blossom, Foliage and Fruit pages) and the following plant description:- Please close that window before clicking on another thumbnail. The Site Map for Soft Fruit Description Pages and Comparison Pages with photo content(o) gives you access to the above 9 larger images and plant description for all the plants detailed in the Soft Fruit Gallery in alphabetical order. This plant gallery has pictures of flower beds with Soft Fruit with description. Together with the Plants, Companion Planting and Offbeat Glossary sections of this website, these photographs should aid your choice of plant for your garden. These gallery photographs of Soft Fruit were provided by ACT Publishing, Lion House, Church Street, Maidstone, Kent. ME14 1EN. Tel: 01622 695656 Email fruit@actpub.co.uk who publish the following for United Kingdom commercial growers:- The Fruit Grower The Vegetable Farmer The Commercial Greenhouse Grower The Berry Yearbook The Potato Yearbook The Vegetable Yearbook and The Greenhouse Yearbook				Ivydene Horticultural Services Why do so few Soft Fruit nurseries who supply directly to garden owners in the UK and so few garden owners in the UK donate the use of their Soft Fruit photos of the flower, foliage, form or fruit/seed to this website? Where else can you compare plants by flower colour, foliage colour, form or seed/fruit shape/colour with their soil type, soil moisture, sun aspect and height? . Site design and content copyright ©November 2008 Chris Garnons-Williams.

	Choosing a soft fruit bush (Blueberry, Gooseberry, Blackcurrant, Redcurrant, Whitecurrant or Jostaberry) instead of a shrub from the shrub lists provides you with the size of shrub suitable for most current gardens. The Raspberry may be used as a mini-hedge in the garden to separate areas or against your boundary fences/walls. The Blackberry, Boysenberry and Tayberry cane climbers can also be used as mini-hedges or to clothe walls/fences/pergolas. They all provide you with edible fruit.
	Earlies, mids, lates.		Choose varieties that can be eaten from July, or store well as cooked pies, jams or jellies.
	Trained Soft Fruit		If space is limited and a 'sunny' wall or fence is available, soft fruit bushes can be 'trained' into forms such as cordons, espaliers and fans.
	Best time to plant		The best time to plant is during the dormant season from mid-November to mid-March. Bare rooted plants have to be planted at this time, with no competition from other plants for 2 feet radius from their trunk. Container grown trees can in theory be planted anytime, but particular attention to watering will be neccessary; if planted from Spring to Summer.
	Site		The ideal site would be a well sheltered South facing slope. More vigorous rootstocks have more root to provide better anchorage on exposed sites. All fruit bushes/climbers need good light to produce good quality fruit, and a site facing South or West is best. Gooseberries, Red Currants and Blackberries will all produce some fruit on a site facing North.
Soil Most fruits prefer a fairly neutral soil, pH of 6.5. Where possible, it is best to improve planting sites a month before the bushes/climbers arrive. Sandy soil should have plenty of organic matter incorporated (such as leaf compost from your garden, spent mushroom compost or bark from Gardenscape) to increase the water retention of the soil. On heavy clay soils try to incorporate a 2" layer of horticultural grit, sand and organic matter to aerate, and improve drainage through flocculation. Soft Fruit Bush Form. Bush Form refers to the way in which the bush has been trained:- Bush. Two year old Bush trees are trained as open centre (goblet shaped) trees with a clear stem of 2ft (0.6m). Suitable for relatively small trees on semi-dwarfing rootstocks for small and medium sized gardens. Centre Leader. The centre leader has been maintained on these trees to allow training into dwarf pyramid and spindle bush forms. Suitable for trees on dwarfing rootstocks for small gardens or restricted spaces. These trees would require permanent support with a long stake. Cordon. Cordons are single stem trees with short branches or spurs bearing fruit. They are usually planted as oblique cordons at an angle of 45-60 degrees to the ground, but can also be planted as vertical cordons sometimes referred to as minarettes (available from Ken Muir). They need a set of horizontal wires up to about 6ft (1.8m) for support. They also need appropriate summer pruning to maintain the cordon form. Cordons are very useful for small gardens, or for planting along fences. Espalier (2 Tier). Espalier trees consist of a vertical stem and a set of horizontal arms or tiers extending either way bearing short lateral branches or spurs on which fruit is produced. The arms would typically be 18 inches (0.5m) apart. Two tier espaliers will have two sets of arms already partly trained and a continuing centre leader which would allow more sets of arms to be trained if required. They need a set of horizontal wires for support. They also need appropriate summer pruning to maintain and develop the form. Espaliers are very useful as a decorative feature on walls and fences. Family Tree. Family trees have more than one variety of fruit grafted onto one rootsock, eg three different varieties of apple. The varieties are selected to cross pollinate so there is no need for a separate tree as a pollinator. They are useful for small gardens where there is room for only one tree. Fan. Fan trained trees have been trained with several branches starting near the ground all in the same plane forming a fan shape. They need a set of horizontal wires for support. They also need appropriate summer pruning to maintain and develop the form. Fans are very useful as a decorative feature on walls and fences. Half Standard. Half standard trees are trained as open centre (goblet shaped) trees with a clear stem of 4-5ft (1.3m-1.5m). Suitable for medium sized trees on semi-vigorous rootstocks for large or medium sized gardens. Maiden. Maidens are untrained one year old trees. Some varieties naturally produce branches in the first year. These are known as feathered maidens. Other varieties do not and are referred to as maiden whips. Typically maiden apples, pears and cherries are 4-6ft (1.3-1.8m) in height. Maiden plums may be taller. "Grow Your Own Fruit" by Ken Muir, Honeypot Farm, Weeley Heath, Clacton-On-Sea, Essex. CO16 9BJ Tel: 01255 830181 provides the information on cultural practices in a clear and concise manner , as does The RHS Encyclopedia of Practical Gardening FRUIT by Harry Baker ISBN 1 85732 905 8. "Success with Growing Fruit in containers" by Peter Himmelhuber ISBN 1-85391-797-4 shows which varieties of these fruits can be grown in pots with cultural practice information.

Thornless Blackberry canes can be supported on 4 heavy-gauge wires stretched between 3 inch by 3 inch posts at 3, 4, 5 and 6 feet from the ground. Use the front side to attach this year's canes to (which will bear fruit in the summer and autumn) and the back side of the wires to attach the new canes produced in the autumn for fruiting next year. Then next year, use the front side to take the new canes produced in the autumn of that year. Himalaya Giant variety is a very thorny variety, that could be used as a vandal-proof screen. Fruit can be eaten from the cane, cooked in pies or frozen.
Blackberry Name (Rubus fruticosus) available from Ken Muir	Plant Form available throughout the year	Pick time		Description
Helen	Potted	Early to Mid-July		Combines fruit quality, earliness and yield. Large bright firm fruits, long and conical. Excellent flavour, rich and aromatic. Thornless canes and vigorous requiring 8 feet width by 6 feet of support.
Loch Ness	Potted	Late August - September		Thornless variety with stout erect canes requiring 6 feet x 6 feet of support. Heavy yielding, good flavour and large fruit.

Highbush Blueberries require a mixture of moss peat, coarse sand, soil and sawdust to fill their planting holes with. The bush will eventually have a height and spread of 5 feet. If your soil is acidic, then blueberries may be planted with your rhododendrons. If your soil is not acidic, then plant them in 1.5 feet deep containers with ericaceous compost. Anti-bird netting is required. Wait until the fruit has been blue for a week before picking individual berries, and then returning to pick on subsequent days. Use in pies or tarts.
Blueberry Name (Vaccinium corymbosum) available from Brogdale Horticultural Trust www.brogdale.org	Plant Form Availability	Pick time		Description
Blue Crop	3 litre potted Bush	Early-Mid August		Large light blue fruit. Good flavour and bronze autumn colour. Vigorous upright grower.
Chandler	3 litre potted Bush	Late July		Bronze-red Spring foliage slowly turning green that sets off the cream flowers. Enormous cherry-sized fruit and excellent flavour. Picking over a 4-6 week period.

Gooseberries are usually the first fruit of the season. The fruit should be thinned in late May and the thinnings used for cooking. The remainder should be left to swell to full size and then used for pies, jamming and freezing.
Gooseberry Name (Ribes uva-crispa var. reclinatum) available from Brogdale Horticultural Trust www.brogdale.org	Plant Form Availability	Pick time		Description
Hinomaki Yellow	Bare Root Bush	July		With it's red sister, this variety is excellent for organic growing, with high mildew resistance.
Invicta	3 litre potted Bush	Late July		Large pale green fruits for cooking, jam or freezing. Heavy cropper, mildew resistant, prickly stems, vigorous and spreading.
Rokula	Bare Root Bush	Early July		An early dessert variety of excellent flavour. Resistant to mildew, but slightly susceptible to fruit cracking in heavy rain.
Martlet	3 litre potted Bush	July		This is a red form with part Invicta parentage. Has excellent dessert fruit quality (hairless) with good resistance to American gooseberry mildew and leaf spot.
Pax	3 litre potted Bush	July		Red, sweet and medium size. A new red gooseberry of excellent quality and resistant to mildew and leaf spot. Plants are vigorous and spreading, so need to shaped by pruning. Young plants and new shoots have thorns, but become virtually thornless once mature.

Raspberries are borne on the current season's canes, so the current year's canes must be removed to the ground in October and the new canes then should be supported on the other side of the 3 horizontal support wires.
Raspberry Name (Rubus idaeus) available from Brogdale Horticultural Trust www.brogdale.org	Plant Form Availability	Pick time		Description
Allgold	Bare Root Cane	September		A yellow autumn fruiting primocane similar in habit to Autumn Bliss, but slightly sweeter.
Autumn Bliss	Bare Root Cane	Early August to October.		An early autumn fruiting variety picked from early August to October. Heavy cropper. Outstanding.
Glen Prosen	Bare Root Cane	Mid July-Mid August		Superb quality. Easy to pick from thornless canes of moderate vigour.
Glen Ample	Bare Root Cane	August		High yielding thornless variety with large fleshy quality. Fruit picking over a long period.
Joan J	Bare Root Cane	Late July-Mid September		Very similar to Autumn Bliss but an earlier season. An outstanding primocane with fruits of a superb size and flavour. Starts cropping at the end of July for a 7 week period.
Tulameen	Bare Root Cane	September		Medium to large fruits of good quality. Few spines(thorns). Long picking season.

Blackcurrants are grown on a stool system - that is, many shoots spring from below the ground rather than from a single stem. A well-grown blackcurrant bush may reach 5-6 feet in height and spread and should last 15 years before needing replacement. The site should be frost-free and sheltered from strong winds so that pollination by bees is not affected. They produce the best fruit from wood produced in the previous summer, so prune in early autumn.
Blackcurrant Name (Ribes nigrum) available from Brogdale Horticultural Trust www.brogdale.org	Plant Form Availability	Pick time		Description
Baldwin	3 litre Bush	Late July		Medium sized berries hang well. Good for Vitamin C. Still the best flavoured blackcurrant.
Ben Connan	3 litre Bush	Mid July		Carries high yields of exceptionally large fruit on compact bushes. It has good frost, pest and mildew disease resistance and is very suitable as a garden variety.
Ben Sarek	3 litre Bush	Mid July		High yielding variety with large fruit carried on easily picked short strigs. Produces neat, compact bushes, which rarely grow more than 3 feet in height. Frost and mildew resistant.

Redcurrants are grown as an open-centred bush on a 4-6 inch stem or leg, rather like a miniature apple with a height and spread of 5-6 feet. A well-grown redcurrant bush should last 10 years before its yield reduces and thus needs replacement. The site should be frost-free and sheltered from strong winds so that pollination by bees is not affected. The fruit buds are produced in clusters at the base of the one-year old shoots and on short spurs on the older wood. Therefore, their is a permanent framework of branches for this fruiting habit.
Redcurrant Name (Ribes rubrum) available from Brogdale Horticultural Trust www.brogdale.org	Plant Form Availability	Pick time		Description
Laxtons No 1	Bare Root Bush	July		Most mildew resistant and of good quality. Heavy cropper.
Red Lake	Bare Root Bush	July-August		Sweet and Juicy with good flavour. Heavy cropper with long strigs. Very reliable.
Redstart	Bare Root Bush	August		Late ripening and highly recommended for jelly making.

Whitecurrants are grown as an open-centred bush on a 4-6 inch stem or leg, rather like a miniature apple with a height and spread of 5-6 feet. A well-grown whitecurrant bush should last 10 years before its yield reduces and thus needs replacement. The site should be frost-free and sheltered from strong winds so that pollination by bees is not affected. The fruit buds are produced in clusters at the base of the one-year old shoots and on short spurs on the older wood. Therefore, their is a permanent framework of branches for this fruiting habit.
Whitecurrant Name (Ribes rubrum) available from Brogdale Horticultural Trust www.brogdale.org	Plant Form Availability	Pick time		Description
White Versailles	Bare Root Bush	July		Sweet with long abundant strigs. Heavy cropper. Reliable.

Boysenberry. is a Raspberry x Blackberry cross. Useful on light sandy soils. Grown the same way as a blackberry.
Boysenberry Name available from Brogdale Horticultural Trust www.brogdale.org	Plant Form Availability	Pick time		Description
Boysenberry	3 litre Bush	July-August.		This thornless selection carries large round or oblong fruit. Purplish-Black in colour and with a characteristic, attractive flavour similar to a wild blackberry. Drought resistant and hardy.

Jostaberry is a Gooseberry x Blackcurrant cross. Jostaberries are grown on a stool system - that is, many shoots spring from below the ground rather than from a single stem. A well-grown jostaberry bush may reach 5-6 feet in height and spread and should last 15 years before needing replacement. The site should be frost-free and sheltered from strong winds so that pollination by bees is not affected. They produce the best fruit from wood produced in the previous summer, so prune in early autumn.
Jostaberry Name (Ribes x culverwellii) available from Brogdale Horticultural Trust www.brogdale.org	Plant Form Availability	Pick time		Description
Jostaberry	Bare Root	July		A thornless hybrid with shiny black fruit, the size of a small gooseberry. Resistant to American gooseberry mildew, blackcurrant leafspot, big bud mite and blackcurrant gall mite. Strong growing but needs protection from early frosts. Good for jam making.

Tayberry is a Raspberry x Blackberry cross. Excellent for the small garden. The stems are slightly thorny. Grow the same way as blackberries.
Tayberry Name (Rubus) available from Brogdale Horticultural Trust www.brogdale.org	Plant Form Availability	Pick time		Description
Medana	3 litre Bush	Late August		This is a superior virus-free Medana form, which picks early. Large and juicy fruit, with a mild sweet flavour. It is juicier but sharper flavoured than raspberry. The fruit ripens over a long period in July and August. For best flavour, it should be allowed to fully ripen to a dark red colour before picking. It is best used for jams and summer puddings, but can also be eaten fresh.

I and Ivydene Horticultural Services are requesting the donation of the following colour photographs of plants for display in this section:- Flower - to show the shape and colour of the whole flower. Foliage - to show the shape of the leaf and its colour. If its colour changes in the year, then a picture of each changed colour. Form - to show the natural shape/growth habit of the whole plant. If the plant is deciduous, then one with foliage and one without. Fruit - to show the shape and colour of the whole fruit/nut/seed produced after it has flowered. Flower Bed - to show the overall effect of a group of plants together, preferably with the names of each of the plants displayed. Each main photograph will be displayed in a 150 x 150 pixels graphic item. Each thumbnail photograph will be displayed in 50 x 50 pixels graphic item. Freeway allocates 72 pixels per inch. The photographs require to be in :- JPEG Format and can be sent via email (depress the email Chris Garnons-Williams item at the top of this page) 35mm slide or normal photograpgh to be scanned in (send to Chris Garnons-Williams at 1 Eastmoor Farm Cottages, Moor Street, Rainham, Kent, ME8 8QE England) Please give the Latin name of the plant and your contact details (It would be preferable that it is either your website or email address rather than your phone number). These will then appear with the relevant photograph with Anti-Spam software round the website or email contact details. If you happen to be a Nursery, then this link could provide a means for people getting that plant; that they require.

Ivydene Gardens Soft Fruit Gallery: Introduction

The Soft Fruit Site Map GIVES YOU DIRECT ACCESS TO the plant description with its photos for ALL THE 5 SOFT FRUITS detailed in this Gallery IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER.

Choosing a soft fruit bush (Blueberry, Gooseberry, Blackcurrant, Redcurrant, Whitecurrant or Jostaberry) instead of a shrub from the shrub lists provides you with the size of shrub suitable for most current gardens.

The Raspberry may be used as a mini-hedge in the garden to separate areas or against your boundary fences/walls.

The Blackberry, Boysenberry and Tayberry cane climbers can also be used as mini-hedges or to clothe walls/fences/pergolas.

They all provide you with edible fruit.

Suitable for relatively small trees on semi-dwarfing rootstocks for small and medium sized gardens.

Suitable for trees on dwarfing rootstocks for small gardens or restricted spaces.

Cordons are very useful for small gardens, or for planting along fences.

Espaliers are very useful as a decorative feature on walls and fences.

They are useful for small gardens where there is room for only one tree.

Fans are very useful as a decorative feature on walls and fences.

Suitable for medium sized trees on semi-vigorous rootstocks for large or medium sized gardens.

"Grow Your Own Fruit" by Ken Muir, Honeypot Farm, Weeley Heath, Clacton-On-Sea, Essex. CO16 9BJ Tel: 01255 830181 provides the information on cultural practices in a clear and concise manner

I and Ivydene Horticultural Services are requesting the donation of the following colour photographs of plants for display in this section:-

Each main photograph will be displayed in a 150 x 150 pixels graphic item. Each thumbnail photograph will be displayed in 50 x 50 pixels graphic item. Freeway allocates 72 pixels per inch. The photographs require to be in :-

Please give the Latin name of the plant and your contact details (It would be preferable that it is either your website or email address rather than your phone number). These will then appear with the relevant photograph with Anti-Spam software round the website or email contact details.

If you happen to be a Nursery, then this link could provide a means for people getting that plant; that they require.