"From the archives" is edited by Cathy Tylka for Let’s Talk Plants! October 2024. Article by Richard Frost, originally published in the August 2008 LTP! Issue.
Berry Good Plants for the Garden
Many of the berries in my garden are now ripe. As I walk around eating them at arms’ length, I’m considering what new varieties to order either bareroot this fall or as fresh plants in the spring.
If you’d like to add berries to your San Diego Garden, here are some recommendations.
- The Blackberry family (a subgroup of Rubus) includes well-known varieties like Boysen, Logan, Marion, and Olallie berries. The best-tasting of these is the Young berry. Big, juicy blackberries such as the Marion or the Monrovia thornless hybrid are also a treat.
- Raspberries are another subgroup of the genus Rubus. I must thank my friend David Ross for insisting that the Bababerry cultivar is a good choice for coastal-influenced gardens. In its second year, my 6' x 10' patch produces bucket loads per week nonstop April through October. The Canby Red cultivar is also a good choice beyond the coastal foothills.
- Day-neutral Strawberries, Fragaria hybrids, will provide fruit in San Diego almost year-round. The best-tasting selections are Mara de Bois, Quinault, and Sequoia.
- The fragrant Currant Berry shrub is a great addition to any garden. Selections made from the Slender-Flowered Golden Currant, Ribes aureum var. gracillimum, and the Clove Currant, Ribes odoratum, such as ‘Crandall’ are good fruitful choices.
- Individual plants of the fruitful native Coast Gooseberry, Ribes divaricatum, Sierra Gooseberry, R. roezlii, and Fuchsia-Flowering Gooseberry, R. speciosum, can vary a lot in taste. Hybrids such as ‘Catherine’, ‘Glendale’, and ‘Poorman’ Gooseberry are consistent winners. Also consider the Jostaberry, R. x nidigrolaria – a Currant x Gooseberry!
- The Blueberry (various Vaccinium) is the darling of the health food magazines, but alas its nutrition is only skin deep. The tasty cultivars ‘Sharp’s Blue’, ‘Jubilee’, and ‘O’Neal’ perform well along the coast – or inland in a sheltered environment. Although tart, the Cranberry, Vaccinium macrocarpon, is higher in anthocyanins than Blueberry. Try the cultivar ‘Crowley’. For the ultimate in healthful berries, grow California Huckleberry, Vaccinium ovatum, True Bilberry, Vaccinium myrtillus, and Western Serviceberry, Amelanchier alnifolia var. semiintegrifolia.
- Elderberries (genus Sambucus) are plants of ancient lore. All green parts of the plants contain toxins. Try the Yellow Elderberry, S. australasica, whose fruits do not require any special preparation for fresh eating or cooking.
- The genus Elaeagnus is well known for several invasive species – but the hybrid shrub ‘Ebbing’s Silverberry’, Elaeagnus x ebbingei, is an exception. It produces silver-flecked red berries that are excellent fresh or made into a sweet-tart jam.
- Karondu, Carissa spinarum, is a staple food of northeast Africa and the Himalayan highlands. The plant strongly resembles Natal Plum, Carissa macrocarpa, but has a smaller, darker, more flavorful, very healthful fruit. The Apple Berry, Billardiera scandens, is an evergreen vine-like shrub with small yellow trumpet flowers in the spring and summer. It is hardy in temperate USDA zones 9-11 and produces inch-long red-brown berries with a fruity taste.
- The Chilean Guava, Ugni molinae, Red Guava, Eugenia nutans, and Jaboticaba, Myrciaria jaboticaba, are berry-producing plants of the Myrtle family (Myrtaceae). Also in this family are Pitanga – aka Surinam Cherry, Eugenia uniflora, Cherry of the Rio Grande, Eugenia aggregata, and Grumichama, Eugenia brazliensis, which thrives in partial shade.
SDHS member Richard Frost is also a member of the California Rare Fruit Growers.
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