Japanese Wineberry

This unusual fruit bush (Rubus phoenicolasius) produces small sweet raspberry like fruit on furry stems. A super easy-going and rewarding fruit bush for the garden, they will thrive across the UK including in gardens further north but do plant them in a sunny spot to get the sweetest fruits.

These vigorous climbers can be trimmed back to keep them bushy or allowed to scramble through a hedge or up a wall or trellis.

Whilst your plant is in a small pot it will need regular watering. Aim to water it heavily and then allow the top of the compost to dry out before watering heavily again. When you can your wineberry will benefit from being planted out in the garden or potted up in a much larger pot. Add a top dressing of well-rotted manure or other rich compost to help your plant settle in and you may want to replace the pyramid of canes with a longer single cane or trellis as your plant grows.

We expect these young plants to put on plenty more growth this year and the first crop of flowers and fruits either this year or next. Over time your plant will grow into a sizeable bush producing a tasty harvest in early Autumn.

Fresh wineberries are best harvested when they are rich crimson colour and either eaten fresh or frozen for use in puddings and jams.

Wineberries are particularly vigorous so over time it is worth pruning and controlling their growth. They can be trained up an arch, pergola, wall or kept as bush but either way the main pruning should be done in the autumn. Wineberries only produce fruit on the stems that are two years old so resist the temptation to remove new season growth and just concentrate on removing any branches that have already fruited that season to maximise fruit production.