Blackberry Slips

Last summer my neighbor and I took our buckets and headed out to pick blackberries from some roadside plants we had seen. It turned out to be a great adventure with happy consequences. These berries were different from other wild ones I was accustomed to seeing. They did have thorns but the berries were large and sweet and made great blackberry jelly. They also had red stems which made them different.

I later went back to this spot and took about 12 cuttings to root. I wanted to see if I could get some plants to grow here on my place. They took root and grew all summer and winter in some containers on my back porch. Early this spring my
son-in-law made a great bed in the back where I planted these cuttings. I had no hopes for them to bear fruit this year but thought they would simply grow and get a good root base.

Much to my surprise I saw something white in the bed this morning. I went down some brick steps to get a better look. It was blooms on those slips that grew into plants over the winter. What a happy surprise to see that they were bearing a year before I had anticipated. The plants are not yet tall and arching like the ones on the roadside but it is so encouraging to try something new like this and see it come to such a happy conclusion. Of course the proof will be in the tasting when they become huge berries in July.

I am so encouraged by these results that I now plan to take slips from the Arapaho plants in the front bed. They are similar to these4 wild plants in appearance but have no thorns. Right now the four Arapaho plants in the front are heavy with green berries but once the berries are gone I will take cuttings from them and plan for another bed in the back. Gardening is just too much fun.