All these good berries are ripening now, and there is no one here to collect them for me! In the past, harvesting these blackberries, as well as the elderberries, was something that those who were unemployed or under employed were pleased to do for much less than the cost of purchasing them in the supermarket. Now that so many who were able to collect berries as recently as last year are now employed, there is no one here to do it! I suppose I should get started.
Himalayan blackberry is to cane berries what blue gum is to eucalypti. It is what gives all cane berries a bad reputation, and is why so few of us want to grow them. Himalayan blackberry grows as an extremely vigorous weeds, extending sharply thorny canes over anything within reach. When the canes are removed, the tough roots are extremely difficult to remove and kill.
If ignored, the canes ‘leap’, which means that they develop roots where they arch back downward to touch the ground. From there, they grow into new plants that extend new canes in all directions, to start the process all over again. (‘Leaping’ is like ‘layering’, which involves the development of roots where stems ‘lay’ on the ground.) Their seed gets where their canes do not.
The thorns are ‘prickles’, which really is a technical term for sharply pointed distensions of bark or epidermis. They are more…
View original post 162 more words
Felton League 