Grow Your Own Magazine

When I was little, my Granny had about 10 or 12 really big gooseberry bushes. They had quite small green fruits and were tart rather than sweet. They were quite hairy too. They must have been planted in the 1960s at the very earliest and possibly a long time before. I absolutely loved them and would really like to try growing some.

Does anyone know what variety they might have been?

Gooseberry Cultivars

Has a pictures of many types were they cooking or desert ?

Maybe careless ?

Must be a story behind a gooseberry called Dan's Mistake?

__________________
Earth laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com

Updated November 30th - Mr Stinky's Excellent Adventure (and a Christmas Cake)

Seahorse,

The recommended mildew resistant type (from my book) are:
Captivator
Greenfinch
Hinnonmaki Gul/ Hinnonmaki Keltainen
Hinnonmaki Rod / Lepaan Punainen
Invicta
Josselyn
Lepac
Martlet
Mucurines
Pax
Pixwell
Spinefree
Worcester
Rochus
Reflamba
Remarka
Reverta
Rixanta
Rokula
Rolanda.
Remarka, Rolanda & Invicta produce the biggest berries.
But I have no idea about the colour/growing habit nor any other info. Do some google search base on their cultivar names and hopefully you can get them in Uk too. I love them, they are yummyyyy but watch out for the birds, they love it too

Momol

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I grow, I pick, I eat ...

I really wish I could go to a gooseberry tasting! I can narrow it down from the pics in slg's post (assuming it is one of those of course) but beyond that, I can only think I'd need to taste them to be sure

I'll do some further research, although sadly, Googling 'gooseberry, small, hairy, dark green, pre 1960' yields no useful info!

Tahnks for all the advice so far folks.

That what we did Sea Horse, we went to the Garden Centre and tasted it ( with the permision from the keeper) and then bought 7 green bushes and 7 red bushes and until now I don't know their cultivar name, but they are meldew resistant.
Hope you can tested yours first before buying, good luck...

Momol

__________________
I grow, I pick, I eat ...

This supplier has loads of types of gooseberries

Rougham Hall Nurseries - Gooseberry Availability

Why don't you a) look for all that meet that criteria b) then use this link

Gooseberry Cultivars

To look at the picture.

A lot of older non mildew resistant varieties are now very difficult to obtain and to be honest,

I heartily recommend the hannonmiki red and green (the red is sweeter), invicta and pax. The pax has the added benefit of being spineless.

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Kindest regards, David.

http://pigletsplots.blogspot.com/
updated - Sunday 19th at 2100hrs

Excellent I planted the red (sometimes called rod from Swedish from red) last year.


However aren't a lot of the older varieties tastier than invicta which I don't really like that much ?

Thanks for those links, narrows it down a bit at least!

I've got Invicta and Hannonmiki Green, plus several other modern ones and I do take the point about mildew resistance. I much prefer tart to sweet varieties btw.

I've asked my Mum if she can find out if any of the aged relatives might know what Granny had in the garden!

FOR FLUMMERY,
the story behind dans mistake was he was a nursery man who recieved an order for gooseberrys from someone, he sent them and when they fruited they were the wrong colour from what had been origiannally orderded,
the man complained to the nursery and was made to i think refund and give this man a load more gooseberries true to cultivar,a mistake had been made in the nursey rows on some plants/test seedlings thus giving rise to the name
DANS MISTAKE to the remaining gooseberries in the row, not really a mistake as its a briliant goosegog,
ill try and find the complete story ,i had it in a book somewere,
stew

Thanks for that Swaine - I love the 'back stories' to some of the plant names. Sounds like an expensive mistake for him!

__________________
Earth laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com

Updated November 30th - Mr Stinky's Excellent Adventure (and a Christmas Cake)

My grandfather always grew 'Careless' and we loved it as kids - I've just bought one for myself although it's not known for its mildew resistance. I'll let you know how it tastes if it fruits this year

Thanks for that kvp. 'Careless' was one of my shortlist but I've found it hard to date some varieties. Dare I ask whether you would have been eating your Grandad's gooseberries in the late sixties/seventies?

hi careless is definetley PRE- 1864, (eighteen sixty four)
one of the many older ones still holding its own against the newbies
think is was bred by someone called crompton,
stew

Oooh, could deffo be the one then! Thanks Swaine!

if your looking for flavour, go for
YELLOW CHAMPAGNE,if you can find a supplier, another golden oldie, highy suseptable to midew, BUT with my older varities i grow in large pots and move them into a polytunnel thru spring early summer when warm moist outside this seems to aggrivate the mildew, being under cover helps mine stay free from mildew, easily one of the best goosgogs ive tasted ,
small yellow berries, on an erect bush, think its thornless aswell,
also the QUEEN OF TRUMPS, great taste also good for exhibition,
stew,

How many varieties do you grow ??

What do you do with all the berries ?

I am growing (as of November 2007) Leveller gage, Hinnomaki red and Leveller (Leveller only a cordon). What are they like ?

Have you ever grown guido ? I am thinking of buying it from
here as it the same name as my brother in law
Rougham Hall Nurseries - Gooseberry Availability

for southlondongardener,
about 40 varieties of gooseberry, more if i had the space,and i will find more space,lol

the varieties you mention will all do well,
as for GUIDO, i grow it and would recommended it,
has very dark red berries, with good flavour and is quite big so doubles up for possible exhibition,
i like fruit you can attach to peoples names, as your from london
why dont you try LONDON gooseberry,v.large dark red in colour won the heaviest gooseberry for about 20 something years, pre 1850 i think,
stew

I bought my Rolanda from a GC (easy enough) and I found it much tastier than the average ordinary green gooseberry. The fruit is bigger although a little hairy, juicy and sweet enough to eat straight from the bush without cooking them to make dessert. I neglect them (not too keen on the fruits) so I don't know what goes on with them bush .

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Food for Free

Do you sell the excess ? 40 bushes should give 100+ kg I guess.

my pastry chefs soon make sort work of the gooseberries,lol
what i dont use myself goes to work with me,given away, or frozen,
the variation of the varieties still amazes me, to answer a previous collection
i grow them on my allotments,
just seen some more gooseberries bushes with great names! i want so just got to make a little more space now,somewere,
just going slightly off a little i found two runt looking seedling gooseberrys
growing on the pathway on my way to the allotment that had been sprayed by the weedman and not looking to clever a couple of years ago , i lifted them washed them , and potted them up, they flowered last year but didnt fruit, so this year they my throw up a suprise goosgog,
also anyone try growing goosgogs from seed , they dont come true to type but this is how new varieties get bred in currants and goosegogs,take about 4-5 to fruit but worth a try! give it a go,
stew