What fruit bushes and how many of each?

Most of my 2 plots are geared up for annual veg but I have a few areas for fruit scattered around..

In the Jungle there's 5 red currents and 8 Hinnonmaki Red gooseberries - all of these are trained as triple cordons along the fence between plots making a hedge down the middle of them. Above these are a kiwi fruit and a grape vine. The fence is about 32 foot long and 2 foot wide, with another 2 foot for a path along side it. I have a 8'x4' bed of strawberries to keep the family happy.

At the front of the Jungle is the main fruit area. I've for 2 Evergreen Thornless Blackberries growing up over the entrance arch. Next to that are 2 Hascap/Blue Honeysuckle/Honeberry plants which are still in the establishing phase. After that I've an Aronia/Chokeberry which was planted this year then there's the Himalayan Honeysuckle. There's a Golden currant which went in last year and is still establishing, a small but growing fig tree and I've 3 black currant bushes which gave 20lbs of fruit this year. These are grown as open goblet bushes. In the Square Foot Orchard under the apples, pears, cherry and plum trees there's a ground cover of strawberries starting off. Then there's 2 beds of raspberries - one summer one autumn. That fruiting area area is 25 foot by 14 foot

In the New Territories I have 3 grape vines along the 24 foot front fence. There's a Blueberry and cranberries in a 3'x3' bed and a Pink Lemonade with lingonberry in another 3'x3' bed. A third 3'x3' bed is a second fig together with herbs.

In The Back of Beyond in the New territories I'm prepping an area that will have 2 tayberries and a blackberry along a fence, a dwarf medlar, dwarf quince, dwarf mullbery, Chilean Guava, Saskatoon and Goji berry - possible an Olive and Pomegranate as well.

Then there's the hardy kiwi I've just planted to grow over a couple of old green house frames.

Gooseberries ought to do OK in the situation you describe provided you are prepared to do a bit of pruning and that you water them while they are getting established - but not everyone likes them.

As for others, of those I grow in order of preference I'd say :-
1) loganberry
2) Tayberry
3) white-currant
4) Blackberry
5) and not exactly a soft fruit and needing some sort of cover, a grape vine

Good grief that's a lot! Several of those I've never even heard of, are they planted as curiosities or intended to produce decent, interesting fruit?

I can google them but if you wanted to go into any more detail, or where you sourced these, I'd love to hear.

I do have a Loganberry in a pot (I think that's what it is, dark pink big fruit and very prickly) but figure that might be thrown to grow wild like a blackberry.

The only other 'weird' ones I've tried before are pinkberry (pink blueberry) and a fruiting fushia. The former was pretty good before we moved so I've got some again, the latter looked pretty but the fruit just weren't very nice!

I always get logan and tay mixed up. We get wild blackberries like crazy here, would you go for a variant or just a corner grow wild?

I've never enjoyed white currants much, what are they good for over red/black? Jay mentioned 'golden currants', which I might look up.

Gooseberries I like the idea of but have never had the space before for anything but favourites, now I do. Pink/red varieties that are sweet and juicy could be good. I the past I had a bush that grew well but the fruit always went bad and it was relentlessly tormented by sawfly larva.

Not sure which ones you want more info on.

Red currents, Hinnonmaki Red gooseberries - by cutting these back and letting 3 buds grow I trained the top shoot upwards and the others to the sides to make 3 cordons per plant. The cordons are trained 12" apart and the plants 3'.

kiwi fruit - Self fertile type Solo. Had flowers this year but they didn't set.

grape vine - I've 4 of these currently being trained to Scot Henry trellis system.

strawberries - little red berries which grow low to the ground (hey, you didn't say which ones you never heard of)

Evergreen Thornless Blackberries - being thornless I train them up an arch and can still get through without being torn to shreds. I train three new shoots to the arch in winter cutting out last years growth. When this years growth gets tall enough I nip out the tips which promote side shoots and therefore more fruits.


Hascap/Blue Honeysuckle/Honeberry - all the same plant just different names for them. A couple of years old not producing alot of fruit yet - similarish to blue berries in flavour but not needing acidic soil.


Aronia/Chokeberry - the second name should give an idea of how this is supposed to taste. It's supposed to be quite astringent but good in jellies. I planted it out of curiosity and to spot who's pinching my fruit - they'll be the ones scraping their tongues on the gravel

Himalayan Honeysuckle. - Large attractive looking plants - the flowers are white with red bracts haning in clusters that look similar to shrips because of the colouring and shape. It's more of a curiosity as the berries ripen over a long period so you never harvest too many at a time. Has a love/hate kind of flavour which, to me, is a ix of treacle and dark chocolate.

Golden currant - another curiosity Golden yellow flowers (hense the name) which are supposed to smell of cloves. Supposed to have black berries.Lubera do a variety called Four Berries.

black currant bushes - Just the standard goblets although I may try seeing how to grow them as cordons/standards. Would need different pruning to the other currants though.

apples, pears, cherry, plum - 10 trees in an 10' by 4' bed pruned to upright cordons

raspberries - one summer (Tulameen although it al;so produces in Autumn) one autumn (Joan J although I pruned it to produce in summer as well).

Blueberry - Blue Crop bought from Wilkos, self fertile though will produce more with a cross polinator.

cranberries - ground cover, starting to send out branches to cover the bed underneath the blueberry.

Pink Lemonade - A Rabbit Eye Blueberry - has some berries but may need a compatiable pollinator. Blue Crop isn't compatiable.

lingonberry - the European version of the cranberry, low growing acid loving berry.

tayberries - like the logan berry these are a raspberry/blackberry hybrid.

medlar - Chauser called it an Open Ar*e, the French call it Dogs Ar*e due to the look of the blossom end of the fruit. Frut need to be bletted (not rotted) before they are edible.

quince - the original marmelade fruit, related to pears it needs to be cooked before it's edible.

dwarf mullbery, - Not sure how it compares to Black Mulberry fruit but doesn't grow to the size of that tree

Chilean Guava - a myrtle, supposedly Queen Victorias Favorite she had the strawberry flavoured fruit shipped up to Balmoral. James Wong has a variety called Kapow which is supposed to have larger fruit.

Saskatoon - aka Service Berry a tree/shrub producing fruit that are supposed to be like blueberries.

Goji berry - aka Wolf berry is one of the "superfruits" and supposed to be very healthy. It has long curving stems and thrown up runners which need to be kept under control.

Olive - I've a couple of little bushes covered in flowers but the likelihood of getting fruit in the UK is low.

Pomegranate - well, I got one in a pot

Hardy kiwi - self polinating variety Issua. Only just planted so it'll be a few years before it flowers.

If you like the wild blackberries around your area I'd stick a stone on one of the new shoot tips now, then dig up the new plant and move it in the winter.

If you don't like white currant flavor I wouldn't bother - just makes a change form the others.

Gooseberries are brilliant, particularly as there are lots of different sorts and they can also be grown against a north wall or fence to extend the season - can be pruned much like a min-apple tree, so cordons for example are an option - most underrated fruit IMO, if you can keep the birds off them long enough to ripen properly.

Logan and tayberries are similar to look at as well as their growing habits, but the taste is different and for me the Tay's ripen a few weeks ahead of the Logan's.

JL By Himalayan Honeysuckle do you mean Leycesteria formosa? Just double checking as don't want to kill myself! Grew some from seed many years ago and had them ever since. Birds spread them everywhere.

Got a couple of feijoas lot of flowers on them, hoping for fruit this year.

Confirm Golden Currant clove scented. Berries bit astringent, maybe not ripe enough.

Yep that's the one. Not been able to harvest enough at a go for them to make it off site though. You have to hunt to find the ripe berries.

I have planted four new blackcurrant bushes this year and two new red currants. Plus a jostaberry and a white currant and a pink currant. Might get small crops next year. I like fruit that freezes well.
I’m avoiding anything with thorns. Don’t like bleeding.

What about Jostaberries - a cross between a gooseberry and a blackcurrant - thornless.

Is it like a blackcurrant the size of a gooseberry or a gooseberry the size of a blackcurrant?

I’m assuming it’s somewhere in between. I’ve seen photos and they are black. My new jostaberry bush might give me some fruit next year. It seems a very vigorous bush so far. I have a year or so to work out the pruning.

The Jostaberries look like very large blackcurrants but the taste, at least on mine, although similar is a lot more sort of "smokey" - apart from being a bit different, I don't think they have a significant advantage over black-currants, they grow in to larger bushes but the cropping is not that good.

Just checked golden currant. Black currant tang without the flavour. Small yield. Probably destined for shredder. I was fooled by catalogue puff years ago.

Something has had all my jostaberries and they weren't even ripe! What eats green berries?