Unusual soft fruit plants

Murphybear

Hi everyone

We went to our local garden centre yesterday.  Utterly gorgeous but expensive.

They had some unusual soft fruit such as Jostaberry, Wineberry and Honeyberry as well as  Tayberry and Loganberry.  Has anyone tried growing these?  Our raspberries and blackcurrants are grown in giant pots as we have no suitable bits of outdoors to grown in the ground.

I’d love to know what they taste like as well.  

A couple of years ago I saw some blackberry bushes designed to be grown in hanging baskets.  I bought some as I love blackberries.  I used pots rather than hanging baskets.  I’m wondering if anyone else has come across these.

Fortunately our GP surgery and our Osteopath place both have apple trees and patients are allowed to pick them.   .  Home made blackberry and apple crumbles in the winter, yum.  I don’t know what varieties of apples they are so it’s potluck 

Emmia

Loganberries are lovely, a bit sweeter than raspberries.

Murphybear

Emmia said:

Loganberries are lovely, a bit sweeter than raspberries.

My husband loves loganberries, I bought him 2 plants for his last birthday  .

While surfing for soft fruit earlier I came across a framberry.  It’s some sort of cross between strawberry and raspberry.  Have you come across this?  

YoungBlueEyes

I have a wineberry, and I don't think it was worth the money. It produced a few fruit last year but they didn't taste good to me. Sort of a musty old library book flavour, with a hint of sharp.  I bought a loganberry this year, I'm looking forward to that fruiting.

CliveOfIndia

Tayberries are lovely, it's a cross between a raspberry and blackberry and the fruits tend to be quite big.

Some years ago on GQT someone was asking about them.  Apparently they can't be harvested mechanically, so it's not viable to grow them commercially.  So in some ways that makes them even nicer to grow yourself, as you can't buy them in the shops

RAS

YoungBlueEyes said:

I have a wineberry, and I don't think it was worth the money. It produced a few fruit last year but they didn't taste good to me. Sort of a musty old library book flavour, with a hint of sharp.  I bought a loganberry this year, I'm looking forward to that fruiting.

I suspect that there's a variety of related plants sold as wineberry. Grown in forest situations some can be good, but not one for pots.

Tayberry and Loganberry are similar to each other. Have one (inherited, not sure which) and it's luscious, particularly if picked very ripe. 

Jostaberry is a thug, blackcurrant and gooseberry cross. Personally I like it, not as tart as either parent, and can be eaten out of hand. Not one for pots as it grows big. If you know anyone with a plant just get a stick and pop it in the ground.

Murphybear

YoungBlueEyes said:

I have a wineberry, and I don't think it was worth the money. It produced a few fruit last year but they didn't taste good to me. Sort of a musty old library book flavour, with a hint of sharp.  I bought a loganberry this year, I'm looking forward to that fruiting.

I love the bit about “musty old book flavour”.  The trouble is I’ve never eaten any musty old books 

Murphybear

RAS said:

YoungBlueEyes said:

I have a wineberry, and I don't think it was worth the money. It produced a few fruit last year but they didn't taste good to me. Sort of a musty old library book flavour, with a hint of sharp.  I bought a loganberry this year, I'm looking forward to that fruiting.

I suspect that there's a variety of related plants sold as wineberry. Grown in forest situations some can be good, but not one for pots.

Tayberry and Loganberry are similar to each other. Have one (inherited, not sure which) and it's luscious, particularly if picked very ripe. 

Jostaberry is a thug, blackcurrant and gooseberry cross. Personally I like it, not as tart as either parent, and can be eaten out of hand. Not one for pots as it grows big. If you know anyone with a plant just get a stick and pop it in the ground.

My husband is very partial to loganberry jam.  We had a short break on the Isle of Wight recently (we met there newly 30 years ago ).

In one of the shops I found a jar of loganberry and tayberry jam. I bought some to take home but it was a bit disappointing.  I’m sure the berries were lovely but there was so much sugar in the jam you could barely taste the berries 

Murphybear

Thanks for all the responses 

alicef

I have a tayberry and a loganberry.  Both produce long canes so you do need to have the space to tie the canes to some form of support.    At some point I did have a honeyberry but I think I managed to kill it.

Katiehound

My mother had a loganberry which I bought at Woolworths! Gives you an idea of the time line.

It was prolific, the new canes were tied in along 2 adjacent fences as it was planted near a corner in pretty much full sun. 
The fruit is a cross between raspberry & blackberry- delicious in any form of hot or cold! Wish I had some now