Japanese Wineberry, Rubus phoenicolasius | Jeremy Bartlett's LET IT GROW blog

Japanese Wineberry

One of my discoveries last year was the Japanese Wineberry, Rubus phoenicolasius, a beautiful and delicious relative of the Blackberry (Rubus fruticosus species aggregate) and the Raspberry (Rubus idaeus), a separate species rather than a hybrid (like Tayberry and Loganberry).

The Japanese Wineberry is a sprawling sub-shrub that can be trained in the manner of blackberries or allowed to sprawl along the floor of a forest garden. It is deciduous and in winter its attractive red stems with orange-red bristles brighten up the garden. But it is the orange-red fruit that are its best feature, produced in early August inside a protective, papery calyx. They are sweet and taste a bit like a raspberry with a hint of grape. It’s difficult to describe but very lovely.

Japanese Wineberry in winter, Grapes Hill Community Garden

I bought three plants last year from D. T. Brown for Grapes Hill Community Garden and they did well beneath one of the ash trees where we’ve allowed them to sprawl. They produced fruit in the first year and the stems reached as far a vigorous patch of Moroccan Mint. It will root into the soil but that shouldn’t be a problem, as we want it to sprawl about the place. If you train your Japanese Wineberries up wires you can keep them from rooting, or you can propagate them from rooted pieces – it’s up to you. Only one plant is necessary as they’re self-fertile and there are no special named varieties.

Japanese Wineberries are perennials and they fruit on the previous year’s stems. Old canes that have borne fruit can be pruned out but it’s a shame to do this before late in the winter, as they look so good.

We ate our Japanese Wineberries straight from the plant but you can use them in most berry recipes, such as trifles or summer pudding, if you have enough of them.