My wife was recently given some long whippy fruit canes (with roots intact) by a gardener friend of hers, the bounty from an autumn thinning at a large kitchen garden. The stems are that of the Japanese wineberry (Rubus phoenicolasius), a relative of the raspberry that hails from Korea and China, as well as Japan, and they promise to be an interesting addition to our garden.

Like raspberries, and other cane fruits, the Japanese wineberry is a vigorous plant, its arching stems growing up to 3 metres in a season, and then rooting once the tips descend back to earth. Evidence in North America shows that it is potentially quite an invasive plant, so it will need a firm hand I think in our small garden. I am hoping though that a bounty of tasty red fruit in the summer will make it worth it. Good ground preparation will be important, with a decent load of manure needed to beef up the soil, followed by plenty of water both on planting (to rehydrate the bare-roots) and during the growing season. And some sturdy wires will help support it (and keep the stem tips off the ground!).

The wineberry is a perennial that fruits biennially, so in other words it fruits on stems produced in the previous year. Last years long whippy stems can be pruned back a bit and it will be on new side shoots from these that the flowers and fruits will develop this year. Thankfully I did my research before being over enthusiastic with the secateurs so should be rewarded with a crop this year. Aside from that the stems are a lovely reddy colour and covered with a down of fine pale bristles that make them attractive already (but don't make them too harsh to handle).

Not only do the the berries apparently ripen to fill the gap between summer and autumn raspberries, but they are kept safe from marauding birds by a protective calyce (part of the floral envelope). It all sounds too good to be true so I am only wondering why they are not more common in UK gardens. Is someone not telling me something?