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Plot #59

Let’s Hear It for Soft Fruit Flowers

The merry month of May is when blossom season really gets going. Whilst the big, showy masses of apple, cherry and early strawberry flowers are grabbing the bulk of the attention and hogging the photo opps, I thought I’d take a closer look at what’s going on in the soft fruit patch down at Plot #59.

What I found was our selection of berry and currant bushes quietly doing their subtle, under-stated thing: putting out a lovely array of tiny, delicate bee-lures that don’t scream “pollinate me!” anywhere near as loudly, but carry just as much productive promise of bumper harvests to come.

Here’s what’s happening at the moment:

May 2016 blackcurrant blossom
Last year we harvested so many blackcurrants we ran out of room for them in the freezer…
May 2016 gooseberry blossom
Our gooseberry bushes are just coming into their full maturity – a good harvest ahead, hopefully.
May 2016 redcurrant blossom
Anyone know a good recipe for Cumberland sauce so we can make best use of our redcurrants?
May 2016 whitecurrant blossom
We’re looking forward to sampling a few whitecurrants, all being well.
May 2016 blueberry blossom
Meanwhile, back home, our potted blueberries are blooming marvellously.

What’s your favourite soft fruit? Or are you growing any unusual varieties? (We have a Japanese Wineberry plant and have edible fuschia berry plugs on order). Let me know in the comments…

4 replies on “Let’s Hear It for Soft Fruit Flowers”

Sounds delicious. I expect that’s how most of ours will end up, if we don’t just scoff them all as soon as they’re ripe.

I have a Japanese wineberry and love it. It’s kind of like a sweet cross between a raspberry and blackberry. And really easy to look after too.

Cheers Matt, that sounds great. I’m looking forward to it fruiting this year, with any luck. It might still be in getting-established mode though, I’ll have to wait and see.

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