Photo by Mark Kane
Gooseberry
These are plucky small shrubs, native from Europe to the Himalayas, and widely grown, including in North America, for their fruits. The shrub is ragged and prickly, with sharp spines on stems, branches, and twiglets. The fruits are the size of grapes or smaller, smooth-skinned and slightly translucent, but size and taste vary from cultivar to cultivar (there are many). Generally, the fruits are acidic and mildly sweet with a distinctive flavor. They’re most often used for pies.
Some regions ban gooseberries because the plants are hosts for one stage of a fungal disease (white pine blister rust) that in its other phase infects and kills white pine trees. However, the rules vary--some bans allow for growing cultivars (there are a few) that are resistant to the fungus. For a survey of cultivars and an introduction to planting and training the plants, see this guide from the University of Minnesota.
The many English gardeners who love to compete for raising the largest vegetables (such as leeks the size of baseball bats) have fellow enthusiasts who focus on fruits, including gooseberries. A gardener will pick off all flowers but one and then cosset the shrub while the lone fruit grows gigantic (as big as a plum). This is a sport for the brave. There’s sabotage with midnight raids, and deep disappointment when the prize fruit bursts just before the judges arrive.
By Mark Kane - the Groundskeeper, YourGardenShow.com
Copyright © 2012 YourGardenShow.com
Video by Tom Finerty, founder YourGardenShow.com
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