These grew wild in Northern Vermont, the berries were thorny so eating them took skill. They tasted very delicious, they were dark purple...Read More. In Wisconsin, they also grew wild but there were not thorny, yet the same dark purple. The taste was floral and perfumey. The prickly little buggers were my first introduction to gooseberries. They are worth growing!
Great plant! One turned into six through simple layering. Fruit is pale/ lime green with vertical bands. Firm, smooth and about the size ...Read Moreof a marble. Turns maroon as it ripens. Young fruit tart. Sweeter with colour. Japanese Beetles decimate my roses 10 feet away but never touch my Gosseberry. The spines on the branches are very sharp. Ouch! I have used them in pies.
One-half cup of fresh gooseberries contains 34 calories; the berry is high in Vitamin C and contains potassium, Vitamins B1, B2 and A.
Coon Rapids, MN (Zone 4a) | February 2008 | positive
Interesting plant, indeed! I have two - orignally one plant but one was naturally rooted from a cutting and then separated from the paren...Read Moret plant - both plants are in woodland shade, growing happily but never product a single fruit. This species have loads of spines so would have been a good security plant as the spines varies. I dug it from the wild some years ago since it was a shrub growing in shade - I wanted as natural a shade garden as possible. It thrives well in shade but of course can be a bit pain to trim (chuckles). It is a well behaving plant in shade, never sending shoots away from the parent plant.
This small (3') shrub is native to woodlands of the eastern US. I'm currently trying it out in the fruit garden, and I'm quite pleased wi...Read Moreth the results. The fruit is round, generally about 15 mm in diameter (can be larger or smaller depending on how many are on a bush) and turns maroon when ripe. They are covered with small, sharp prickles; this makes them difficult to eat out-of-hand, so they are perhaps best cooked down for jelly, etc. Their flavor is a bit like kiwifruit, but not exactly.
Unfortunately, the plant is a favorite of Japanese Beetles.
These grew wild in Northern Vermont, the berries were thorny so eating them took skill. They tasted very delicious, they were dark purple...Read More
Great plant! One turned into six through simple layering. Fruit is pale/ lime green with vertical bands. Firm, smooth and about the size ...Read More
Interesting plant, indeed! I have two - orignally one plant but one was naturally rooted from a cutting and then separated from the paren...Read More
This small (3') shrub is native to woodlands of the eastern US. I'm currently trying it out in the fruit garden, and I'm quite pleased wi...Read More
Grows well here, produces lucious berries, which the birds do love to sneak before we get them! Easy to maintain, just prune out the old branches.