Japanese wineberry

Japanese wineberry: how do you recognise it?

Habit

Bramble-like shrub of 1.5–2.5 m with arching stems.

Leaf

Alternate, trifoliate with broadly ovate, toothed leaflets (5–10 cm); white-felted underneath.

Stems

Arching, densely covered with red, sticky glandular hairs and a few small prickles; the tips root where they touch the ground.

Flower

Small, pinkish-white flowers with short petals in a sticky, hairy calyx, June–July.

Fruit

Glossy, orange-red berries like small raspberries, July–August; until they ripen, they are enclosed in the calyx.

Difference from raspberry

Raspberry has stems without red glandular hairs, and dull red raspberries.

Difference from bramble

Bramble has strong, hooked prickles and black blackberries.

Flowering: June–July · Harvest and fruit: July–August · Pruning: August–September

Identify by feature: Orange berries · Thorns or prickles

Looks like it, but isn’t

• Raspberry Rubus idaeus: stems without red glandular hairs, and dull red raspberries. Difference from raspberry
• Bramble Rubus: strong, hooked prickles and black blackberries. Difference from bramble

Why grow it?

• Glossy, sweet-sharp berries in July–August, between the raspberries and the blackberries.
• Attractive red, hairy stems, lovely in winter too.
• Flowers for bees and bumblebees.
• Few, small prickles: easier picking than a wild bramble.

Japanese wineberry: where does it grow best?

• Sun to partial shade; the berries ripen best in the sun.
• Any ordinary garden soil that neither dries out nor becomes waterlogged.
• Allow about 2 m of wire or fence per plant.
• Not right next to a woodland edge or nature area: it can easily escape there.

Light

Sun or partial shade

Legal basis

Any garden soil

Moisture

Normal

Size

2 m tall, 2 m wide

Hardiness

Throughout Belgium, no protection needed

Goes well with

• Raspberry: Together a row of soft fruit: raspberries in early summer, wineberries in July–August.
• Bramble: Blackberries in August–September, after the wineberries; the same pruning along wires.
• Redcurrant: Redcurrants in July, in the same fruit corner.

Good and bad companions

Goes well with

• Suits the woodland edge or the light shade of: ginkgo, box elder, ash, honey locust, field maple, silver maple

Japanese wineberry: when and how to plant it?

1. Plant from November to March; from a pot it can be done later too, except in frost or drought.
2. First put up wires between posts or against a fence, every 40–50 cm up to about 1.5 m high.
3. Space the plants about 2 m apart.
4. After planting, cut the stems back to 20–25 cm: strong new stems will then come from the base.

Care

Watering

In dry spells during the first year, and later as the berries swell.

Mulching

A layer of compost or leaves in spring keeps the soil moist.

Training

Tie in the young stems during summer; train them to one side and the fruiting stems to the other.

Harvest

Pick when the berries are glossy orange-red and come away easily; they don’t ripen further after picking.

Tips

Cut off stem tips before they touch the ground, and dig out rooting tips straight away.

Tip: Plant it where the low winter sun falls on the stems: the red hairs then glow like copper.

Japanese wineberry: when to prune it?

Pruning months: August–September.

When: After the harvest, in August–September.

How:

• As for blackberries: a stem fruits only once, in its second year. After the harvest, cut the fruited stems off at ground level.
• Tie in 4–6 strong young stems to the wires for next year; the rest can go.
• Also remove thin, weak and crossing stems.

Caution: The stem tips root where they touch the ground: that is how it easily escapes from gardens.

Pruning: when and how · Pruning calendar and basic rules

Propagation

Tip layering

In summer, push the tip of a young stem a few centimetres into the soil; by autumn it will have roots and you can cut it free and replant it.

Japanese wineberry: how does it get through the winter?

Hardy throughout Belgium: no protection needed.

• Hardy.
• The red, hairy stems give the bare shrub colour in winter too.

Diseases and pests

• Escaping: The tips root where they touch the ground, and birds spread the seeds. Cut the tips off in time and dig out seedlings.
• Birds: Blackbirds peck at the ripe berries. A net helps.
• Spotted wing drosophila: Soft fruit with tiny maggots in late summer. Pick often and thoroughly, and clear up rotten fruit.
• Grey mould: Grey fluff on the fruit in wet weather. Keep the shrub open and remove rotten fruit.

Through the year

• March: Add compost; check the wires.
• May: Young stems grow; tie them in.
• June: Flowering for bees and bumblebees.
• July: Harvest begins.
• August: Main harvest; then cut out the fruited stems.
• September: Finish pruning and tie in the young stems.
• October: Cut free and replant tip layers.
• November: Planting.

What can you use it for?

Food and drink

Glossy, sweet-sharp berries to eat fresh, on a dessert or in jam.

Garden and landscape

Attractive red, hairy stems, lovely in winter too; train them along wires.

For wildlife

Flowers for bees and bumblebees.

Edible and useful

Berries (July–August)

Pick the berries in July and August, when they are glossy orange-red and the hairy calyx opens. Until they ripen they stay enclosed in the calyx: do not pick before it opens, because they are then hard and sour. Ripe berries come away easily, are soft and juicy and bruise quickly, so pick into a shallow tray. Wear gloves, because the stems have fine prickles and sticky hairs. Use or eat the berries within a day or two.

Storing

Fresh berries are very soft and keep for only a day or two in the fridge, in a shallow container. Freeze them in a single layer on a tray and then keep them in a bag. Jam keeps for a year in sterilised jars and vinegar for at least a year in a well-closed bottle.

Caution: Only eat fully ripe berries of the Japanese wineberry (Rubus phoenicolasius), recognisable by its red stems covered in sticky hairs, leaves with three leaflets with a white, felty underside, and glossy orange-red berries in a hairy calyx. Unripe berries are hard and very sour. Do not confuse them with the red berries of poisonous plants such as woody nightshade (Solanum dulcamara) or lords-and-ladies (Arum maculatum): wineberries are made up of tiny drupelets, like a raspberry. People who are allergic to raspberries or other fruit of the rose family should be careful. Do not pick beside busy roads or from sprayed plants; do not pick in nature reserves and do not dump pruning waste in the wild, because the rooting stem tips form new plants. Never eat anything you have not identified with certainty.

Eating and using is at your own risk: see the terms of use.

Recipes

• Wineberry jam (Jam · ± 5 jars of 250 ml · 40 min)
• Wineberry vinegar (Vinegar · ± 500 ml · 15 min + 2 weeks steeping)
• Panna cotta with wineberries (Dish · 4 glasses · 25 min + 4 hrs chilling)

Did you know?

• In the eastern United States it has escaped from gardens and now spreads as an invasive species along woodland edges.
• Until they are ripe, the berries are enclosed in the sticky, hairy calyx.
• It is a true raspberry: the ripe berry comes away from the core and is then hollow.