Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Rubus henryi var. bambusarium, a climbing evergreen blackberry from China


Pat Lynch donated this last year and it's still in the polyhouse. The floral architecture is undeniably interesting if not classically beautiful. The leaves are fun too, unusually shaped for a rubus. The literature tells me that it normally grows in stands of bamboo where the bambooesque appearance of the foliage combined with an ability to clamber up to 20 feet in the air, must allow it to insinuate itself convincingly into the bamboo. I'd like to give it a chance in some of our bamboo, but it is a rubus and they are "enthusiastic" growers. I'll plant it on one of the larger stands that's contained behind a root barrier. And keep an eye on it.

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