Description
Friend is grown for one practical thing: it has no thorns worth the name. What few it makes on young wood fall away as the branch matures, so an established bush is comfortable to pick from and comfortable to prune.
The plant stays compact, around 2 to 3 ft each way, which suits a small garden, a border edge, or a large container on a patio. The fruit is medium sized and firm, and it goes two ways: picked at the early ripe stage it is tangy and takes well to jam and pie, and left until fully ripe it is sweet enough to eat off the bush.
Overview
- Thornless canes, so picking and pruning are comfortable work.
- Firm, medium berries, good fresh when ripe and good cooked when early.
- Compact at 2 to 3 ft, for a small garden or a large container.
- Hardy and self-fertile; one bush sets a crop.
Growing Details
Latin Name: Ribes uva-crispa ‘Friend’
Site and Soil: Full sun to part shade; rich, well drained soil, pH 6.0 to 7.0
Hardiness: Hardy to USDA Zone 3
Rootstock: Grown from cuttings
Bearing Age: Light crop the first year; full crops by year 3 or 4
Size at Maturity: Compact, about 2 to 3 ft tall and wide
Ripening Time: Mid season for a gooseberry; July
Pollination: Self-fertile; a single bush sets a crop
Pests & Diseases: Powdery mildew; currant worm strips leaves from the inside out
Additional Notes
- Grower’s Insight: Thornless canes change how you prune: you can reach right into the middle of the bush to open it up, which is the one job that keeps a gooseberry cropping.
- Regional Insight: Gooseberries perform best where summers stay cool to moderate, from the Upper Midwest and New England to the Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountain states.
- Explore more berries in our collection: Berries
