I placed my potted blackberry bush in the sunniest location in my backyard.  I then gave her water, love and time. Here you can see the first sprouting of her leaves.  I did not do much to the plant beside cutting down the canes after I initially put her in her container.  At this point I just let Miss Berry do her thing.  And do her thing she did…

For the most part, I’m pleased with the progress of my berry bush.  The leaves look healthy, green and firm.  I don’t see any insects, holes or withering leaves.  I’m worried however, that she is not forming properly.  What I mean by this is she’s growing sideways and beginning to trail outside the pot  on the concrete.

I purchased the Arapaho variety of blackberry bush.  It is a thorn-less bush that is not supposed to require staking.  It grows upright and can stand on its own.  So far I do not see any thorns but the plant is not growing upright at all.  I am worried about this because I did not account for staking this plant or using a trellis with it and I do not have a lot of horizontal space for it to spread out.

It is possible that I need to cut it back to make sure that it grows properly or  I may have purchased a plant that was mislabeled.  I sure hope not!  I designated this issue as top priority in need of some true investigating.  My dreams of eating delicious, juicy blackberries two years from now will not go unanswered!! I must do all that I can to help Miss Berry reach her full potential and bestow the family with nature candy….hmmm maybe I need to simmer down. 🙂

I found another great resource site – GardenWeb.  The forums have a lot of knowledgeable and helpful people.  I will be sure to update when I find out what I need to do with Miss Berry.

Related articles

• Berry Nutritious – but Do You Know How Nutritious? (fitsugar.com)
• Picking Berries (attentiontoliving.wordpress.com)
• Blackberry Pie (muchadoaboutpie.wordpress.com)