I wasn't really familiar with blackberries until my lower-mainland-gardening sister brought me an ice cream pail full of the wild berries she had picked in her own backyard. And I was smitten! So imagine my thrill (on blackberry hill. ha ha) when I learned that there was a hardy blackberry cultivar out there. And thorn-less, into the bargain!
I wasted no time in finding me one, though I honestly can't remember if it was local or mail order. I planted this young blackberry cane in the perfect soil and in some serious all-day sunshine; I watered it faithfully. . .
And it grew! It thrived, in fact!
And it made berries! Lots of berries!
They were small, similar to raspberries in that regard; but it didn't matter—they were blackberries and they were mine!
I could almost taste them. Almost.
This went on for several years, and not once did I get to eat those blackberries. The berries were not soft nor sweet before a hard frost took them from me. As with my Sweet Potato experiment, I learned that, while the blackberry canes were indeed hardy, the zone 2/3 growing season in central British Columbia was not, nor likely ever will be, long enough to bring them to fruition (heavy sigh). But I'm not mourning the blackberry-dream-gone-awry. Not really. I've decided, rather, to use more garden space for the tried and true—like haskap.
So, unlike my sweet potato experiment, I won't be trying blackberries again any time soon, if ever. Some of the finer things in life are not free—but they CAN be purchased at the grocery store! :)
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another
without a loss of enthusiasm. --Sir Winston Churchill