Brambles

Brambles (Rubus) - Deciduous or semi-evergreen, trailing and often prickly shrubs which form a complex group known as Rubus fruticosus aggregate and contains about 320 individual ‘species’ known as microspecies. Its habit is generally a rounded bush about 4 feet high. Brambles are found throughout the British Isles and some of the species from America and its habitats are woods, scrub, hedgerows, heaths, waste ground, and banks. It has prickly stems which are able to take root at thier tips. Its leaves are palmately compound with 3-5 leaflets, the middle one being the largest. Leaf margins are finely serrate which give a look of a tooth, have a smooth upper surface but its lower surfaces are a bit prickly.

Individual canes grow vegetatively for one year, initiate flower buds in late summer, fruit the following summer, then die. The first year canes are called "primocanes", and in the second year when they flower, these are called "floricanes". Flowering takes place from May to September and the seeds ripen from July to October. Flowers are with splashes of pink and are born terminally on several-flowered racemes, cymes, or corymbose inflorescences.

Brambles
General Information
Scientific name	Rubus fruticosus
Common name	Raspberry
Planting month	year round
Uses	have high economic value, medicines
Description
Height	3-4 feet
Spread	4-5 feet
Habit	erect or rounded
Texture	rough with pricks
Density/Rate	moderate
Leaf	palmately compound with 3-5 leaflets, serrate , smooth upper surface but its lower surfaces are a bit prickly.
Flower	white to pink, are born terminally on several-flowered racemes, cymes, or corymbose inflorescences.
Plant	upto 4 feets, generally shrub, erect , bear beutiful berries
Fruit	drupe and too showy
Stem	branched
Cultivation
Light Requirement	Full sun
Soil Requirement	Deeply fertile humus and well drained soils
Drought Tolarance	Too high
Soil salt Tolarance	Average
Scientific Classification
Kingdom	Plantae
Division	Anthophyta
Class	Magnoliopsida
Order	Rosales
Family	Rosaceae
Genus	Rubus
Species	fruticosus

Contents 1 Brambles Growing Conditions 2 Brambles Care & Cultivation 3 Brambles Uses 4 Related Flowers 4.1 Whitewashed Bramble 4.2 Rubus Nutkanus 4.3 Rubus Odoratus 4.4 The Salmon Berry 4.5 Rubus Giraldianus

Brambles Growing Conditions

Brambles grow best in a wide range of soils but do best when planted on well-drained, deep, fertile soil that is high in humus . It requires full sunlight. A pH of 6.0 to 6.5 is preferred. Adding organic matter and planting in raised beds can be of great help. Organically rich humus when added to the soil makes a great difference to the gowth of the plant. As mulching conserves moisture, moderates temperature fluctuations, decreases weed pressure, and enhances yield so it should be practised regularly.

Brambles Care & Cultivation

Most bramble plantings are established either from root cuttings or plants. Spacing within rows at planting depends largely on the species.The row spacing for commercial plantings is typically 12 feet so that it can accommodate tractor operations, allow for air movement, and proper sunlight could reach up the plant. Brambles, are fairly drought-tolerant and are sometimes grown without supplemental irrigation. Most plants are irrigated to assure quantity and quality of production. Sites with adequate air circulation are best suited for its growth. All solid organic fertilizers should be applied in the mid to late winter to allow adequate decomposition. Home gardeners should incorporate 1/2 - 3/4 lb. per 100 square feet of 10-10-10 fertilizer. Commercial growers should use 500 lbs. per acre of 10-10-10 fertilizers.

• Cultivars with a trailing growth habit require trellising.
• These require summer tipping,because individual canes will grow to unmanageable lengths.
• The appropriate means of pruning, training, and trellising a bramble crop is must.
• For better yield spray management should be adapted.

Brambles Uses

• Its berries have a high degree of economic importance, there market value is quite high.
• Its seeds are sometimes powdered and used in home remedies to cure stomach related problems.
• Brambles provide food for people as well as for wildlife.

Related Flowers

Among the best native Brambles are the beautiful double varieties of R. fructicosus, which flower late in summer. There are the double pink and the double white kinds, both known under various names; but the names of double pink and double white are sufficient. As they are forms of distinct species or varieties, they differ in habit, the double pink being much the stronger and more free flowering.

When well placed the double pink makes a wide-spreading mass like the common Bramble, and gives from the middle of August till autumn an abundance of bloom, every flower being a rosette of delicate pink petals. The double white is a form of R. tomentosus, and its flowers are larger than those of the double pink, but less double. The double white and the double pink should be planted near each other, and will clothe banks or associate with bold rocks. Another fine Bramble is the Cut-leaved, or Parsley-leaved Bramble, which has a profusion of white blooms, succeeded by large delicious fruits.

The Japanese Wine-berry (R. phaenicolasius) is a strong-growing Bramble, the stems of which are covered with reddish hairs, and the leaves silvery white on the under side. A group planted beside water is very fine in windy weather, when the under-surface is freely exposed. The pink and white flowers are followed by soft red fruits, like a little Raspberry. R. sorbifolius is also pretty, with stout erect stems of about 18 inches, bearing elegant cut leaves and large white flowers, followed by conical fruits of fine appearance but of poor flavor. Like some other Brambles, this grows well in partial shade. Some of the so-called American Blackberries, such as the Lawton and Kittaninny, do not succeed in England. Almost all kinds should have their stems cut away after flowering, leaving only the new shoots of the season.

A few of the small kinds, such as R. arcticus (which grows a few inches high and bears numerous rosy-pink blossoms), the Cloud-berry, R. Chamaemorus (also dwarf and with white blossoms), the Dewberry (R. Caesius), and R. saxatilis, are pretty in partially-shaded spots in the rock garden in moist peaty soil.

Whitewashed Bramble

Whitewashed Bramble (Rubus Biflorus) - Has tall wand-like stems often 10 feet or more in height, whitened with a mealy substance on the bark. Its white flowers are not showy, and are succeeded by edible, Raspberry-like fruits. R. australis, from New Zealand, is without true leaves, and prickly. In warm situations on walls it grows several feet high, but it is not fully hardy. Himalayas.

Rubus Nutkanus

Rubus Nutkanus - This is found from N. California to Nootka Sound, and is rather taller in growth than R. odoratus, the flowers pure white. They are partial to a moist soil, near the margins of a pond or stream. They are among the best shrubs for the wild garden, where in a short time they spread into large masses if in good soil and partial shade.

Rubus Odoratus

Rubus Odoratus - With large-lobed leaves, and from June till August large clusters of rich purple flowers. It may be used in the rougher parts of the rock garden, or in the wild garden, and is very hardy. Like the garden Raspberry, it sends up strong annual shoots, which in rich soils reach 6 feet, bearing scented leaves, the leaves and not the flowers being fragrant. There is no finer shrub for planting under the shade of large trees where the soil is not too full of roots.

The Salmon Berry

The Salmon Berry (Rubus Spectabilis) - Has flowers of a bright red and very early. It is best in the rougher parts of the rock garden or for the wild garden, and grows well under trees or in under-wood. N.W. America.

Rubus Giraldianus

Rubus Giraldianus - No Bramble in cultivation produces so striking an effect, in my opinion, as R. giraldianus, named in honor of Giraldi, an Italian, one of the intrepid Jesuit priests in W. China, whence this shrub was introduced by Wilson in 1907. It grows about 7 feet high, the slender, drooping part of the stem being long enough for the tip to reach the ground. Having reached the soil, the tips there form curious thickened ends similar to those so frequent in wild British Brambles, and, taking root, form new plants.