When I bought my house, the owners left me a handy, if incomplete, guide to its garden. They mentioned a hedge of wild raspberries growing between the road and the hedge of wild blackberries. I faithfully pruned them and trellised them, relieved that they were a thornless variety.
When![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sholio visited, she mentioned that they didn't look like raspberries. I said they were definitely raspberries, as attested to by both the previous owners and my neighbors who had seen them growing. I said they must be some different-looking wild variant. Plus, when I examined the spent canes, they very clearly had raspberry-looking places where berries once had been.
They've been slowly ripening. Today I ate a couple. I was very disappointed that they were the worst raspberries I've ever had.
Then I thought, "Wait a sec..." It turned out thatsholio was right! They are not any kind of raspberry. They are...
THIMBLEBERRIES!
I double-checked their ID with both the internet and the expensive dying thimbleberry that I specially purchased. Worst $20 I ever spent - I have a giant hedge of them already, and I don't even like them!
The texture is limp, hairy, seedy, and juiceless, and the flavor is like an uninspired raspberry.
However, they are native plants, they have very pretty blossoms, and they're very green with no watering. They can go on disappointing me and pleasing the bees.
But I need to plant some more actual raspberries.
When
sholio visited, she mentioned that they didn't look like raspberries. I said they were definitely raspberries, as attested to by both the previous owners and my neighbors who had seen them growing. I said they must be some different-looking wild variant. Plus, when I examined the spent canes, they very clearly had raspberry-looking places where berries once had been.They've been slowly ripening. Today I ate a couple. I was very disappointed that they were the worst raspberries I've ever had.
Then I thought, "Wait a sec..." It turned out that
sholio was right! They are not any kind of raspberry. They are...THIMBLEBERRIES!
I double-checked their ID with both the internet and the expensive dying thimbleberry that I specially purchased. Worst $20 I ever spent - I have a giant hedge of them already, and I don't even like them!
The texture is limp, hairy, seedy, and juiceless, and the flavor is like an uninspired raspberry.
However, they are native plants, they have very pretty blossoms, and they're very green with no watering. They can go on disappointing me and pleasing the bees.
But I need to plant some more actual raspberries.