This auction is for a plant about 5 cm. The plant may be wrapped in newspaper. Fruiting plants available @ different $.

When people think of berries,they tend to imagine the seductive strawberry or the bountiful blueberry, but the gooseberry rarely even gets an honorable mention. Gooseberries belong to the Ribes genus, along with currants. They’re versatile and handsome in the garden, but unlike some other fruit plants, they’re pretty low maintenance and don’t take up too much room.

Gooseberries are small, round thin-skinned fruits that look like grapes. Ripe gooseberries can be green, pink, yellow, or white. The bush grows up to 1.5mt tall.

The fruit doesn't rot as rapidly as many others do after harvest, so you can keep them around a bit longer after you’ve plucked them for use in desserts, yogurts, and jams. The plant makes pretty ornamental additions to the garden. You can train them up walls or use them as a natural fence.

While currants have small berries that grow in clusters, gooseberries have larger fruits that grow individually along the stem. While the flowers are generally not too showy, they attract bees and butterflies. In the fall, the leaves turn a lovely, vibrant red.

Plants are self-pollinating, so you don’t need multiples in the garden unless you want lots of fruit. Growing multiple plants tends to increase your berry harvest.

Gooseberries can happily grow in part shade and they prefer a cool, moist spot. If you live in a warm climate and you’re looking to fill in that area of the garden with a northern exposure that gets only three hours of sun per day, this plant is a good candidate. That said, if they get closer to six hours of sun a day, you’ll get a larger harvest.

In the first year, don’t let the plant flower or produce any fruit. Rub or pick off any blossoms that you see in the spring. By the third year, you should be getting a full crop.

*Pick up in Hoon Hay or can be shipped