Wild native/naturalised Fruit (gooseberries)

[swaine]

i ran a couple of thread years ago finding and collection of wild fruit, it turned into a real good thread with some great comments and mini stories , i did part 2 of a similar thread a little time later, on some specific types wild found fruit, can remeber some lucky person finding yellow raspberries

(i have read a thread on another forum which started to get heated over gooseberries being wild natives, or naturalised from imported garden stock, which might extend to all manner of fruit, im not looking for that sort of debate on this thread abeit being interesting)

over the last couple of years bringing my own fruit collection into some sort of organisation 70-80 types of currant, 40+ types of raspberry, 100s of types of strawberry, blackberries, hybrid berries, and 50-60 types of gooseberry , when i put the thread out i was running out experiments using seeds id sensibly harvested (1-2 berries per plant) well i got some real interesting and positive results, which has reinfused my passion for this type of experimenting,

but one wild fruit i have never seen or found is gooseberry, i done google searches and gooseberry is described as very common in the wild , ha ha, i must be rubbish at finding them, im interested in any information on wild gooseberries you have seen or collected ,colour of berries, size of fruit, habitat, size of bushes etc (except your secret collecting locations)



saved this picture from a google search, a nice red wild gooseberry

Best Wishes and have a great new year
Stew

[veggiechicken]

I'm sure I've seen gooseberry bushes in the local woods but never been back to look for the fruit. Whether I can find them again is another matter
Remind me in spring and I'll go looking for the leaves

[Invicta]

I have seen gooseberries growing wild in north east Cheshire. A couple of spindley looking plants in a wood near Romiley and a large strong plant[6 ft high]in a hedge at Pott Shrigley, the fruits of the latter were small but plentiful which makes me think it was a wild plant. I do agree it cannot be called a common plant, I have seen more naturalised Ribes sanguineum than this native Ribes.

[swaine]

I'm sure I've seen gooseberry bushes in the local woods but never been back to look for the fruit. Whether I can find them again is another matter
Remind me in spring and I'll go looking for the leaves

many thanks for the information, i will remind you in spring

[swaine]

I have seen gooseberries growing wild in north east Cheshire. A couple of spindley looking plants in a wood near Romiley and a large strong plant[6 ft high]in a hedge at Pott Shrigley, the fruits of the latter were small but plentiful which makes me think it was a wild plant. I do agree it cannot be called a common plant, I have seen more naturalised Ribes sanguineum than this native Ribes.

thanks very much for information, i live in cheshire so think i need to look a bit harder this coming year , thank you

[Kier]

i ran a couple of thread years ago finding and collection of wild fruit, it turned into a real good thread with some great comments and mini stories , i did part 2 of a similar thread a little time later, on some specific types wild found fruit, can remeber some lucky person finding yellow raspberries

(i have read a thread on another forum which started to get heated over gooseberries being wild natives, or naturalised from imported garden stock, which might extend to all manner of fruit, im not looking for that sort of debate on this thread abeit being interesting)

over the last couple of years bringing my own fruit collection into some sort of organisation 70-80 types of currant, 40+ types of raspberry, 100s of types of strawberry, blackberries, hybrid berries, and 50-60 types of gooseberry , when i put the thread out i was running out experiments using seeds id sensibly harvested (1-2 berries per plant) well i got some real interesting and positive results, which has reinfused my passion for this type of experimenting,

but one wild fruit i have never seen or found is gooseberry, i done google searches and gooseberry is described as very common in the wild , ha ha, i must be rubbish at finding them, im interested in any information on wild gooseberries you have seen or collected ,colour of berries, size of fruit, habitat, size of bushes etc (except your secret collecting locations)



saved this picture from a google search, a nice red wild gooseberry

Best Wishes and have a great new year
Stew

I did find a wild looking gooseberry about 15 years ago it was on a border between two fields had a few small yellowish hairy fruit, I dug it up and its still in my fruit garden it bears small fruit but lots of them and a pain to pick but its my best tasting one, always take them out of the freezer first

but I think its just gone wild instead of being wild

[WendyC]

Was this on your land or do you just dig up anything that takes your fancy wherever it is?

[Kier]

Was this on your land or do you just dig up anything that takes your fancy wherever it is?

it was on my land border with next door ,
did help my self once to a coffee bean and grew a coffee tree harvested beans and made coffee but it got caught in a cold night and lost it

[WendyC]

That's ok, you had me worried there!

[Bacchus]

There are a couple of gooseberry bushes in hedgerows close to me here. There are quite small red hairy berries. Probably "escaped" domestic types though.