Picking your own blackberries while strolling down a country lane is one of those rural experiences we all should experience at least once in our lives. But if you can’t get out into the country, don’t worry, because you can pick blackberries from your own garden instead! In this post, we’ll be exploring some of the very best blackberry varieties, from the heaviest-cropping to the most suitable for container growing, and much more in between.

Jump to:

• Best blackberry for productivity
• Best blackberry for disease resistance
• Best blackberry for thornless picking
• Best blackberry for container growing
• Best blackberry for kids
• Best blackberry for larger gardens
• Best blackberry for flavour
• Best blackberry for interest

Best blackberry for productivity

First, then, let’s look at productivity. If you want a glut of blackberries – an excess that you can store in the freezer for months and months – then you’ll want to get a cultivar known for heavy-cropping. Stepping up to the plate is ‘Loch Ness’ (and no, no monsters to be found here…)

This productive performer originated at the James Hutton Institute (formerly the Scottish Crop Research Institute) back in the late 1980s. If you want an idea of cropping potential, then just bear in mind that this is a variety favoured by commercial growers for exactly that reason. And as you’ll see later in the post, spoilers, this variety has some other things going for it.

Best blackberry for disease resistance

While blackberries are generally healthy, robust plants, like most plants they can experience the odd problem here and there. ‘Chester’ is the pick for you if you want maximal disease resistance and minimal fuss. Resistant to pests and problems like mildew, cane blight and purple blotch, this tough little cookie is also spineless, making harvesting your berries far easier. It also could just as easily have made a claim for the heaviest-cropping blackberry, being much of a muchness with ‘Loch Ness’.

Best thornless blackberry for easy picking

The one major downside of picking blackberries in the wild is that wild varieties tend to have some pretty major thorn-age going on. Many modern cultivars have had the spines bred out of them, making for much easier picking. No scratches in sight. ‘Loch Ness’ and ‘Chester’ are both thornless, as is ‘Adrienne’, but we’re going to pick ‘Waldo’, whose large, juicy berries prove that it doesn’t have to be a case of style over substance. You can have big fruits with big flavours.

Best blackberry for container growing

There can be only one champion when it comes to growing blackberries in a container, and that champion is ‘Tiny Black’. I mean, come on, the clue’s in the name! This patio blackberry plant is nice and compact, growing to just half a metre tall and wide (and can easily be kept even smaller than that). Grow this plant in a large container in moist, well-drained compost on a patio, balcony or terrace.

Best blackberry for kids

There are so many great varieties of blackberry to grow if you want to get your kids out and into the garden, and we’ve mentioned several of them already. For sheer, childlike joy and drama, however, you surely can’t beat ‘Black Butte’ with its giant berries. Besides having a name bound to induce tittering giggles from anyone under 10 years of age, this cultivar produces blackberries twice the size of normal blackberries. Jumbo-sized fruits for jumbo-sized personalities. Sorted.

Best blackberry for larger gardens

If you’ve got the space, then you might want to opt for a more vigorous blackberry variety, of which there are several. Our pick, however, has to be ‘Karaka Black’. With its long, arching canes, vigorous habit and elongated fruits, plant a couple of these in your back garden and you’ll have your very own hedgerow before you know it.

Best blackberry for flavour

All the blackberries we’ve mentioned so far taste fabulous, but if we had to pick one cultivar above any other for truly gourmet flavour, then it’s got to be ‘Columbia Star’. Another thornless cultivar, ‘Columbia Star’ delivers truly spectacular flavour; sweet, jammy and almost tropical, these blackberries are the connoisseur’s blackberries.

Best blackberry for interest

If you like your garden to contain a multitude of fun facts and titbits of trivia, then a blackberry hybrid berry might be the choice for you. We’re talking about boysenberries, tayberries and loganberries. These fun fruits don’t just offer fab flavour, they offer a nice nugget of information. A “did you know” for all the visitors you get.

Final thoughts

So, there you have it! Hopefully, having read this you’ll have a better idea of which blackberry variety is best for you and your garden. While you’re here, make sure to check out our guide on how to grow blackberries here in the UK, so you know how to get the most from your new plant.