You’ve probably seen blackberries growing wild in parks or forests, glossy berries glistening in the sun. They’re incredibly easy to grow at home, even on a small balcony, and, unlike wild ones, these plants stay quite compact and thorn-free. Loads of fruit, no snagged jumpers.

The best time to plant blackberries is in winter, when they're dormant and have no leaves. This gives them a good few months to put down roots before starting to grow leaves and buds in Spring. Put your blackberries in a sunny spot and keep them well watered and you should get white flowers followed by lots of berries from around July to September. Blackberries will really suffer if left to dry out, so keep a close eye on them in hot weather. They’ll probably need watering every day in spring and summer. Of course, make sure excess water can drain out of the bottom of the pot. You want them moist, not waterlogged.

Blackberry stems are called canes and need support to stop them flopping over. Yours will arrive with supports in the pot, which should be enough to keep the plant upright. If your plant grows a lot bigger – no bad thing – it may be necessary to add extra supports (bamboo sticks work well) and loosely secure the canes to them. As new canes grow up from the soil, tie them to the supports too.

Once your plant has finished fruiting for the year, any canes that bore fruit should be cut right back to the soil. They won’t fruit again next year. Leave the ones that didn’t bear fruit this year, as they’ll be the ones giving you a bumper crop of berries next year. 

Did you know?

The world’s biggest producer of Blackberries is Mexico.