Sunberries?

[Jeannine]

Has anyone got any personal experience with them, apparently you  can grow them from seed, similar but not the same as huckleberries and can be substituted for blueberries, I have read they self seed  sometimes too. I have read pretty much what there is on the net but would like to know first hand if anyone has any info. They sound interesting and I am sure they are in the UK.

XX Jeannine

[Jeannine]

[realfood]

Found this on the net. The Sunberry is one of many hundreds of plants created by Luther Burbank at his farm in Santa Rosa, California.  Burbank's work was extraordinarily broad ranging from potatoes to plums to daisies.  In 1905 he introduced a plant he described as a hybrid cross between two members of the nightshade family, Solanum villosum and Solanum guineense.  He called the plant a "Sunberry" and he sold the plant to a seed company which promptly re-named it "Wonderberry."  From the outset the classification of the Sunberry was the subject of minor dispute.  Burbank strenuously maintained that the Sunberry was a new creation while a more skeptical view held it to be a smaller variant of the Garden Huckleberry (Solanum nigrum guineense).  Today the argument remains unsettled although most give Burbank his due in the Latin title "Burbankii."
The garden huckleberry is solanum nigrum guineense, which I have grown and is written up here:-http://www.growyourown.info/page75.html
The sunberry or wonderberry seems to be red fruited and better tasting than the garden huckleberry, which would not be difficult!
Another website claims that the
Sunberries are a cross between rubus ursinun and a "Malling Jewel" raspberry variety seedling but I think that we are talking about two different plants which happen to have the same common name.
I have not seen sunberry seeds for sale in the UK.
But I see them for sale on the seed savers site in the US, who state that the fruit colour is blue. See http://www.seedsavers.org/

[Jeannine]

Yes, I read all that too,thank you for the reply. Have you actually grown the Sunberry yourself please? It is only the annual that I am interested in at this time. I have grown Huckleberries.

XX Jeannine

[realfood]

I have grown the garden huckleberry successfully in Glasgow, which I think is very similar to the sunberry, but see what I say about the taste on the web link that I gave.

[Jeannine]

Yes the one I am thinking about looks like a matte blue blackcurrant. The other one which I read about which is supposed to be red isn't interesting me. 2oo seeds for about 4 UK pounds(sorry no symbol)

XX Jeannine

[Vinlander]

You'd be better off with the blue-berried lonicera (L.caerulia or honeyberry).

They are very similar to blueberries and delicious though the kamchatka (sprawling) version is noticeably sweeter than the normal upright one. Both are easy to grow in almost any soil.

As something else a bit similar I can also recommend the saskatoon (Amelanchier alnifolia) - though it is a small tree - tastes somewhere between a plum and a blueberry. The named canadian-bred ones are better than the chance seedlings normally sold as ornamentals.

Cheers.

[Jayb]

Hi Jeannine,

If Sunberry are the same as Wonderberry then, IMO they are not very remarkable, easy to grow with no problems experienced. Fine to add to bulk out other berries but otherwise not much point. They do self seed and I found it off putting their resemblance to nightshade. If you are wanting to sample Wonderberry I'll send some on  :) Apologies if it is something very different  :)

Ps seed saved from pot grown plants  ;D