I'm looking for easy to grow, prickly berries - soil not right for blueberries or cran, and wondered if Sea Buckthorn would be trouble-free and fruitful. Is anyone growing this in 'normal' soil - any benefits or drawbacks?
Have seen it growing at Capel Manor in the trial hedging section - to be honest not one of my favourites. Looked a bit awful there, but was highlighted as being a good hedging plant for seaside environments as it withstood salty atmosphere well.
When you say fruitful and prickly, how about blackthorn (sloes), rosa rugosa with those big rosehips, gooseberry, japanese quince, or berberis darwinii (barberry)?
Hi Supersprout,
It is a bit like blackberry, grows anywhere and deciduous too, but you'll need female and male plants to produce berries. I think they say that 1 male plant will pollinate 8 female plants or something like that. I actually like its fruit and plan to plant it, just can't find the right variety so far, the plants which are grown from seeds or wild are the most prickly and carry on smaller berries comparing to cultivated varieties propagated by cuttings. It is easy to turn the fruit into sea buckthorn oil, which contains vitamins P,A,E, reduces cholesterol and full of goodness. Minced fruit with sugar is tasty or you can juice it.
Good choice!
:)
re: the oil - some handcreams use it (weleda ones, for instance)
it's lovely and really does the trick with softening chapped hands.