Celebrate summer in quintessential British style with a bumper crop of delicious homegrown strawberries, blueberries, and the unusual Tayberry! With this superb trio of top varieties, chosen for their outstanding qualities and range of fruiting times, you'll enjoy a better harvest than ever before. These plants are not only productive but also ornamental, making them perfect for your shrub borders, veggie plot, or allotment.
Strawberry 'Cambridge Favourite' (Mid-Season)
The enduring popularity of Strawberry 'Cambridge Favourite' has made it one of the most well-known and best-loved varieties available. This mid-season strawberry produces a bumper crop of juicy, orange-red fruits with excellent flavour and texture, from June to July. Reliable and tolerant of most growing situations, it’s a great choice for any garden or allotment.
Tayberry A cross between a raspberry and a blackberry, the Tayberry is a fully hardy, self-fertile, deciduous shrub that makes a great addition to your kitchen garden or allotment. Tayberries produce distinctive, red blackberry-like fruits that can be harvested from July to August. With a sweet, tangy flavour, these berries are perfect for cooking, freezing, making jam, or eating straight from the bush. Tayberries generally yield more fruit than Loganberries. For the best flavour, allow the fruit to ripen to a deep purple-red before picking.
Blueberry 'BlueCrop' The Blueberry 'BlueCrop' is an excellent mid-season variety that produces rich-flavoured berries in abundance throughout August. Fully hardy, this compact shrub adds year-round interest to your garden, with elegant white flowers in spring and colourful foliage set against red stems in winter. Perfect for smaller gardens or large pots on patios, 'BlueCrop' is as decorative as it is productive. With these varieties, you’ll have a continuous supply of fresh, homegrown berries all summer long!
Plant strawberry plants in autumn or late spring in a sheltered, sunny position in well manured, free draining soil. Plant strawberry runners every 45cm (18") in rows spaced at 75cm (30") apart. Spread out their roots and place them in the soil at a level where the crown of the plant is just poking above the surface. Avoid planting them too deeply as this may cause them to rot. Alternatively try growing strawberry plants in hanging baskets or in specially designed strawberry planters for the patio.
Blueberries require a well drained, acid soil in a sunny or semi shaded position. In areas where acid soil does not naturally occur, grow blueberry plants in patio containers using a mix of ericaceous compost and John Innes No. 3.
Plant tayberry bushes in a sunny position in any well drained soil. Incorporate plenty of well rotted manure or garden compost into the ground prior to planting. When growing tayberry plants, support the stems on a framework of wires stretched between sturdy 1.8m (6') posts, or trained against a trellis or wall.
