Blackberry Jam Fruit
Bunchosia argentea
Slow-growing and naturally compact — it asks for warmth and patience rather than space.
Spacing & sowing
- Plant spacing
- 19 ft 8 in
- In-row spacing
- 19 ft 8 in
- Between rows
- 23 ft
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
Growing
- Type
- Fruit · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Sunlight
- Bright light under glass, right through the year.
- Watering
- Regular water in the growing season; a mature plant handles dry spells.
- Feeding
- Feed every 4-6 weeks, and no more — overfeeding does it no favors.
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- August
- Pruning
- Very little needed — it stays compact and grows slowly on its own.
- Overwintering
- Keep it above 10°C, with air moving even in the depths of winter.
Through the year
- Sep–Oct Flowering
- Oct–Dec Fruit Set
- Dec–Dec Harvest
- Jan–Sep Harvest
Pests & problems
Garden allies
Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant
- Hoverfly Syrphidae
Bee-mimicking flies whose legless larvae graze aphid colonies clean while the adults pollinate. A ribbon of shallow, nectar-rich flowers kept in bloom all season recruits wave after wave of them.
- Ladybird (lady beetle) Coccinellidae
The gardener’s favorite ally: adults and their alligator-shaped larvae each eat thousands of aphids, plus scale, mealybugs, and other soft-bodied sap-suckers. Grow flat, open flowers for the adults and never spray a colony that ladybird larvae are already working.
- Green lacewing Chrysoperla carneaHunts Mealybugs
Its bristly larvae — "aphid lions" — impale aphids, mealybugs, thrips, and mite colonies, eating hundreds a week. Adults feed on nectar and pollen from small open flowers and overwinter in hollow stems left standing.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com