Tayberry

How to plant and care for Tayberry

Rubus fruticosus × R. idaeus

🍓 Fruit 🔁 Perennial

A Scottish blackberry–raspberry cross with long, sweet-sharp, deep-red berries in July. Buckingham is thornless.

At a glance: harvest in July.

When to plant and care for it

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Harvest
Prune

Timed for a typical UK garden (last frost mid-April). The app uses your own town's frost dates.

Growing Tayberry: what it needs

Light
Full sun · 6+ hours a day
Watering
Water well while fruit swells
Soil
Fertile, well-drained soil
Spacing
2.5 m
Height
2 m
In pots
Only in large containers
Feeding
Sulphate of potash in late winter; mulch with compost
Hardiness
USDA zones 4–8

Step by step

  1. On planting day

    Plant

    Plant 2.5 m apart in weed-free, well-prepared soil enriched with compost, and water in well.

  2. 0–3 days after “Plant”

    Put Up Support Wires

    Stretch wires at 45 cm intervals between two posts to tie canes to.

  3. 7–21 days after “Put Up Support Wires”

    Mulch

    Spread 5 cm of compost or bark around the plants to keep moisture in and weeds down.

Every year

  • March
    Mulch and Feed

    Feed with a general fertiliser and mulch with compost.

  • June
    Tie In New Canes

    Tie this year's new canes to the top wires, away from the fruiting canes.

  • July
    Pick the Berries

    Pick when deep purple-red and they come away easily with the core inside.

    Starts from year 2.

  • August
    Cut Out Fruited Canes

    Cut the canes that fruited this year to the ground and tie in the new ones for next year.

    Starts from year 2.

More fruit to grow

Photo: Albarubescens / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)