Gooseberry plants
Gooseberries are fantastic, easy to grow soft fruit bushes with very thorny stems, deciduous deeply lobed fresh green leaves and small, pink flushed green flowers. Bushes are self-fertile, so will reliably produce an abundance of fruit, especially for their size, without needing to be planted next to another bush in the same pollination group. There are cooking and dessert varieties of gooseberry bush but most are dual purpose, being tart or sweet depending on when they are picked: fruits picked early will be slightly sour & perfect for cooking, whilst those removed when fully mature will have a sugary and tangy flavour, perfect for eating fresh. Also known as 'goosegogs', gooseberries are ideally suited to Britain's cooler and sometimes harsh conditions. They are unfussy about soil conditions, tolerant of partial shade and even suitable for container growing, meriting a space in any kitchen garden.