Scottish growing tool

Blackberries Variety Selector: Which One For Your Garden

Every recommendation below traces back to our full Blackberries varieties comparison — this page is the fast route to one answer for your specific situation, no clicking through required.

If: My site is exposed or gets very cold winters → Double pink flowers and a slightly earlier harvest

Loch Maree

Rates H7, one hardiness band above Loch Ness, tying it with Merton Thornless as the toughest in the group against cold. It adds double pink flowers and a July to August harvest that starts earlier than Loch Ness.

If: My site is exposed or gets very cold winters → The widest soil pH tolerance of the group

Merton Thornless

Rates H7, a full band tougher than the AGM varieties, and tolerates a wider range of soil pH than any Loch variety, worth weighing for an exposed or particularly cold site.

If: My site is exposed or gets very cold winters → Not sure, just give me the safest all-round choice or Not sure, just give me the safest all-round choice

Loch NessAGM

Thornless, holds the Award of Garden Merit, and has by far the longest harvest window here, mid-August through to the first frosts. It's also the most widely grown blackberry, bred at the Scottish Crop Research Institute (now the James Hutton Institute) in Dundee.

If: Space is tight, I need something compact

Adrienne

At 1 to 1.5m in both height and spread, it has the smallest footprint here, matched only by Loch Tay. It's also the earliest-ripening cultivar, with large, firm, conical fruit ready by mid-July, a full month ahead of Loch Maree or Karaka Black.

If: I want the biggest fruit and don't mind thorns

Karaka Black

New Zealand-bred, with fruit up to 7.5cm long and an average berry weight over 10g, bigger than any Loch variety. It's also the most sprawling, with a spread up to 8m, so it needs room, and it's thorny rather than thornless.

If: I'm curious about a newer variety

Loch Katrine

Released in 2024, the first new Hutton blackberry since 2006. Its brix-to-acid ratio of 17 is high enough to give notably sweet, aromatic fruit without background bitterness, over an 8-week picking season with trial yields matching Loch Ness. It's too new for an AGM trial and doesn't yet have its own RHS plant page.

Answer these as a quick wizard instead →

Blackberries growing guide →Full Blackberries varieties comparison →