Barbara L. Bowling (formerly Goulart) names small fruits as one of her greatest passions. She has worked as a professor of horticulture since 1984, having started her career as an assistant professor of pomology at Rutgers University. She has since taught and conducted research at the Pennsylvania State University through 1999. An active researcher and educator of small-fruit growers and enthusiasts, Barbara frequently lectured at the regional and national level and contributed to a variety of industry publications.
Her many articles and abstracts have appeared in the Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science and HortScience, as well as numerous grower publications and proceedings from meetings. She has served as the associate editor of HortScience, editor of the North American Bramble Growers Association Newsletter, and chairperson of the American Society for Horticultural Sciences’ Viticulture and Small Fruit Working Group. Barbara is a member of the American Pomological Society, the North American Strawberry Growers Association, the North American Bramble Growers and the American Society for Horticultural Science.
Timber Press: What advice would you offer to incorporate berry plants as ornamentals in the landscape?
Barbara Bowling: Get the site right. Be prepared to maintain the plant appropriately. It's more important with food-bearing plants to have some idea what the plant will require prior to planting it. The cost of not knowing the way the plant grows, the maintenance it will require, or the final form it will attain is perhaps higher than with most landscape plants. The risk of not controlling pests can be high, though many of these plants do just fine with little or no pesticide application. Specifically, you may have rotting berries in your landscape — hardly appealing! Or, if you didn't account for the fact that raspberries sucker from the roots and planted them next to a hostile neighbor, you may have an angry person to deal with.
TP: Is there a particular season in which berry plants are most aesthetically pleasing?
BB: There's a different crop for every season. Strawberries are particularly lovely in the spring, when they bloom, and in the late summer, when they've reestablished growth after renovation. They also turn a lovely shade of red. Blueberries, likewise, have a beautiful spring bloom, with bell-shaped, white-pink flowers reminiscent of Andromeda. They blaze into glory in the fall as well. Grapes can fill a large area with crisp, large, bright green leaves, punctuated by clusters of tantalizing fruit in the fall. Raspberries, sturdy and upright, fill a hedge with medium-green, lush foliage, with either summer or fall red, black, or yellow jewels to play off their greenery.
TP: What are some unique ways in which berry plants can be used to decorate a landscape?
BB: The real excitement of including small-fruit plants in the landscape is that, with a little forethought, the grower can have both the beauty of a unique landscape plant and the bounty of food — not just any food, but the food of the gods. These plants beg only for a sunny place in decent soil, a bit of education on the part of the grower, and a little attention, and they'll fulfill our fundamental needs for both beauty and sustenance. Some specific examples include using strawberries as a groundcover; they're particularly useful as an edging, have lovely blooms in the spring, and wonderful fruit in early summer. Blueberries make a beautiful low to medium screen that doesn't spread, provides great fruit, and has blazing red foliage in the fall. Blackberries make for a formidable hedge if you need to exclude something or someone from your property. They are the sculpting material of the small fruit world. Be practical and grow them on a sensible fence. Be crazy and grow them as three plants intertwining into a tree form. Be cool and grow them up over an arbor to give you shade.
TP: Which berry plants do you like best for ornamental use in the winter?
BB: Blueberry plants have lovely red stems that are particularly attractive against a backdrop of snow. I'm also fond of looking at grape plants in the winter. The absence of their leaves unveils their underlying structure, and the vines themselves make for wonderful wreaths. Remember that you'll be removing up to 90 percent of that growth during winter pruning anyway!
TP: What are the most common problems berry plants introduce?
BB: Like most of us, their greatest asset can also be their greatest liability. We grow them because we love the fruit. But the fruit is a magnet for all kinds of creatures other than mammals. If left unattended or unharvested, it can bring insect pests, yellow jackets, and fungal pathogens.
TP: Do you have a berry plant that you use for the holiday season?
BB: The plants themselves have little to offer then, but I can't think of a better Christmas gift than a jar of jam or a bottle of wine made from bright red raspberry or strawberry fruit. A taste of summer sunshine in the dark depths of winter. And, the holidays are the time to be planning which plants to order for the coming spring garden.
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