Berry plants are a great addition to any backyard garden or suburban homestead. They can provide huge yields of fruit that can sometimes be very expensive at the store. Here are 40 different types of berry plants you can grow at home!
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Why Grow Berries?
Berries are great for those of you who are interested in permaculture or just looking for a great selection of fruit to make delicious jams, jellies, leather, cheese, pies and booze from.
I personally love berries and this was a harvest from my modest patio, container grown fruit bushes in England back in 2011:
Berries can be incredibly high yielding plants providing pounds upon pounds of fruit. Good yields are typically seen after 2 years for perennial berries.
Many of these plants form layers in the food forest or can act as a ground cover in a backyard orchard. Whilst it can be a costly investment buying berries and fruit for the homestead garden here are a couple of money saving tips for berry plants:
- Buy bareroot plants in winter which are much cheaper than potted plants for sale in spring and summer.
- Learn to propagate from cuttings, layering and transplanting runners.
- Save seeds and grow.
1. Strawberry
The humble strawberry must be first on this list! Strawberries are easy to grow in containers or in the ground and spread by producing tendrils with baby strawberry plants on them called runners.
Strawberries come in early, mid season and late bearing varieties which mean you can extend your harvest by planting varieties which will ripen at different times.
Strawberries are a great, productive ground covering plant which are perennials in the garden.
2. Jostaberry
These berries are a hybrid cross between a gooseberry and a black currant. They make great smoothies, jams and sauces and will come back year after year.
Jostaberry plants are self pollinating and are disease-resistant to American gooseberry mildew, black currant leaf spot, white pine blister rust and big bud gall mite.
Jostaberries are hardy USDA zones 3 though 8 and produce fruit on wood which is 2 years and older. They are heavy cropping and can produce 12 pounds of fruit per bush!
3. Salmonberry
Photo Credit: Hansen’s Northwest Native Plant Database
A raspberry relative native to the Pacific Northwest! These raspberry-like berries are soft and dry to eat. The pink star-like flowers are loved by hummingbirds and bees.
The plants are fantastic in wetland sites for permaculture as they hold soil together and transplant easily. Salmonberry bushes can grow to be 6 ft tall and wide making them a great productive screening shrub too! They are thorny which can make them to be a great protective habitat for chickens in a permaculture run.
Salmonberry bushes are perennials which grow in full sun to partial shade but USDA zones 8 and above should grow in a shady spot in the garden.
4. Raspberry
Raspberries are one of my absolute favorites and a pot of raspberry jam is a real treat! Raspberries grow well in full sun to partial shade and are really easy to grow because they establish quickly returning year after year.
Raspberries are available in summer bearing and fall bearing varieties and come in red, pink, yellow, orange and purple colors! Grow both summer and fall bearing varieties to extend your harvest season of these delicious fruits.
Raspberry canes can grow to 6 ft tall and benefit from some support whilst growing. You can even buy a raspberry bed kit
5. Marionberry
Photo Credit: Chie Carroll on Unsplash
These red-black berries make delicious pies and preserves! They are descended from native blackberries, raspberries, and loganberries.
Marionberries were developed by Oregon State University in 1945 and named for Marion County, Oregon. The berries are ready to harvest from late July. Marionberry bushes typically grow in USDA zones 6 to 9 and are a trailing plant which can be trained up a trellis. You can grow Marionberries in colder areas which have a low winter rainfall if you leave the canes on the ground and mulch them over winter.
Marionberries are extremely heavy yielding and the bushes are self pollinating. They grow similar to blackberries and raspberries, requiring trellis to support the canes.
6. Blueberry
Photo Credit: Brigitte Tohm on Unsplash
Blueberries are one of the quintessential American soft fruits. They grow in a moist, acidic or peat soil and are available as early, mid season and late varieties.
There are varieties of blueberries developed for the different climates here in the US so choose plants which will grow in your area to avoid being disappointed. You need to grow at least 2 plants for pollination and to produce bigger fruits.
Northern highbush blueberries grow best in USDA Plant Hardiness zones 4 to 7 whilst low chill southern highbush types thrive in zones 7-10. Lowbush varieties are really hardy and are for USDA zones 3 to 6.
7. Huckleberry
Huckleberries are found wild across the United States and have adapted to certain altitudes and chill hours. Try to find huckleberries which are adapted to your area when purchasing them.
Huckleberry bushes are perennial evergreen shrubs about 2 to 3 feet tall when grown in full sun but may grow 10 feet or more when grown in shady conditions. They prefer an acidic soil and will bear black-purple berries after pink urn-shaped flowers in spring.
Huckleberry bushes are easily grown from cuttings or from seed.
8. Golgi berry
Golji berries are sometimes known as wolfberries and a incredibly easy to grow from seed and from cuttings. They are hardy in zones 3 to 10 and are resistant to deer, rabbits and insect damage making them a great fruit to grow on the edges of your garden or near wildlife corridors as a barrier to your other fruit and veg!
Golji berries form viney bushes which do well with a trellis to support them. They are self pollinating but better yields are produced when there are two or more bushes.
Golji berries need a more alkaline soil and prefer pH 7 to 8 and can be grow from bareroot plants or from seed.
9. Silverberry (goumi)
Photo Credit: Amazon.com
The goumi is a fantastic permaculture plant as it is a nitrogen fixer meaning it provides food for surrounding plants. It is a fast growing large shrub that can reach 10 feet in height and width.
Silverberry is botanically known as Elaeagnus multiflora and is hardy zones 4 to 9. It is easily propagated by seeds, will tolerate a range of soil types and grows in full sun to partial shade.
The silverberry is a wonderful, showy ornamental in spring when it is adorned by lots of pretty white flowers loved by bees. It makes a great edible, low maintenance hedge and the berries are great fresh or made into pies or preserves.
10. Honeyberry
These blue oblong-like berries are a member of the honeysuckle, Lonicera family. They are known as the blueberries of the prairies or haskaps and have a unique fruity flavor.
They are very cold hardy and their trumpet like flowers one of the first fruit blooms seen in spring. They are disease and pest resistant, long lived and grow well with 2 or more plants. The honeyberry can grow in zones 2 and above with colder zones growing in full sun and zones 8 and above growing late-ripening varieties in partial shade.
The bushes can grow to 6 ft tall in soils of pH 5 to 8 and some varieties can produce an incredible yield of 10 pounds of fruit after 5 years.
11. Wineberry
Photo Credit: Amazon.com
Japanese wineberry is a delicious fruit which is related to raspberries and is just as easy to grow! The stems are covered in red thorns and hairs and give the raspberry-like bush some ornamental appeal in the garden.
Wineberries are found all over the eastern US and make wonderful fresh eating berries, additions to pies, syrups, beers, wine and mead. They are a perennial shrub hardy in zones 4 to 8 and can grow 9 ft tall bit can be easily pruned like raspberries.
The humble wineberry makes and excellent forage and shelter in permaculture chicken runs, is easy to propagate and is loved by bees.
12. Elderberry
Elderberries make fantastic syrups, jam and wine! I love elderberry and elderflower wine and they are highly popular, seasonal country wines in England. The mop-head flowers pack a heady scent which pairs wonderfully with the tartness of gooseberries in a traditional fool.
The elderberry is really easy to grow in full sun and propagate with cuttings or digging up suckers. Elderberries grow wild near me in the mountains and canyons and are often found in hedgerows in England.
Elderberries are rather steeped in folklore other than the making of wizard wands in Harry Potter! The leaves and stems on the elder are poisonous and in medieval times it was believed that evil spirits or gods lived in the plant and it was sacred. This was believed because people died when the wood was cut and then burned at home in a fire. Nowadays, we know this is because toxic compounds were released in the fire and inhaled which caused their passing.
13. Blackberry
Photo Credit: Nick Sarro on Unsplash
Also known as brambles, the humble blackberry is beloved by bees and foragers. Blackberries are wonderful fresh and in pies and jams.
Blackberries need a trellis to support the canes and are available as thorned and thornless varieties. They are low maintenance, highly productive fruits although you might need to fend off the birds!
Fruit bears on canes which are 1-2 years old and can be one of the heavies cropping berry plants on this list! They are easy to propagate by securing a cane to the ground where it will root.
14. Blackcurrant
Blackcurrant is a quintessentially English flavor and one of my absolute favorites. The sweet-tart berries make great sorbet, sauces for ice cream or yogurt.
The perennial shrubs are hardy to zone 2 and can produce pounds of fruit once established. They are easily propagated by taking hardwood cuttings. You can buy them as bareroot plants or potted plants. Grow two plants to ensure pollination and better yields.
15. Boysenberry
Hardy for zones 6 to 9, the boysenberry is a cross of blackberry, raspberry, loganberry, and dewberry. They make exceptional pie fillings and have large purple-black berries which look a lot like blackberries.
Boysenberries grow upright on canes with need trellis supports. Grow more than one plant to ensure good pollination and a better harvest in August. Like blackberries, the fruit forms on canes which are a year old.
16. Groundcherry
Photo Credit: Jonathan Pielmayer on Unsplash
Groundcherries, cape gooseberry, husk tomato or physalis are part of the nightshade family. They are typically grown as annuals but are native to some parts of the US. They are a sweet-tart relative to the tomatillo.
They need a long growing season to bear fruit, typically zone 4 and above can grow these berries. Start the seed indoors about 6 to 8 weeks before the last frost. Grow groundcherries in a sunny spot in the garden and be sure to give these thirsty fruits at least 1 inch of water a week.
17. Black-berries (Schwartzenbeeren)
Not to be mistaken for the blackberry canes above, these black berries these are 2-3 ft tall members of the nightshade family. The astringent berries are cooked to make a variety of pie fillings and fruit puddings.
18. Alpine strawberry
Alpine, woodland and wild strawberries are tiny strawberry fruits in comparison to the modern cultivated varieties. These little plants are pretty tough and the small berries are absolutely delicious fresh off the plant.
Alpine strawberries are perennials which make great ground cover in a permaculture food forest and suppress weeds.
19. Redcurrant
Photo Credit: Yoori Koo on Unsplash
A relative of the blackcurrant, redcurrants can be trained into standards or single stemmed ornamental shrubs which can produce well.
Redcurrants prefer dappled shade and a slightly acidic soil. They are easy to grow from hardwood cuttings and the sweet-tart berries make an exciting accompaniment to meat as a sauce.
20. Cocona
Photo Credit: Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
Sweet, sour and creamy is how these Peruvian natives have been described. Add to juices to pack more nutrients or dice up and add to salsa. An unusual plant which needs to be started indoors in January then planted outside in a semi-shaded spot in the garden in warmer areas or grown in a greenhouse in cooler areas.
Plants do well with leaf mold or compost added to the soil and can produce lots of fruit. Beware these plants can get tall at 6 ft tall and 7 ft wide!
21. Tamarillo
Photo Credit: Amazon.com
Another exotic fruit berry which is part of the nightshade family. This large shrubby annual needs a long, warm growing season to produce small yellow-orange fruits. The fruits are very sweet, topical flavor making them ideal for eating fresh or adding to juice or smoothies.
22. Aronia
Gaining more popularity, the aronia is becoming more readily available. They are also known as chokeberries or chokecherries and are a native perennial here in the USA.
They produce suckers which can be planted on as new plants and have a stunning display of leaf color in the fall and are relatively trouble free from pests and diseases making them a lovely ornamental in an edible landscape.
The purple-black round berries taste much sweeter after a frost and these shrubs are hardy in zones 3 to 8. The berries make exceptional pies, jellies, juice and jam.
23. Hardy Kiwi
The Chinese Gooseberry, kiwi or hardy kiwi is a vitamin packed berry. They need plenty of space to vine and a male and female plant is needed for fruit to form.
The hardy kiwi is suitable for zones 4 to 8 and produces grape sized, super sweet kiwi fruits which are more flavorful than the larger fuzzy kiwi relative.
24. Whitecurrant
These are actually an albino variety of redcurrants. and produce light-pink jellies, sauces or jams. They make a pretty addition to the edible landscape with their jewel-like clusters of fruit adorning the branches.
25. Litchi Tomato (Morelle De Balbis)
Photo Credit: Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
These are thorny members of the nightshade family and the sweet red berries are quite delicious eaten straight off the plant. The plant itself can reach 5 feet tall and is an unusual but decorative plant.
Start the seeds of these Litchi Tomatoes early indoors then transplant outside. They are grown as annuals and do well in containers.
26. Naranjilla
A native to the Andes, this berry is another slow growing annual and needs a long growing season before it will bear fruit.
The yellow fruits work well in juices and salsa and the plants themselves do well in southern states.
27. Serviceberry
Photo Credit: Hansen’s Northwest Native Plant Database
Serviceberry, Saskatoon, shadbush or Juneberry are all varieties of the Amelanchier. The native shrubs or trees are found throughout the USA and have many regional varieties. They are deer resistant and grow in full sun to partial shade in a variety of altitudes and soil types.
The serviceberry is beautiful in flower and very beneficial for bees. The fruits look a little like red to purple blueberries and are good to eat fresh or cooked into preserves and pies.
28. Otricoli Orange Berry
A shorter to mature nightshade annual. Plants typically grow to 2-3 feet tall and have white flowers. The small berries have a lot of visual interest being a bright orange making them an interesting ornamental in pots or edible landscaping.
The flavor is described as sweet tomato, astringent or sour. If yours are a tad sour try them added to other fruit in pies or preserves.
29. Wonderberry
Small black-blue berries which are quite delicious. More than one plant will be needed for better yields as will plenty of compost and watering.
The berries stain skin and clothing easily but are fun to eat and grow. They readily volunteer and grow from seed.
30. Tzimbalo Melon Pear
This garden berry annual has some mixed reviews; some love the taste, others find it bland or an unpleasant aftertaste. The plant can get huge and produces ripe yellow or pale green fruits with striping on them.
The flavor is described as tangy, tart cucumber and sweet. As it is native to South America, Tzimbalo melon pears grow better in southern states or in a greenhouse but will bear heavy yields from early August. Well rotted compost and leaf mold can help produce better yields of fruit.
31. Rowan (Mountain Ash)
Photo Credit: Alexander Savonin on Unsplash
The orange-red berries of the rowan tree or mountain ash make a phenomenal sauce that would wonderfully with venison and duck or into a rather complex wine. The berries are better after a frost and are easier to process after being in the freezer. Cook the fruit and put through a sieve to remove the seeds.
Generally, rowan is hardy zones 3 to 7 and prefers a well drained, sunny location.
32. Mulberry
If you are really lucky, you might find a mulberry bush in the wild or the fruit for sale at a farmer’s market. The fruit doesn’t travel well and is best when grown at home.
Mulberry plants like a fertile, well drained soil in a sunny location. Mulberry bushes can be grown to act as a sacrificial plant to the birds saving some of your other berry crops or grown in a poultry run.
Avoid planting mulberry near where you get heavy foot traffic as the fruit stains easily and will be tracked through the house! Equally when the fruit is ripe, don;t hang your laundry out to dray for the birds which eat the mulberries may stain your laundry in thanks for the meal!
33. Lingonberry
May be known as cowberries or whortleberries and will grow in full sun to partial shade. They like a moist, fertile soil with a pH of about 5. Many people grow then under highbush blueberries.
The berries are incredibly tart when raw but cooked with sugar, so much better!
34. Cranberry
Photo Credit: Jennifer Pallian on Unsplash
Cranberries are so much more than diluted juice in the grocery store and can be a little more challenging to grow at home. They require fresh water supply and acidic peaty soil to form a peat bog or marsh but can be cultivated in wetlands or a pond area or even a raised bed with drip irrigation.
35. Tayberry
Tayberries are not as easily found here in the US, but readily available in Britain. The Tayberry is a cross between a blackberry and a raspberry and is named after the River Tay in Scotland.
The cane forming fruit is usually trained against a trellis into a fan shape and yields large sweet red to purple berries in July which are aromatic and flavorful. Tayberries are hardy zones 7 to 9 and are quick to establish. Mulch the roots in winter with straw to protect from the severe cold.
36. Loganberry
Loganberries are a thornless hybrid between raspberries and blackberries. Average yields of the 2 inch berries from an established plant can be 12 pounds!
Loganberries grow much like blackberries requiring full sun and support. They can grow in partial shade and will start to ripen in late July to early August.
37. Thimbleberry
Photo Credit: Hansen’s Northwest Native Plant Database
Thimbleberries grow wild up the ski slopes and mountains here in Utah. A hike through the canyon in August can be exciting for foragers! They also grow well in the Pacific Northwest.
The thimbleberry is like a large squat raspberry that thrives in semi shade making it a wonderful plant to grow in a food forest. Thimbleberries flower and produce on wood which is 2 years old and will quickly form a dense thicket.
38. Dewberry
Dewberries can be readily picked up in early spring as bareroot plants. They are a hardy fruiting perennial zones 3 to 8. They form long trailing canes sometimes over 12 feet long and make tasty jams, jellies and pies.
They will spread by putting roots down where canes touch the ground and by seeds. Poultry and other birds are fond of the berries.
39. Garden huckleberry
Not to be confused with the huckleberry shrub, this is a member of the nightshade family and is grown as an annual. The plants are grown like peppers or tomatoes and planted in a sunny position. The glossy black berries should be cooked rather than eaten raw but they can make very tasty jams, jellies, syrups and even alcohol and compotes.
40. Seabuckthorn
A thorny silvery-green thin, willow-like leafed shrub which grows readily in sandy coastal areas of my hometown in England. Seabuckthorn also known as seaberry is very tart when eaten raw but can add interest to smoothies and juices or cooked with sugar into jellies, jams and other desserts.
The thorns make it challenging to harvest but a fork to rake the berries into a bowl makes it a bit easier. A well established bush can produce up to 20 pounds of fruit.
Seabuckthorn is a nitrogen fixing plant which is animal resistant making is good for wildlife corridors and can act as a coastal windbreak.
Preserving Berries
Photo Credit: Devin Rajaram on Unsplash
The easiest way to preserve your berry harvests is to freeze them in portions into bags. You can also dry them to add to salads, desserts, trail mix and more or freeze dry them if you have access to a freeze dryer.
If you can’t freeze or dry them all, consider preserving them by bottling or canning. You can turn them into jams, jellies, fruit leather, fruit cheese, syrup or alcohol.
Berry bushes are highly productive usually after the second year and can produce incredible yields of fruit to harvest! Use a protective fruit cage
Berries are a great investment, full of vitamins, easy to grow and taste great. Many berry plants can be grown in containers or in semi shade in the garden. You can try growing them in early spring from seed or order bareroot and potted plants to put them straight into the garden in spring.
What berries will you be growing this year? Let me know in the comments!
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Wow! So many that I was unaware of. We are currently adding to our strawberry bed (we hope to make strawberries a source of income) we also have blueberries, red, white, and black currents and are battling the wildlife over our elderberry bushes. The deer keep eating down the bushes. We have a couple of bushes that have gotten big enough to produce berries and the birds eat the berries while they are still green. Last year I wised up and harvested the blossoms and made tincture. Good grief it was hard fought. 🙂 Thanks for all the great info.
Hi Ruth,
How wonderful you are going to try making an income from strawberries! Have you thought about fruit cages and bird netting to protect your berry bushes from the deer and the birds?
We do a lot of fencing but somehow many of the elderberries have been neglected (sometimes we have to pick our battles) Fortunately even though they get eaten by the deer they still come back up so I might fence a couple more this year. We use netting on our blueberries but the elderberries that have matured are over eight feet tall and I am not sure how we would get to them to get nets on. At this point I am thankful that I can out smart the birds by harvesting the flowers that are said to be at least as healthy as the berries . I am also thinking about making some scarecrows this summer. Do you have any thoughts on how to make an effective one?
Hi Ruth, hang some old CDs off the scarecrow where they can dangle, move and catch the light as well as making it look like a person! The movement and the light is meant to scare off lots of birds. I also read a tip about using the tape from old VHS or music tapes over beds as they make a sound in the wind which wildlife doesn’t like. I would love to see your finished scarecrow!
Thanks Emma. If I get some done I will be sure to post about it.
Awesome, I can’t wait!
Great post! I love all kinds of berries, but only grow two that are edible – Serviceberry and Wild Currant.
Hi Jason,
What do you do with the serviceberries?
My husband and I are going to be moving to the Gulf coast region of Florida in a couple of years. I’m wanting to start planning my yard space now. Thank you so much for this article on berries. I plan to grow several of them along with fruit trees and a fairly large garden. I did not see actual gooseberries on the list and I grew up eating them on my parents’ farm. I love them green and ripe. Any information and suggestions you could pass along would be appreciated. Thank you.
How exciting for your move! I can’t believe I forgot gooseberries, they are one of my favorites!!!!
Gooseberries like a sunny or semi-shaded site with plenty of mulch around the roots to keep them cool. They are less fussy about the soil type than some of the other berries and will grow an a range of pH levels. They can be susceptible to powdery mildew so avoid feeding them with organic fertilizers high in nitrogen as this will promote lots of fresh leafy growth that will be readily infected by the powdery mildew fungus. You can prune gooseberries (and currants too) into cordons or fan shapes with a fence or trellis to support the stems, this can help provide airflow around the plants to reduce the powdery mildew. I grow Pixwell and Invitca varieties which have the traditional green fruits and I grew the popular red Hinnonmaki back in England. Both Invitca and Hinnomaki Red are resistant to powdery mildew.
Prune your bushes in winter and remove any damaged or crossing stems and mulch add some compost and wood chips around the base of the plant.
Some other problems you may experience with gooseberries are rust (another fungal disease) and p[ests like the gooseberry and currant fruitworm. You can buy organic products to help manage these pests if you experience them. Some bird netting would be a wise investment too as birds love them!
Good luck with your move and I hope your garden grows beautifully for you both!