Plant Min Zone: 5b
Plant Max Zone: 8b
Sunlight: Full Sun, Part Sun
Water / Rainfall: Average, High
Soil Quality: Average, Rich
Bloom Season: Early Summer, Summer
Flower Color: White
Berry / Fruit Color: Purple, Bluish Black
Spring Foliage Color: Green
Summer Foliage Color: Green
Fall Foliage Color: Green
Evergreen Foliage: No
Winter Interest: No
Scented Flowers: No
Drought Tolerance: Low, Medium
Wet-Feet Tolerance: Low, Medium
Humidity Tolerance: Medium
Wind Tolerance: Medium
Poor Soil Tolerance: No Extreme Soils
Height: 3' - 5'
Width: 2' - 3'
Growth Rate: Medium, Fast
Service Life: Long: 5-10 years
Maintenance Need: Medium
Spreading Potential: Medium
Yearly Trimming Tips: Prune Shrub Sparingly: Berry / Fruit Production Will be Reduced or Eliminated with Pruning: Blooms on Old Wood.
Plant Grouping Size: Small Grouping of 3-5, Medium Grouping of 5-10, Mass Planting of 10 or more
Best Side of House: South Exposure, West Exposure, East Exposure
Extreme Planting Locations: None
Ornamental Features: Easy to Eat Edibles
Special Landscape Uses: None
Possible Pest Problems: Insects, Disease, Herbivores
Plant Limitations: May get Occasional Winter-kill, Needs Regular Irrigation, Susceptible to Juglone / Black Walnut
Shippable in 2026: YES
Blackberry (Rubus sp.) is an "easy to grow" edible fruit that is worth growing in Kansas. Store-bought blackberries are expensive and don't taste as good as garden grown fruits. All cultivars of blackberries have perennial roots, but most top shoots only live for two years. (meaning shoots grow in the first growing season and fruits grow on those shoots during the second growing season) The cycle is repeated; maintenance involves removing old canes after decline or death. Raspberries are vigorous and can be locally invasive in the garden but rarely invasive in the wild. They propagate by basal shoots (also known as suckers) spreading some distance from the main plant. After establishment, it is high maintenance if it has already filled the space and you don't want it to spread any further so plan accordingly. In the landscape, raspberry and blackberry mix well into garden designs with ornamental plants as long as you create it's own area (like a background fence to train plants on) The main difference between raspberry and blackberry are that the fruit releases from the raspberry differently. The "torus" or inside center of the fruit is hollow and releases from the stem with raspberry. With Blackberry, the "torus" or center "picks with" the fruit giving a solid fruit to eat. (just in case you have always wondered) Our supplier, Spring Meadows Nursery has this to say about this new PROVEN WINNERS plant: Taste of Heaven blackberry (Rubus 'Ponca') is the sweetest, most flavorful blackberry on the market - and now you can grow it at home. We know, that's a tall claim, but you don't need to take our word for it: this article in the journal HortScience confirms it. And we know because we tasted literally hundreds of different blackberry varieties before deciding this would be the one to make it on to further testing. Taste of Heaven is a vigorous, thornless blackberry that produces large, luscious fruits over several weeks in summer. It's a floricane variety, fruiting only on second-year canes, and does not strictly require trellising or support, though in the garden, it is easier to care for and harvest with something in place.