Taste of Heaven Thornless Blackberry
Rubus 'Ponca'

Height: 3 to 5 feet
Spread: 2 to 3 feet
Sunlight: Full sun
Hardiness Zone: 5b

Description:
An exceptional thornless blackberry selected for its super large, exceptionally sweet fruit and extended harvest season. This variety produces long, juicy berries with an excellent balance of flavor and texture over several weeks in summer. Its upright habit makes harvesting easy, and while trellising is optional, it can be used to simplify maintenance when planting multiple shrubs.

Edible Qualities:
Taste of Heaven Thornless Blackberry produces large, elongated black berries that ripen over an extended period in summer. The fruit is sweet, juicy, and ideal for fresh eating, baking, cooking, preserves, and freezing. This variety fruits on second-year canes and is self-fertile, so only one plant is needed for fruit production.

Ornamental Features:
This blackberry features small white flowers in spring that attract bees, butterflies, and other pollinators. Green deciduous foliage provides a clean, upright appearance through the growing season, followed by showy fruit clusters in summer.

Landscape Attributes:
Taste of Heaven Thornless Blackberry is a deciduous shrub with an upright growth habit. Its medium texture blends well into edible landscapes, garden borders, and container plantings, where it often serves as a thriller due to its height and structure.

This is an easy-maintenance plant when pruned correctly. Flowers and fruit develop on second-year canes, so only older, spent canes should be removed in early spring before new growth begins. It attracts birds and beneficial pollinators and has no significant negative characteristics when properly managed.

Taste of Heaven Thornless Blackberry is recommended for the following landscape applications:
- Border Planting
- Container Planting
- Landscape Use
- Orchard and Edible Landscaping

Planting & Growing:
Taste of Heaven Thornless Blackberry will grow to be about 3 to 5 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 2 to 3 feet. Space plants approximately 24 to 36 inches apart for best performance. It grows at a moderate rate and produces fruit on old wood, making careful pruning essential for consistent harvests.

This shrub should be grown in full sunlight for best fruit production. It prefers average moisture levels and performs well in average to fertile, well-drained soil. It adapts to both acidic and neutral soil conditions and benefits from regular watering during fruit development. Trellising is optional but can improve airflow and ease of harvest when planting in rows.