
Oregon grape, Mahonia aquifolium, is the Official State Flower of Oregon. Fruit such as this develops after its bright yellow bloom. It is nothing like grapes, though. It is edible, but unimpressive alone and fresh. Locally, it is not abundant enough to bother with collecting for culinary application, such as jelly. Wild plants are both rare and scarcely productive. Landscape plants are not much better. That justifies growing it in a garden where fruit production can be promoted. Perhaps it requires specialized pruning, like other species that are grown for fruit. Perhaps, like cane berries, it would be more productive if its old canes get pruned out annually. I really do not know, and am therefore receptive to suggestion. I already intend to grow it, although it will take a few years to get enough fruit to do anything with. Not so long ago, I was similarly intrigued by the native but ignored blue elderberry, which I found to be as useful as black elderberry of the East. My blue elderberry jelly won more ribbons than I can remember at the annual Jelly Competition of the Boulder Creek Harvest Festival. A blue ribbon for Oregon grape jelly would be excellent!
Here in the UK, it needs to be cut back hard when the old leaves become too unsightly.
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Do they bloom and produce fruit, or do the canes need to be a year old to do so?
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To be honest, I don’t grow it now but used it to underplant some large rhododendrons that I had in my last garden. From memory, I pruned after flowering, foregoing the berries that year, and it flowered the following spring.
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If it bloomed, it could have made berries before getting cut back in winter, but may not have wanted to do so there. They bloom only moderately here, but rarely make as many berries as they do in this picture. I suspect that they might be more productive with the right cultivation, like cane berries. (Uncultivated cane berries are not as productive as they would be with proper pruning.)
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