Hinnomaki Gooseberry or Ribes Hinnonmaki

Hinnomaki Gooseberry (Ribes Hinnonmaki) is a deciduous high-yield gooseberry bush with large juicy berries from June to mid-July. It’s a good choice for kitchen gardens, plant containers, and sunny mixed borders in the UK.

Hinnomaki Gooseberry is a popular hybrid gooseberry bred in Finland for hardiness, flavour and high yields. It’s a deciduous shrub, which means it loses leaves in winter and re-grows them the following spring. Bright, fresh green foliage is quickly followed by small greeny-white flowers that bees adore. Plump juicy gooseberries ripen from June to mid-July.

There are three self-pollinating Hinnomaki varieties all good for eating fresh and cooking:

• Red: Medium-sized red Hinnomaki gooseberries taste super sweet when ripe. They’re ideal for cooking.
• Yellow: Yellow Hinnomaki gooseberries are medium-sized. They’re yellow-green in colour with an aromatic, sweet flavour.
• Green: Larger-than-average-sized green Hinnomaki gooseberries are very juicy and ideal for pies, jams and jellies.

Hinnomaki gooseberries are superb easy-to-grow hardy bushes that produce tasty fresh berries and numerous freezer-suitable berries from June to mid-July.

Height and Spread of Hinnomaki Gooseberry
Ribes Hinnomaki reaches 1.2 metres tall by 1.2 metres wide. All three cultivars are upright growers with strong stems.

How Hardy is Hinnomaki Gooseberry
Bred in cold Finland, these hardy gooseberries easily cope with minus-temperature UK winters if their roots are well drained. They have good disease resistance to mildew and mould.

How To Use Hinnomaki Gooseberry
Compact and easy to grow Ribes Hinnomaki suit a variety of spaces including kitchen gardens, mixed sunny borders, urban courtyards, and patio, deck or balcony garden containers.
Fruit tastes sweet straight from the branch and holds excellent cooked texture and flavour. Ribes Hinnomaki freezes well, so wasted berries are minimal.
Because they’re bred for disease resistance, Hinnomaki gooseberries need little or nothing in the way of chemical control, so they are good choices for organic growers and wildlife-friendly gardeners. If you don’t want the delicious gooseberries, birds and small mammals will gratefully eat them.

How to Care for Hinnomaki Gooseberry
Easy to grow Hinnomaki gooseberry cultivars are low-maintenance fruits suitable for the most inexperienced gardener.
They do well in most types of well-drained soil, but benefit from added organic mulch in spring. Choose a spot in full sun or partial shade, for the heaviest crops and net their branches to prevent birds from pecking the flowers and fruits. Be sure to check netting every morning for trapped mammals such as hedgehogs.
Space bushes 1.5 metres apart and water them well until you can see new growth. In dry spells give each bush a full can of water to swell the fruits.
Prune gooseberries in late winter or early spring. Remove dead or diseased wood and any crossed branches to create an open vase shape that encourages air circulation. Trim back shoots to around four buds from the main stem. This is a good time to add a thick layer of organic mulch to the base.
Container-grown Hinnomaki gooseberries require frequent water and weekly fertilizer in the growing season. Be sure to stand pots on feet to ensure adequate drainage.