August is wild black berry month in Victoria on southern Vancouver Island. In fact, there are hundreds of bushes in our immediate neighbourhood. During August we regularly pick fresh blackberries to serve with waffles, pancakes, muffins, soufflés, and sometimes just as a bowl of fruit.

We frequently have guests time their stay at Birds of a Feather B&B to coincide with Blackberry season so that they can pick a few pails themselves.

The Marion cultivars of the Trailing type blackberries are a small edible fruit of a wild shrub and are sensitive to cold winter temperatures and hot summer temperatures. Victoria’s moderate year-round climate is therefore an ideal climate for this Bramble.

These cultivars are highly prized by the processing industry for its unique, good flavour, small seed size (or "presence"), medium to large sized fruit (averaging 4.8g) and good texture for processing. Fruit are dull black in color.

Trailing blackberries are long-lived perennial crops – about a 15 year lifespan.