These images are of one of the white stemmed brambles that are now more obvious in the border with no snow on the ground to dilute their colour and a lack of foliage to blind out the stems.

The white indumentum over ruddy brown stems is an attractive winter feature. These stems are best culled on an annual basis and then given a hearty mulch to encourage the basal buds to grow away.

The tough, thorny, arching stems reach 2 metres in a growing season. At the start of March cut these back to ground level. A fresh crop will emerge and as the rootstocks establish they will colonise ground with underground stems.

These plants originated from seed collected in China. Growing in Sichuan Province near the Balang Shan Pass on the edge of a landslip at 2500 metres.

Rubus sp.

Rubus sp.