After more than 35 years, a specimen of a gooseberry plant was finally acquired from a very remote Hudson Bay fur trading post, called York Factory, on Hudson Bay in northern Manitoba that was inhabited by Scottish immigrants to North America around the 1700's. In the mid- 80's these plants were found growing beside an ancient cemetery and were observed to grow fruit as big as a golf ball. An ancient Gooseberry Society in the UK that is 220 years old still grows these plants in a competitive way every year to produce fruit the size of an egg or bigger. Check out 'Egton Bridge Gooseberry' if curious about these ancient giants. My question to anyone in this group is if they are familiar with the European Gooseberry and if the image of a stem from a recently acquired plant could be this rare plant originally brought over from Scotland or if it could be just a wild Manitoba Gooseberry? I grow several varieties of Gooseberry but none have thorns as small and prolific as the ones found on this plant. Could this plant be a naturalized European Gooseberry that has been secretly growing in a remote northern time capsule for hundreds of years?
The more you show of it the better. Including leaves, flowers, fruits. Of course, once it fruits you will certainly start to get an idea if it is the kind you wanted. Otherwise relevant information on the web such as the page I linked to here appears to imply the large fruit sizes are the result of growing practices employed and not just which particular kinds have been used: History (egtongooseberryshow.org.uk)
