‘Hall’s beauty’ thornless trailing blackberry

Abstract

‘Hall’s Beauty’ is a new, early-ripening, high-quality, firm, and sweet thornless trailing blackberry (Rubus subg. Rubus Watson) cultivar with extremely large and attractive double flowers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) breeding program in Corvallis, OR, released in cooperation with Oregon State University’s Agricultural Experiment Station. Mr. Harvey Hall (Shekinah Berries Ltd., Pyes Pa, New Zealand), with New Zealand HortResearch, the forerunner of The New Zealand Institute Plant & Food Research, originally incorporated the source of thornlessness used in ‘Hall’s Beauty’ into useful germplasm. The collaborative effort between him and USDA-ARS breeders in exchanging Rubus germplasm was critical to the current success of both programs; the name of the cultivar reflects gratitude for this relationship and Hall’s tremendous contributions, with his spouse Robyn Hall’s support, to blackberry breeding worldwide. ‘Hall’s Beauty’ is introduced as a machine harvest-able, high-quality blackberry that has extremely large, attractive, and ornamental double flowers, which have many more petals than typical blackberries and that produce large, well-formed berries for the fresh or the processed fruit market. ‘Hall’s Beauty’ should be adapted to areas where other trailing blackberries can be grown successfully. A U.S. Plant Patent has been applied for (USPPAF 15/330,950).