This genus of flowering shrubs, often scrambling and prickly or bristly, includes the well-known raspberry and blackberry (bramble). It includes some excellent ground-cover foliage plants - and one or two thugs!

Rubus calycinoides is a native of Taiwan that grows naturally on woodland slopes and certainly gives value for money with interest all season. It makes a mat of tough, trailing stems with small, crinkled green leaves, which turn vivid red in Autumn. The white summer flowers are followed by orange, raspberry-like fruit. An excellent ground-cover plant.