Here are the gooseberry cuttings, unlike the Worcesterberry and things bred from R. succirubrum there is no doubt that the seed parent is R. divaricatum.I grew them from seed myself. From Seeds collected in Crescent City. My plan was to breed garden variety gooseberries to my divaricatum seedlings that sprouted most promptly. Thereby producing seedlings that would not malinger in the garden after a mild Winter. After the first year of growth I threw away the weakest growers and planted the most vigorous growers in one pot and the slower growers in another pot. That first Winter was a very mild winter and so it was the perfect opportunity to identify those seedlings with a low chill requirement. The first seedling to leaf out was one of the slower growers and the second was one of the vigorous growers. It was two or three weeks behind the first plant. I threw away the other seedlings and kept the first two for breeding. I mostly pollinated gooseberry #1 and only pollinated gooseberry #2 when all of the open flowers on gooseberry #1 had been pollinated or if I had some pollen from something that wasn't quite first rate.It turns out that smaller plants tend to leaf out earlier than bigger plants and gooseberry #2 was generating better low-chill seedlings.All of my R. divaricatum X Old World gooseberry type seedlings and my divaricatum X missouriense and divarcatum X Abundance and Pixwell and divaricatum X nivalis seedlings got severe root rot. They are growing so slow that they all look about the same. One of my divaricatum X white-stemmed gooseberry seedlings that I grew from a small batch of seeds from years ago seems to be root-root resistant, as are a small pecentage of my divaricatum X Malling Invicta seedlings and a larger percentage of my divaricatum X Oregon Champion seedlings. A small pecentage of my gooseberry #1 seedlings produce more robust growth than their sisters and they also seem to be slower to break dormancy. The plants I am sending you represent my only thicker, slower seedling that is also resistant to root rot. I imagine that my thicker seedlings are likely to produce bigger berries. Also the original specimen produced a few flowers this year and the buds are slightly fuzzy. I expected the buds to be completely glabrous because the green-fruited, mildew resistant clones at your repository looked so hairless that they appeared to be constructed from wax. (I'm thinking of Robustenta and Mucurines.) So I don't think the Invicta side of the parentage include the chromosomes with the mildew resistance linked with the European fruit quality.Nothing about this plant suggests that it can help my breeding program but but I also don't think I'm ever going to come up with a bigger, better first generation hybrid. Witness that I am naming this clone after myself, the Cowcester, after my last name and the Worcesterberry. David Cowan, March 18, 2010
Receieved as Ribes grossularia 'Cowester'