Family: Rosaceae

A garden hybrid; parent species from N America.

The ornamental brambles are grown for either their striking flowers, foliage or stems.

This vigorous plant has long, thorny, arching stems up to 3 m, the leaves are three-lobed and deeply textured; the large white flowers (up to 8 cm across) are borne singly along the stems.

The original hybrid was made by a Captain Collingwood Ingram in 1950 between Rubus trilobus (the seed parent) and R. deliciosus (the pollen parent) and originally known as Rubus 'Tridel'; the best of the three seedlings raised was called 'Benenden'. A seedling from this with fringed petals and larger flowers was grown by Bob Gordon of Portglenone, Co Antrim in the early 1970's and named after his wife Margaret; it is thought to be this clone which appears in the illustration here.

The genus name Rubus is an old Latin word for the blackberries, brambles and raspberries.