Black Satin

Black Satin dates to 1974 and came out of the USDA and Southern Illinois University breeding work at Carbondale, making it one of the founding thornless blackberries of the modern era — the generation that first made bramble picking a painless job in colder states. Its lineage runs back through 'Thornfree' and 'Darrow', the eastern thornless and hardy-northern lines respectively, which is exactly the combination that gave it its reputation. Berries Unlimited still calls it the most successful thornless blackberry for northern regions, and it is one of the few 1970s releases nurseries have never quite retired. Modern semi-erect cultivars like Chester and Triple Crown have largely displaced it commercially, so the reason to plant it now is heritage value plus proven cold performance rather than best-in-class fruit. It establishes fast and is genuinely vigorous — Berries Unlimited notes it will fill a ten-foot row without much encouragement.