🍇 Herbert

Herbert is an American table grape with black berries, a hybrid of the native labrusca with the European grape. It was bred by the amateur breeder E. S. Rogers of Salem, Massachusetts. VIVC gives its parents as Carter and Trollinger (Black Hamburg) according to the breeder, and the year of crossing as 1855. For a long time the variety had only a number, Rogers' No. 44.

According to Hedrick's monograph The Grapes of New York (1908), Rogers pollinated the large-fruited Carter with pollen from European vines in a cold greenhouse; Hedrick dates the pollination to 1851. Of roughly 150 seeds, 45 seedlings reached fruiting. Herbert was first mentioned separately in 1865, and in 1869 it received its name and was added to the catalogue of the American Pomological Society.

Hedrick considered Herbert one of the best black Rogers hybrids for the home vineyard. The berries are mostly above medium size, black, with a thick blue bloom, and of good to very good quality. The variety ripens with Concord but keeps for a long time and packs and ships well. It cannot pollinate itself, so it is planted next to other varieties; in severe winters the vine suffers damage.

At the experiment station in Geneva, New York, Herbert became a parent of several varieties: Sheridan (1921) and Pontiac (1922), from crosses with Worden, Westfield (1935) and Buffalo (1938). Samples of the variety are kept in 7 collections.

Why it matters to you. Herbert shows how, in the middle of the XIX century, Americans first combined the taste of the European grape with the hardiness of the native vine. If an old description mentions Rogers' No. 44, it means this very variety, and its offspring are still kept in collections.