I'm looking to renovate my decades-old raspberry patch, and hoping to find new plants that are resistant to the diseases that seem to be getting the better of whatever variety I currently have. After some online research, I headed out armed with a list of varieties, to see what I could find. Potters & home depot each have a couple, and at David Hunter's in Surrey, I found: Tulameen Latham Boyne Black (is this really a raspberry, and not a blackberry bramble in disguise?) Heritage Autumn Bliss Fall Gold Prelude Has anybody seen Polka, Meeker, Ukee, Cascade Delight, or any others in the lower mainland? Further, does anybody know if there are farms out towards the valley where I could buy a bunch of canes more economically? Thanks!
If you plan to re-plant raspberries in the same location as the old ones, they won't grow nearly as well as in a new location. However, I've had pretty good luck replacing all of my old Heritage raspberries with Caroline, which is said to resist root rot. The latter is far superior to the former in just about every way. The plants were expensive; I only bought one to try it out. But it was so vigorous that I made about 25 new clumps in a few years. Now they are a weed spreading into my vegetables; however, that's normal for raspberries. I bought Meeker raspberries some years ago but don't know if they are still available. Try Cedar Rim Nursery in Langley; they have a large variety of small fruits. By the way, there is such a thing as a black raspberry. I used to grow them in Missouri, where red raspberries don't do well. I find blacks to be far less tasty than the reds, but some people prefer the milder flavor. Black raspberries grow wild in BC, along with reds; so they should do well here.
I wish I had another spot to move them to! I'm particularly concerned about re-planting if I do indeed have root rot. And although it would be smart, I'm reluctant to rip out all the existing (infected) plants and suffer through a raspberry-less summer... Caroline's superior (which I do not doubt), yet judging by store inventory, Heritage still appears to be the standard fall-bearing variety. Weird. Wish I could taste them all before choosing.
I have the same problem: lack of new planting space. I've tried many raspberry varieties by re-planting places where the original occupant was doing poorly, and Caroline is the only one that's growing reasonably well in such places. You don't have to remove the old plants; just plant the new ones in any available space between the existing canes. If the existing canes are too crowded, they should be thinned; you should still get a decent crop even with fewer canes. In fact, if there are lots of canes, your raspberries are probably doing fine and don't need to be replaced. The ones that I replaced mostly died out and left plenty of space for new plants. I'm not sure if you can find Caroline locally, I did a quick Web search and could only find it at mail-order nurseries in the US. However, if you want to try it, I can give you all the plants that you want. I planted the original plant in a disease-free area to use for propagation; and it produces an abundance of root suckers. Send me a PM if you are interested.
