Raspberries

Raspberries are one of my favourite soft fruits.  I could claim to start with an advantage because my Dad grew them, and my grandfather too, but at an early age I was more concerned with eating than learning about cultivation.  So when H on our allotment gave us some surplus raspberry canes I put them in the first spot that came to mind, planted far too deep, on a sunny windy corner and wondered why they took so long to establish.  I should have observed her originals next to the boundary fence, shaded by blackthorn and wild plum trees.

Another donation was from the late B who gave us his autumn flowering yellow ones with the comment that they hadn't done much.  We put these behind our large greenhouse in a more sheltered position and happily they thrived, once winning a prize.  Most years they were fine, but raspberries do not appreciate excessive heat.  I mulched them most years but in the hot summers of the south east they sometimes dried up before they were fully ripe.

Raspberries grew in our orchard plot, under the apple trees.  This should have been a good position, except that these bushes, possibly old, seemed to have reverted to a wild state.  Every year I would hope that with additional manure and care they might improve.  However their fruit was consistently small and squashy.  Rather than pull them up it was easier to leave them for the birds.

Up here, we drove to the agricultural college and bought ten new canes of a Scots variety.  As I have previously noted, I planted five in an inappropriate position and my dear husband had to move them.  One that he could not uproot remains as a testimony to my romantic ideas of interweaving fruit and flowers.  It is not doing well.

On the other hand the ones that we planted or relocated are showing promise. They are in partial shade, enjoying afternoon sun.   They are visited by bumble bees, have set fruit and are also putting up next year's canes.  The next challenge, of course, will be not to damage them but to successfully net the fruit against all the garden birds we have hitherto regarded as pets.