PICK OF THE VERY BEST: RASPBERRIES
Great for summer or autumn fruiting, but which get our vote?
VEG gardeners reckon that freshly picked home-grown peas are so tasty that they’re often eaten before they get anywhere near the kitchen. Peas? Maybe. But raspberries? Definitely.
It’s no exaggeration to say that raspberries are so delicious you’ll have to grow far more than you think you’ll need for cooking or creating summer fruit salads. The thing is, they have this wonderful summer aroma; it’s so intoxicating that before the berries even touch your tongue, you’re lost. And while some varieties of, say, strawberries can be lacking in flavour, I have yet to sample a tasteless raspberry.
When I first grew raspberries, which was a long time ago) they were a summer crop that drowned us in flavour for a few weeks and then needed awkward pruning. There were a few autumnfruiting varieties, but although pruning was far easier, their quality was poor.
The arrival of ‘Autumn Bliss’ in the 1980s changed all that; and thanks to some superb late-cropping varieties, raspberries are now equally valued as summer and autumn crops. In fact, the most recent RHS trial at Wisley demonstrated just how great the range of varieties currently available is.
As well as summer and autumn options that will give you fruit in succession from June to October, there are also spine-free varieties, plus golden and purple-fruited forms. In recent years, compact varieties have been introduced – although none of these has so far been awarded an AGM.
We even have new names for the different types: floricane raspberries are the traditional ones that fruit on canes produced the previous year; primocane are those produced later in the season,