Spotlight on: AUTUMN RASPBERRIES

Autumn raspberries fruit – as the name suggests – in the autumn, when “normal” raspberries have finished for the year.

Autumn varieties come on stream from August onwards, when the price in the shops has shot up, and they’ll keep cropping until the first proper frost.

This happens quite naturally, without any special treatment.

As a bonus, autumn raspberries produce their fruit on new canes, the same year as they grow.

This means there’s no need for the hefty great post-and-wire supports you require for usual summer raspberries because autumn varieties don’t have time to grow tall. With no support needed, there’s no tedious tying-up to do either. And instead of rows, you can group the canes in a bed which takes up less space. What’s more, pruning is easy.

Rather than sorting through a tangle of long canes to see which to cut out and which to leave for next year, you simply chop the whole lot down just above ground level.

Do it in February and the plants produce a new crop of canes that will fruit in autumn the same year.

It couldn’t be easier and they’ll keep going like this for years.

In a big garden you could grow autumn raspberries as well as the summer sort to extend your raspberry season from late June till mid October. But in small gardens I’d stick to autumn varieties.