November Gardening Articles

• The Bliss of Autumn Raspberries

Of all the soft fruit that can be grown in the garden, the 'Autumn Bliss' raspberry must be just about the easiest and most rewarding. Still a relatively recent introduction, this variety is just so much better than any other autumn variety!

 

You would expect it to have good flavour and it has! You would expect it to be heavy cropping and it is! But you probably wouldn't expect it to produce juicy and tasty fruit from late August right through to November but it does! In fact, we have even picked a few fruits for Christmas Day in exceptionally frost free autumns! This is a great British bred variety that has been recognised both here, by being awarded the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit [AGM], and in the States by the American Society of Horticultural Science.

 

If this wasn't reason enough to plant some then just consider these other good points. Because it fruits on sturdy young one year old canes it doesn't have to be supported. The canes are produced prolifically and might need a bit of thinning out but otherwise even the pruning is simple. Come winter, you just cut everything down to ground level and start afresh next spring.

 

My garden is close to hundreds of acres of woodland and so birds can be a problem with most soft fruits that I grow. However, for some quirky reason the birds don't seem to even notice these raspberries. Perhaps there is so much else for them to eat in autumn or maybe they don't taste the same but I'm not complaining, it saves me the expense of constructing a fruit cage! It's a very different story for traditional summer fruiting varieties.

 

So why have I written about them so late in the year? Well now is the time to plant them!

 

Certified virus free new canes are now widely available and you should resist the temptation of a few roots from a friend or a neighbour because, kind though this offer is, there is a strong chance that older canes will be carrying virus diseases. Whilst, they can be planted anytime that they are dormant, no time should be wasted to get them in.

 

Thorough soil preparation is vital as this is a crop that could last fifteen years or so! Get rid of any pernicious perennial weeds and make certain that your soil is well drained. A little shade will be okay, as raspberries are woodland edge plants when growing in the wild, but avoid heavy shade. Soils with a high lime content will not grow good crops without a lot of care. This is plant that will repay dividends if mulched annually with something like well rotted farmyard manure and will always repay the investment of a low level irrigation system in gardens prone to drying out.

 

Whatever you do, get the soil in really good condition before planting and take extra care at getting it right. Raspberry canes resent being out of the ground too long so establishment can be disappointing, if the soil is sopping wet, wait until it's drier and if it is frozen solid, keep your plants heeled in until better conditions arrive. It's worth a little bit of extra effort, just think of the fifteen years or so of autumn bliss to come!

Back to top