What sweet pleasure it is to pick your own raspberries straight out of the garden! Go ahead and experiment to find the raspberries best suited to your growing environment and your taste buds. And don’t hesitate to grow a combination of both summer and fall varieties, especially if you want an extended harvest.
Eden Raspberry:
Summer-bearing, mid-season variety with high yields of light-coloured, firm, large, sweet raspberries with exceptional flavour. Canes are tall and spineless. Developed in Nova Scotia.
Festival Raspberry:
Summer-bearing, mid to late-season variety with excellent hardiness and good productivity. Canes are of average length, spineless, and with average suckering. Berries are large, medium-red, with excellent firmness and flavour. One of the best varieties in terms of fruit quality, but plants are susceptible to orange rust and don't do well in sandy soils. From Ontario.
Heritage Raspberry:
Fall-bearing variety that produces a modest summer crop early in the season and a heavier second crop in the fall. Plants are vigorous, hardy, and productive. Self-supporting, upright canes are average in length with minimal spines. Above-average suckering. Large, extra-sweet, juicy, firm, dark-red berries full of flavour make this a popular variety. However, the late second crop may be problematic for northern locations.
Pathfinder Raspberry:
Fall-bearing classic that is highly regarded by producers and organic growers. The earliest fall-fruiting variety, plants produce high yields in August of medium to large, light-coloured, firm berries with good flavour. Short spiny canes with very good suckering. Good soil management and control of insect pests is crucial to maximizing productivity.
Polana Raspberry:
Fall-bearing variety that produces its second crop a full three weeks before Heritage, making it an excellent choice for northern locations. As its name suggests, Polana comes from Poland. Hardy, compact plants have excellent productivity on vigorous, average-length canes. Berries are medium-large, bright red, glossy, succulent, firm and packed with flavour!
Prelude Raspberry:
Summer-bearing, early-season variety that produces the earliest-ripening raspberries, with an occasional, small second crop in the fall. Excellent winter-hardy and vigorous plants with minimal spines produce very firm, medium to large, round, flavourful, dark red fruit.
Anne Raspberry:
Fall-bearing variety that produces beautiful, firm, large, pale golden-yellow fruit. Berries are almost tropical in flavour and extremely sweet. Harvest begins late July or early August and continues through to the first frost. These vigorous sun-loving plants are cold-hardy and heat-tolerant.
