We have fresh raspberries!
Canby Raspberry Vines
Friends, the news is huge. We’re on the edge on of our garden seats, trying not bear too much excitement because unless you’re in Costal Southern California, you would never understand. Yes, the photographs are proof….we can finally grow raspberries.
Unless you’re a huge lover of raspberries, or a Southern California gardener who has struggled with growing berries of any kind, this might be a *yawn* post for you. Please, bear with us with our little celebratory dance because we’ve been dreaming of growing successful fruiting raspberries for a very long time. Every time we visit Oregon and Washington where berries grow like wild weeds, we yearn to be so lucky as to have just one plant to bear some sweet, edible fruit.
Last Summer we did a road trip up through California, Oregon and Washington State. During our entire drive up Oregon and Washington, huge bushes of raspberries and blackberries adorned the highway like weeds-gone-wild. We’d make occasional stops along the road and indulge in some of the wild berries. With each bite, our jealousy grew even more over how abundant these berries were for all the local folks. These people have it good!
Eating fresh, sweet berries falling off the vine are one of life’s simple pleasures. And now we can finally enjoy them in our own backyard. Geek out!
A few months ago we stumbled on a variety of raspberries at our local nursery called Canby Red Raspberries. The tag on the plant said that the raspberries were thornless, abundant and sweet. And most importantly, it would grow well in our region. Previously, we’ve written about finally finding a variety of blueberries that don’t require a long amount of chill hours. So with high hopes, we were excited that these variety of raspberries would do equally well.
Often times, berries thrive in cool, moist climates and our warm, dry weather isn’t ideal to get berries to fruit well. But this variety of Canby Red certainly proved to be fruitful after only 2 months in the ground. For the past few weeks we’ve been harvesting handfuls of super sweet raspberries with a delicate, floral note.
These are the best raspberries we’ve ever tasted. They were so addicting, that we returned to the nursery and got a second plant to grow.
Gardening does that to you. The feeling of love and appreciation for growing food is extremely gratifying because all the hard work to nurture something that gives back such a special gift can never be matched.
Thanks for geeking out with us on this occasion. Now if you’ll excuse us, we’ll head back to the garden and check on our latest planting….blackberries! That’ll be a later post. Finger crossed, the blackberry bush will be equally generous.
-diane
Sierra “the veggie hater” wanted a taste…
she wasn’t sure if she could trust a raspberry….
just a little nibble….
a slow nibble….
oh wait…. it’s a fruit… I’ll try it. Carefully.
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Just found this while looking for raspberries that will grow in San Diego. I’m pretty convinced and will look for this variety at a local nursery this weekend. I used to live in the SF bay area and grew raspberries there, but they became infested with tiny white worms which I have just learned are called spotted wing drosophila (fruit fly variety from asia). Have you noticed any tiny white larvae inside your raspberries? I wonder if they are as likely in Southern California.
Hi… berries look great! And I love the puppy pix. Question: do you cut your raspberries down to the ground in the fall? I’m reading contradictory advice but know that what they do in ND is not the same as SoCal. Also…I have a two year old Heritage bush (horrible thorns) that is sending up huge straight suckers that I would trim off rose bushes but maybe these need to stay. The leaves on them look a little different (longer) than those on the mane canes…but maybe this is the first year cane that will become the fruiting cane? Thoughts anyone? TIA
Hi Pat,
Our raspberries are still in their first year, but the response from the gardeners we’ve talked to here in So Cal is that we shouldn’t cut them all back to the ground in the fall. The second year canes are the ones which will fruit. I’d leave them and see what happens next year. Those may be your star canes next spring!
Sierra is hilarious and those pics of her is adorable!!!
I’m so glad I saw this today! I was just talking with some friends about growing raspberries here in Fountain Valley. I have a few planted that have never taken off (got a handful of berries this year, but was hoping for more as it is the second year in the ground), but I’m encouraged to plant more. I’m curious about your trellis system. It looks like you have a wooden trellis attached to your wall with an iron trellis higher up? Is that right? I’m trying to grow them against a wall but haven’t found a good method to copy. 🙂
Hi Katie,
You are correct. It is an evolution of a trellis. I had built the original wood trellis about 8 years ago and it went as high as the iron does now. We had several vines growing on it and last year due to the weight and termite damage the top half broke. In researching a replacement we found the iron decorative fencing at home depot. They were fairly inexpensive and when placed at where the break in the wood was, it was the perfect height. So rather than rebuild the whole trellis, we left the bottom wood section and added the scroll panels to finish the top.
Good luck with your raspberries and your trellis.
Todd
Awesome shots! I definitely need to plant one of those in my garden 🙂 The dog is adorable too, btw. One of my dogs loves any fruit, the other (the beagle) only likes meat or carbs hahah
Raspberries did not do well for me here in Las Vegas (cut your berries into fourths; because of the extreme heat, they only got that big! They finally sucumbed to the heat and the plants died as well).
Blackberries have done well for me. They are smaller than they would be in the Northwest, and the ones at the top will cook in the sun, turning hard and brown (completely unedible). The lower ones do well, though, and they are delicious! We are nearing the end of our blackberry harvest just now, but we’re picking apricots, green plums, and figs. The grapes are getting close.
Congratulations on growing raspberries. That is really wonderful. I love raspberries. I love that your nursery had big plants, too; that is really, really nice.
Congratulations! I grew up (and still live) in San Diego and my parents had a very prolific boysenberry bush growing on the hillside, but we never grew any raspberries. I am getting ready to (hopefully) start a garden soon, so you give me hope that berries might possibly be in my future :-). Love the shots of Sierra eating a raspberry-I have to show my own, 10 yo daughter, Sierra, the photos-she will love them!
Awesome Thank you so Much! :)) I truly appreciate you taking the time to comment back!
Hello! I Stumbled on your website a couple weeks ago because of your post on Meyer Lemons and I LOVE this!! I love all of your recipes(the ones I’ve done)
I had a couple questions which I hope you can help me with. I too live in California(Laguna Niguel) what is the nursery that you went too to get the raspberries because I really would love to grow some myself.
and off question. What type of camera do you use because you have the most beautiful pictures?
Thank you!!! 🙂
Blessings!!
Andy S.
Hi Andy,
Thanks so much for the kind words.
To answer your questions, we got these plants from Green
Thumb in Lake Forest. Quite close to you. Rogers Gardens in Newport should also have some. I think I even saw Home Depot have thornless Blackberries last time I was in.
In response to the second question, we are pro photographers so we tend to have some of the better gear, but anyone can take great photos with just about any camera if you capture the light correctly. Some shots will be just from our iPhones. The cameras we do use are Nikon, usually the d3s or d300s. Lenses we love for food and for different reasons are the 50mm 1.4, 60 macro, 105 macro, and the 24-70mm.
Hope that helps. Have fun plant shopping.
T & D