I’m really down in the dumps today.
in the beginning of the season I talked to my landscaper about my planting plans for gooseberries and black raspberries. I planted them all in new wood chip beds and marked each plant with an orange flag so they would know not to mow or cut them down.
fast forward to last week and one of the guys in the crew takes out 3 of my black raspberries. I kind of understood as the bed had been overgrown but all the flags were still there and I still had 2 strong black raspberry plants thriving. I talked to the landscaper and he assured me he told the crew about it. then this week the mower took out the 2 remaining good black raspberries and one of my gooseberries (jeanne) that I just planted this year. the landscaper said he told my “usual” crew but this week was a different crew. now I’m super bummed.
I’m thinking the jeanne is shot but is there any chance the black raspberries will come back next year?
the landscaper said I could take the cost of the plants off the next bill. wondering what he will say when I buy 6 new back raspberry plants from edible landscaping and them + shipping comes to about 60 bucks plus 10 for the gooseberry. still really sucks to be near the end of a growing season and start from scratch because someone wasn’t paying attention.
I bet they will send up new p-canes next spring summer. They may even try to come back a little this fall.
With everbearing types… after they fruit in fall you can just mow them down… and they will send up new canes the next spring summer which will fruit in the fall.
Raspberries are quite persistent here… I doubt one accidental mowing would take them out completly.
Mine are planted in raised beds… and mulched deep with either hay or wood chips… and at the 4 corners of each bed… I have u-post for support trellis and galvanized wire at two levels for trellis.
If my mower guy got over into that. He would have a mess for sure.
Sounds like you need to do something a little more to make your plantings more noticable.
Good Luck !!!
TNHunter
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I’d be surprised if they didn’t come back unless you have a severe drought. If it were me, I’d just water them every few days if it doesn’t rain and expect them to pop back up.
Also, I agree with @TNHunter… put some type of fencing up like you would for other pests. 
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i agree also that they will come back. if not i have ohio treaure black and 2 jeannes i can send you cuttings of next spring. 
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Going with the existing black raspberry rootstock will probably result in larger comeback canes next year rather than starting from scratch.
You need to keep the yard crew entirely out of the wood chip bed. The random yard worker will likely remove anything with thorns out of habit, flagged or not.
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thanks all for the votes of confidence. some kind of creeping grass took over the beds so I’m sure they did blend in. maybe japanese stilt grass. my plan is to cut the outer edge with an edger and put more mulch in during the fall followed by a short fence. I’ll add some temp fencing to keep them out in the meantime.
60 dollars for 6 black raspberries and shipping seems crazy steep to me. Double A vineyards sells black raspberries for 4.5 dollars and I think it was 23 dollars shipping because they ship via FEDEX. I did the calculations and even with 5 dollars and 23 dollars shipping it was 53 dollars. If you wait until October or November you could pre-order them and pay 10 dollars shipping at Indiana Berry. Then again I have seen edible landscaping’s webpage and they seem crazy expensive compared to my tastes. I agree that the raspberry canes will come back.
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I’m sure if you wanted generic black raspberries you could get them for less but I was growing ohio treasure which tends to be more expensive. I got them from edible landscaping at $6 each plus shipping of $23.40. thats $59.40. do you know a better deal on ohio treasure?