i agree Colombia giant is on the tart side but i still like it. only got a small bowlful off my 1 plant but it was its 1st. year on marginal soil. ill put the manure / woodchips to it next spring and tip root a bunch of canes to spread them. i put in 2 Colombia star plugs from Esty last spring. got them under heavy fleece and about 3ft of snow currently. hopefully they make it. z6 plant in z4 is a tall order. if they make it, i may trial tayberry. any other trailing blacks i should try Kris? got a loganberry from Tnhunter last year but it never took for some reason. was thinking of getting another.
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My case in point…Olallieberries-
“Today Olallieberries are a rare species cultivated in small quantities along the West Coast of the United States. The fruits are only available for a limited season each year and are primarily grown in California in the Bay Area, Central Coast, and Southern California”
If you trust Dave Wilson they are hardy to Z4.
I grow them… and i dont live in California or the west coast and they arent rare…are they hardy to Z4? I doubt anyone knows…because OGW says they are hardy to Z6. Trees of Antiquity says they are hardy to Z5. Bay Laurel says they are hardy to Z4. PlantingJustice says they are hardy to Z8
Whatever the case may be…there is alot of wrong information out there on alot of things… do you own homework or just try them and see.
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I dont want to sound like a Used car salesman but for me my most vigorous and happy growers are Newberry, Kotata and Siskiyou all are pretty thorny which is likely why they have fallen out of favor. I get my first crop this year on Ollalieberries as well and those canes also look fantastic… very strong and pliable and forgiving.
My weakest varieties are Black Diamond, Columbia Star, Columbia Sunrise, Halls Beauty, Wild Treasure and thornless Logan… all of those canes are weakly like thornless Boysen is their first few years. They get more brittle and break as well. Maybe in future years they will do better but most will likely get zapped by the cold whereas those others have not.
On paper Newberry is the most cold hardy one that nobody knows about or has tried very much. I think Drew grew it for awhile.
Kotata is the thorniest of all the trailing ones… and could be the most cold hardy… or not i couldnt tell you.
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Tayberry is a lot earlier than Ponca for me. Wyeberry is the first blackberry. It is probably a seedling of boysenberry. Marion is not early for me. It needs to hang a long time for best flavor.
I removed my Columbia Star, it was plenty hardy enough to grow unprotected in my zone 6. I didn’t like the flavor. It had to hang forever to be good. Released at the same time as Columbia Star Newberry is far superior in flavor. Having said that you can only count on your own palate. Everybody has an opinion.
On winter damaged canes I can’t tell till late spring as they look perfectly fine at first. Even might grow a little. Unfortunately they look fine until they’re not.
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A better name now is probably Why Berry 
Developed at Univ of Maryland. ‘A hardier form of tayberry’
Your review and your talks on houzz, fig groups and here are the only real talk about Wyeberries that exist.
I made it as far as to contact the breeder HarryJan Swartz and found a dead end.
Wye in the name is from the Wye Research and Education Center, Queenstown, Md in case anyone wants to follow the trail.
Your review on this forum is likely the only review of this berry where you said they taste identical to Boysens.
So in my book its not worth chasing - i trust your review.
Which leads to Lavacaberry which i have discussed in the past years… according to Gary Pense Sr. and Charlie Little they are also Boysens…or at least identical to them. Perhaps they did not get the original strain… hard to know. But i think the truth is that Lavacaberries are just Boysens that were grown in Arkansas. No sense chasing it at this time unless a new source comes up at a later date that changes the information.
Nectar Boysenberry- the one willis sells is not true to name and they are lying. They sell thornless boysen and label it as nectar boysenberry. Nectar: Originated by Howard G. Benedict in El Monte and introduced in 1937. Originally said to have been a seedling of Young, but later thought to be a chimera (mutation) of Boysen. The fruit is supposed to be larger than Boysen, and many claim it is sweeter. This plant is not available.
Ruby Boysen aka Newberry- Newberry: A complex hybrid blackberry involving Boysen, Marion, Logan and many other varieties, bred by Chad E. Finn of the USDA in Corvallis, Ore., and officially introduced this year. Originally selected for processing, it has seemed more promising for fresh sales, because the berries, somewhat redder and sweeter than Boysen, do not leak juice as readily. It is grown on 20 acres by Paul and Gayle Willems and two of their sons in Kingsburg, south of Fresno, and marketed as “Ruby Boysen” at their Berry Lady farm stand, and at Southern California retail stores. I have these plants available… im not sure if anyone else does.
Riwaka’s Choice Boysen- I am rooting it now. No clue how it will turn out and there is very little information on it other than it was bred in NZ to be a better boysen. New Zealanders have many many variations of Boysens and most are not released to the public.
Boysenberry Seedling #43 - I passed on this one… it is supposedly a little more vigorous than other boysens… and i think i have enough boysen variants to do me for now.
I can only wish to have this kind of climate…
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Wow, tons of info I never found! Thanks!
When I got my wyeberry I had no clue it was a boysenberry hybrid. At the same time I picked up a boysenberry. I grew them next to each other. I can report wyeberries are bigger, ripen one week earlier, and are hardier than boysenberry. I removed boysenberry as most canes would not make it here without protection. Flavor is identical as mentioned.
Speaking of boysenberry I found a volunteer in my garden that tastes a lot like boysenberry. I thought it may be a seedling. Some guys here suggested it’s probably a purple and yeah it’s a cross between a black raspberry and a red raspberry. Unlike other purples this one has an excellent boysenberry flavor.
An added bonus it’s primocane fruiting.
I really like Cascade Gold but it is susceptible to root rot and is not that hardy. I grew some seeds out and one of the plants is very hardy, large fruit, and decent yield. It fruits a long time no instant large harvest.
Will trail to get to the sun. Becomes semi erect crawling into my honeyberry bush to get more sun. Will produce in heavy shade. Needs zero protection. The berries are good but not as good as cascade gold. Stays more yellow when ripe no red flush like cascade…
Here’s a photo of primocane purple. This is a primocane btw.
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On the topic of hardy have you tried KiwiGold and HoneyQueen? I just planted mine this past fall… so looking forward to them. Im not a fan of Anne and pulled them. I like Double Gold also… they get mixed reviews…some say that they have no taste and some say they are the best tasting… i am fairly convinced that the lack of taste is due to overhydration…or their plantings in raised beds with too much moisture content…along with most other reports of blandness… i think rasps prefer lack of moisture for good tasting fruits…which is why i plant most of mine in a very heavy mix of sand now.
Still somewhat on topic. speaking of root rot. hard to get root rot when you have raspberries growing in drought conditions…
I added AAC Eden as well and this looks like its a very tough plant. This guy has been putting them thru the torture test with very good results. Its thornless for the folks that are into that also. The good part is after the 3min mark. Great for folks that live in cold areas… unknown really for folks that live in warmer climates as its a fairly obscure variety.
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I will add Eden to my list. Honey queen didn’t do great for me. I like to try them at least twice. I have not had a chance to yet, so no opinion on it. It died out and I have not replaced it. Kiwi Gold does ok here and it’s a beautiful looking berry with a deep red flush when ripe.
Unfortunately I’m stuck with the conditions I have. Only a few plants really thrive here. My daughter just obtained property with a large raspberry patch. I have yet to go there. Probably in the spring. My daughter just sold her current house and has not moved in yet. It has over 50 fruit trees on the property and in addition to the raspberries has a large blackberry and strawberry patch. I’m very excited to start managing this property. I need to teach my daughter how to care for this property as I’m halfway through the back nine. She has a time demanding job and autistic step child. So it’s not
going to be easy. She moved just to be eligible for a very good program for autistic children in St. Clair county.
You have to do what you have to do.
Here’s the real estate ad for the property
https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/8630-Arendt-Rd_Brockway_MI_48097_M48646-01713
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I might give AAC Eden a try. I like that they make full size fruit in such dry conditions. Reminds me of beaches where red raspberry thrives and dominates even against poison ivy, rugosa rose and the like. Im not usually there at the right time of year to see what the fruit is like but Ive always been struck by happy the plants look growing in the sand and salt spray. Meanwhile wildling res raspberries here are often spindly little things with only a handful of berries on them. Go figure.
Its often super dry around mid-summer. I’ve always mulched as heavily as I could manage to, but sometimes have wound up with tiny berries. My floricane raspberries are planted in an area with fertile soil thats shallow to ledge, so sort of opposite the guy in the video. I have a drip system in the high tunnel and was thinking to move most of my brambles up that way, so I may have that problem nipped. I agree too much water is probably part of what causes bland flavor. Nourse lists AAC as having excellent flavor. That seems to vary by location and palette. I saw above where you dont like ‘jewel’ black much due to poor flavor. I love wild blackcaps but for me jewel has great flavor. I know people who’ve sworn off growing raspberries because they say they are all big but bland. Who knows why…
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My reviews along with most of us here fall into YMMV. That was the first crop…and if memory serves it was a pretty wet spring… so shame on me for evaluating a crop and making an assumption.
I just ordered ‘Born Free’ which i did not want to get for awhile… firstly because im not really into thornless varieties that much and secondly i have way too many black rasps. However if it is Tahi that might be worth growing. I cant imagine that there are many varieties with similar characteristics in a black rasp. Im a big fan of NZ breeding so im gambling that Born Free is Tahi.
I bring this up bc it fruits the same time as Jewel… so kinda on the same thought process.
A reviewer from NM says that this plant does well in 100F
“they seem pretty low maintenance and resilient. Also, heat tolerant, as the average temp is 100 F from May through mid-fall. I highly recommend this to anyone looking to grow raspberries, especially fans of the black variety. So happy this has come out!”
So this may be a hidden gem for folks living in Z5 all the way up to the hottest parts of the country… YMMV. It may be more cold hardy than that as well.
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no doubt
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I have the born free raspberry. I should get some fruit this year.
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Cool about born free. I may use it for breeding. I’m spoiled by the primocane fruiting types. Fresh blackcaps in the fall! The commercial nurseries were too quick to jump into selling primocane blackcaps. The primocane fruit is terrible on Niwot. It should have been crossed again to improve flavor. So I bred it a couple times with different blackcaps and both are extremely interesting.
I posted about it elsewhere. I still get a kick about quarter sized black raspberries. Niwot x Jewel produced an excellent tasting primocane fruit. Although the fruit is not quarter size. The other seedling produces them. Primocane fruit is not as good though. Better than Niwot though.
The primocane trait is dominant wonder if the thornless gene is recessive or dominant?
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Should flower in June and have a crop in late June/Early July… YMMV
Heres a blast from the past 10 years ago!! Kind of amazing that it looks as if it were 50 years ago. Technology has came so far.
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Here is the new video for Sweet Ark Immaculate.
In a nutshell its Ponca but late…like late July with Navaho and Von. However they are saying that its the firmest of their berries…and good for farmers markets and shipping when other folks may not have ripe fruits during that late summer window. So Ponca Traveller would be a good reference.
Like Sweet-Ark Ponca, Sweet-Ark Immaculate has shorter-than-standard canes and a reduced space between leaves, also known as the internode length.
Ponca grows differently than other blackberries. If yours doesnt look very much different than other blackberries you may not have a true to name Ponca. She discusses how small the plant is in this video.
“People have been asking for a very late variety for a long time” says Margaret Worthington…
That doesnt include myself and im not interested right now…but some of you may be.
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If anyone is interested, here’s my winter update for 33 varieties in Dallas, TX
(it says 32, but I forgot I also have bare roots of Cascade Reds in a container)
still have Prime Ark Horizon and Tayberry in the mail too
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never heard of those!
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