I’m looking for a berry with a flavor that’s similar to boysenberry and/or marionberry, but without thorns. I’ve read that the thornless boysenberry cultivars have low vigor, low productivity, and have a tendency to produce thorny canes after a couple seasons. So I’m looking at other options.
Since I am in southeast MA zone 6b, I need something that will be cold hardy, disease resistant (since I am growing other raspberries and blackberries nearby), and heat tolerant (we got up to 100 °F one day last summer). My idea so far is to grow trailing thornless varieties like Columbia Star or Columbia Sunrise.
I am open to possibly growing a thorny type if they’re really worth it, but I’m not sure how well I’ll stick to training if I get stabbed every time I work with the plants. If I were to choose a thorny variety, I might pick Marionberry (which might not be cold hardy enough here but is more productive than boysenberry) or Newberry, which apparently is very vigorous and requires lots of training but is supposedly of good flavor.
Any other ideas?