White Raspberries, An Everlasting Variety

Early this afternoon we dug up several white raspberries from a neighbor’s patch. The plants were going to be mowed down and we were lucky enough to know about this ahead of time. Since we’d been having lots of rain for the past week or so, the digging went fairly easy. Plants that we pulled out of the ground were placed in plastic grocery bags for easy handling and containment of loose dirt.

We planted the raspberries in three different places. The first area was a spot on the southwest side of the farmer’s lane in a partially open spot in the woods where the plants will get sun at mid-day and filtered sun for the rest of the day. This spot has several wild blackberries and elderberries so it seemed a likely place to dig in some raspberry canes. The second place was at the edge of the woods in the back yard and these plants will get late morning to early afternoon sun. The third spot was at the edge of the woods on the east side of the backyard and these plants will get sunlight from about noon to late afternoon. By planting in several locations we’re ensuring that at least some of the plants will grow to provide fruit.

Each raspberry plant had stiff canes from last year and some even had their flower buds developing on new growth. It will be interesting to note whether the flowers will continue to develop. Since they were dug up and re-planted within a few hours, perhaps they were not stressed too badly. It’s supposed to rain again tonight so the raspberries will be watered well.

The everlasting varieties of raspberry will bloom and set fruit more than once a year. In the fall all the canes will be cut down and fruit will arise the next year on the new year’s growth.

Now that we have about two dozen new raspberry plants, it will be interesting to see how they develop…and, eventually, how they taste!

19 thoughts on “White Raspberries, An Everlasting Variety”

  1. Can you publish or email me a picture of some white raspberries? Would you be interested in selling a few canes to me for my raspberry patch?
    Thank you.

  2. Have any white raspberry shoots appeared yet? I have sectioned off an area near my purples to have a few neighbors, please let me know.
    Thank you.

  3. Hey Patrick,
    The raspberries on the north side of the house seem kind of slow to appear in the spring. The wild blackberries that are on the south side are sending out their shoots already. I’ll let you know when they’re up!

  4. Oh my goodness! Everyone that I have told about the white raspberry, thinks that I have lost my mind.

    I am the youngest of seven children and when my parents and I would visit my sisters family (Missoula Montana) I would be given the task of squeezing in between the shed and the raspberry bushes to get to the far back where there were a few plants of the WHITE BERRIES. They had such a different and even sweeter taste than the others. It was a task I dearly loved, even though I would come out with many scratches from the brambles. My parents and two siblings are no longer with us and the property was sold and ‘modernized’. The plants are long gone.

    Do you have any idea where I could find a bush or two? I would thoroughly enjoy cultivating and caring for a plant that I have not seen or heard of since my childhood.
    Please let me know. At any rate, I will bookmark this site for proof that this berry was not simply a childhood fantasy.

    Thank you for your post!

  5. That’s awesome, Toni! Don’t they have the sweetest taste?

    Our white raspberries took a big hit this summer with the excessive heat. I hope the root systems are hanging on until next year. The place we got them has been mowed over so I wouldn’t know where to get more. 🙁

    Good luck. If you find some, let us all know!

  6. Dear Wilde:
    Any chance you would be willing to sell or trade a few a few canes? I am an avid raspberry grower on my Farm in Maryland and have been searching for some white canes ever since I read about them several years ago. I have even gone as far as reaching out to a fellow raspberry enthusiast in Brazil and we are exchanging a few varieties (brazilian whites, which are green for some Anne Yellows that I have had good success with). What I am really scouring the country for are some indigenious white rasberry canes such as those native to Florida and other places. I am having little success though and am beginning to feel like a cryptozoologist on the hunt for a rumored yet nonexistent animal. Would love a resonse and a picture even if you are unwilling to explore a trade or sale. Thanks,
    P. Christian Dorsey, Esquire

  7. Hi Christian,

    I wish my raspberries were a little stronger. They seem to have “petered out”! I’ll fertilize them good this year in hope of a turnaround but I can’t make any promises. They’re definitely worth the hunt though – such sweet taste and the perfume-like scent is out of this world good!

    Good luck on your search. Let us know if you find a good source.

  8. I live in the most beautiful part of North Carolina (the moutains) 🙂 and love growing fruits and veggies. I have wild raspberries growing on my property already. I recently heard of white raspberries and was flabbergasted. I had no idea that was a thing. If anyone know how to actually get the plant I would love to know!
    Thank you. 🙂

  9. The white raspberries are delicious and totally worth looking for, Kaila. I wish we still had some to share!
    Good luck in the hunt for them.

  10. I have a three year old white raspberry bush in my back yard. I love it. But it’s taking over my grass. I pick huge white raspberries in the morning and at might. I have had to start freezing them. I didn’t know I was buying them I had thought the sun had faded the colour off the box.

  11. That’s great, Theress! Aren’t they delicious?

    My white raspberries have petered out. They were probably planted too close to the edge of the woods and got too shaded. Now that you mention it, I should dig up the sprigs that are left and transplant them to a sunnier location. I’m glad to say I ate more red raspberries this year than last, so they’re doing well in their location.

    I guess having raspberries take over the grass is a good thing. Less mowing, more goodies!

  12. I was getting ready to clear brush from the back of a house we just bought in Southeast Alaska. I seen my girlfriend eating these odd looking berries she thought was late salmon berries. I tasted one and right away knew we had white raspberries. I’ve never seen them before. The house has been empty for years so the patch is a wild mess but we have a LOT of plants producing in late September

  13. I planted some white raspberries a couple of years ago beside my regular raspberries. The white ones are almost too prolific! They are taking over. It’s the end of September and we can’t eat them as fast as they are ripening! The good….OMG do they produce lots of sweet delicious berries…the bad they are beginning to crowd out the others.

  14. Hey Julius! Way to make us all jealous!

    A lot of people have commented that they can’t find white raspberries or at least would like to have some to plant, so consider yourself lucky. If they crowd out your other berries too much you’ll at least have a great crop to eat and share. Yum!

  15. Hi Betty,

    Sorry I can’t help you with the white raspberries, but perhaps a fellow reader could.
    Can anyone point to a cane source for our Northern friends?

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