Hello plantman71 I have sent you email. ChristinFl I have black berries plant, sorry. Also, you don't have email info on your page THanks Wendy

I pick as the need and leaf are there. I'm sure there are others who will say specific times are required. You'll want good quality, healthy leaves. Skip the old, "tired" looking leaves. Dry them. Use for tea by themselves or in combination with other herbs, as needed. FataMorgana

I got a "free" Jewel black raspberry from Raintree because I ordered before January 1st and spend enough money. It came in a tiny pot (I presume from tissue culture?). Very wimpy but had a note that it would grow like a weed. It sure did! This year being year 2, I finished picking the crop a week ago. Next year should even be better as the primocanes are much bigger stemmed and Lots of them. I did not realize how huge one raspberry plant could get. I am impressed. Even though I cut off all the tips of the primocanes late last summer when they got to ground level, a few got missed and rooted in giving me 4 free plants this year. A friend was very happy to receive them. My only bad news is birds! The fruit started to turn black but not sweet enough to pick. Suddenly 1/2 of the crop was gone. I assumed my children had picked them but they had not. I then netted the plant with black netting which was successful but some fruits had bird pecks in them. I had anticipated the neighborhood children might be the biggest problem to getting fruit not the birds. Next year I will be more diligent to net them as soon as they start turning ripe.

Native little wild blackberry often has the same 'white dust' on the new growth as the black raspberries. Just because 'all the sites' say a species has a particular characteristic doesn't mean that characteristic is going to definitively separate that species from all others. Species descriptions are maddeningly incomplete. And plants are variable.