Mike,
I also am planting 15 plants this year and from what I understand Caroline is a very good choice, I'm planting 5 of them this year I am growing a yellow one called Anne, ripens late summer and is very large and tasty I'm also growing Mammoth Red, Large red very firm tasty fruit. I believe 12 to 15 plants should do the trick, and hay if not dig up a few shoots once they are fully settled in and expand. The Birds on the other hand , can't help you there, so far I am able to get most of the fruit , the birds get some to be sure; but its not bad enough yet for me to take action. yes I think you will be able to prepare your beds but start ASAP
Ken

Mike in Michigan -- yes, you should be able to get your raspberry bed prepped without too much trouble. If you have a weed problem, hit it with some roundup or similar first thing, as soon as weeds begin to grow, then till them in, amend the soil as appropriate, and you should be good to go. Or, if you don't want to use herbicides, do it the old fashioned way by digging weeds out by the roots, that sort of thing.

Worst case scenario, you could always pot up the new raspberry plants and tend to them that way for a while if need be, then plant out when bed is ready.

A couple of good sources: Indiana Berry and Nursery company. www.inberry.com

Nourse Farms in MA. www.noursefarms.com

I would be cautious about the source you mentioned above -- they don't have the most stellar reputation for quality or customer service. I have order seeds from them many years without any trouble, but I've given up on getting plants from them, as they are quite often not as labeled when they grow out ('Primrose' yellow lilac proved to be common purple lilac, 'Seckle' pear proved to be 'Winter Nellis'), or the order isn't filled properly and/or there are quality issues. But, they do have a $25 off of $50 offer going on, although they eat up a lot of the value of the coupon with inflated prices and shipping/handling -- you'd end up with something worthwhile, sooner or later, but it might take some wrangling with customer service to get it right if they goof up the initial shipment.

Check out the Garden Watchdog at davesgarden.com for good reviews of mail order nurseries.

As far as birds go, you generally will find that they are not nearly as big of a problem with raspberries as with some other fruits -- you might suffer minor losses, but as a rule, birds don't seem to go after raspberries nearly as much as they do strawberries or blueberries. I think it may have to do with the nature of the canes -- too flimsy to support the weight of most birds that would try to land on them.

Canby is one really good summer raspberry, although it's an older variety. I'm sure that there are newer varieties out there that are as good or better. I myself just ordered a whole bunch of new plants for spring shipment from each of the above sources, expanding my patch with some new kinds after many, many years of the same old same old.

Dennis
SE Michigan

Mike, Ken-
If I was just starting out, Caroline & Anne would be the 2 varieties that I would start with too (here in RI anyway).

Rick-
Here are 2 threads where we talked all about Joan J. Thread 1 and Thread 2
-Glenn

I recommend Prelude as a summer bearing raspberry.

djofnelson-
I really like my Prelude's too and will probably plant more this year. The only thing is, it doesn't really seem to be a summer raspberry for me. The literature makes it look like it's a combination of summer and fall. Mine did fruit (as you may see in the thread links above) in it's first year, so for me, it seems to act more like a fall berry. Once it started bearing, it just kept on bearing all the way to the frost. However you classify it, I like it. -Glenn

Hi All
Glad you liked Prelude Glenn, we just ordered 120 of them along with Encore, Royalty Purple, Jewel and Haut (black raspberries), and more Anne raspberries. We love Anne, it has a phenomenal taste to me, it just doesn't sucker very much but has the biggest berries i've seen yet. Mike, if I only had room for 15 plants I would get an everbearing cultivar, by year 3 you should have all kinds of berries.
Jake

Berry-nut: I thought Anne was only winter hardy to about 0 deg F, must be mistaken.

Here in MI raspberries are the easiest fruit to grow. All varieties are nice. Birds consume moderate amounts of raspberries but squirrels will eat them too. Still, in season we get two cups a day from about 20 plants in part sun.

Site preparation: raspberries like it acid and mulched. Cover the weeds with cardboard or newspapers, cover the cardboard with 5 or 6 inches of wood chips. When the plants arrive, punch a hole through the cardboard and chips and plant through. Weeds are gone, raspberries get their acid. I keep them this way, and they have produced since 1997 without any water or fertilizer, though by now they must have received one foot of chips.