Autumn Britten Raspberry is an everbearing variety from the UK that gets excellent reviews. Everbearing variety can be pruned to produce a large fall crop on first year primocanes that are mowed down after fruiting in the fall. They can be pruned to produce smaller crops in both spring and fall by heading back primocanes by two thirds after fall fruiting so that they will produce a second crop on floricanes the next spring and a fall crop on the new canes.

Pruning everbearing raspberries, like Autumn Britten, sounds a bit complicated when you first read about it, but you don't have to worry about pruning them until after they have fruited the first time, so you have plenty of time to read about it while you wait for your first crop.

Cornell had an excellent PDF file at the link below that you can download to read about raspberries.

http://www.fruit.cornell.edu/Berries/bramblepdf/raspplanttype.pdf

I ordered mine from the Raintree Nursery below. The plants were small and growing in 3 inch peat pots when I got them, but they have grown like mad all summer. Their prices were very reasonable.

http://www.raintreenursery.com/catalog/productdetails.cfm?ProductID=E335

Good Luck,
Greg

Hi Sunni-
I'm not aware of the variety 'English Thornless'. Are you positive that it's sold here in the States? Not all English varieties are.

I do grow Autumn Britten. It's not one of my favorites, but it's decent. I find it takes on a funky taste when it gets just a hint past ripeness, where as other varieties don't.

Heritage is the standard, by which all other varieties are compared. But, I feel we've come a long way since Heritage. In fact, I'm in the process of removing my Heritage bed and putting in another variety which will perform better.

I'm growing about 19 varieties of brambles at the moment and my favorites are Prelude, Caroline and Anne. See my "My Page" link for more details.

Good luck,
-Glenn

Oh, and you're not too far away from one of the (if not the) premier raspberry growing company in the U.S. Nourse Farms in Massachusetts. Just Google "Nourse Farms" -Glenn

Hi Guys! Thanks for the info., I haven't checked all the links yet, I will when I don't have a puppy under my chair and I can concentrate. But a quick answer to both of you, the variety is definitely "English Thornless" and not Autumn Britten. :) For one thing it is summer-bearing, supposedly one of the earliest to ripen, which is why I wanted it. I'm planning on getting my plants from Edible Landscaping over in Virginia. I feel that especially with trees and shrubs for planting this time of year, getting them from a source of similar climate is very important. That plus their standard shipping to my house takes less than 24 hours because of being so close!

I can probably ask them about it, I just feel like a pest. Besides, I have a feeling I may be haunting this forum as much as the Vegetable forum, so this is a good introduction! I'll be sure to check out your links later!

Cheers!

Sunni

Ahhh, ok. I've ordered from EL before, and they're a good nursery, no doubt about it. But, you will pay through much much more through them. For example, at Nourse you could get 5 awesome bare root plants for just $15. I see they do have "English Thornless"... I just haven't heard anyone talk about it. -Glenn

I've never tried English Thornless, but, Micheal, the owner of Edible mentioned to me that it was very sweet and one of his favorites and that he'd been growing it for over 30 years (might have the Heritage longevity/disease resistance that Harvestman praises). I've been meaning to give it a try. I'm sure he'd be more than happy to talk with you about it.

I second Glenn's top 3 above. Although not as flavorful as those 3 to my taste, Kiwi Gold also has good flavor, is vigorous, and has proven to be very reliable (over 6 seasons) by being both disease and heat resistant. Also, my experience with Autumn Britten after about 3 seasons has been that it isn't nearly as tasty or vigorous as Caroline and Prelude. The berries are large and pretty, but don't taste like much (at least as grown in loamy red clay with VA heat). I've read some decent reviews of it, so maybe in cooler climates and/or lighter soil it tastes better.

As far as placing orders, you could buy some large potted plants (a few Carolines and maybe an English Thornless and an Kiwi Gold both of which are hard to find) from Edible now so that the fallbearers that would bear you a few handfuls this fall and would probably give you a head start next year, then buy a bunch of bareroots (Preludes, Annes, and more Carolines) from Nourse in the spring to supplement your potted plants.

Like djofnelson, I too like Kiwi Gold. It is extremely vigorous and has a good flavor that I like mostly for it's uniqueness. Even (yellow) Anne tastes similar, although better/sweeter than red varieties, but KG has a mild(?) flavor that is different. I'm surprised that there aren't as many places carrying it. I got it by chance, from a local nursery, who got it accidentally instead of the (poor variety IMHO) Fall Gold. I'd probably put it 4th on my list of favorites.
-Glenn

I'm sorry about my prior post re: Autumn Britten. I was reading in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep due to backache. Instead of reading it as "variety 'English Thornless'", I read it as "English Thornless variety", which ain't the same thing.

The ediblelandscaping.com people are the only ones I see that have them. The $5 each for 4 inch pots isn't bad. I bought some thornless blackberries and an Autumn Britten from Raintree this spring. My plants were just little 2 inch sprouts in 4 inch pots, but they had good roots. They've grown like mad all summer. I have to cut a foot off them every week to keep them down to 5 feet tall. They keep getting more and more bushy as I head them back, so I'm looking forward to next year's crop.

The people on Dave's Garden rating website of online nurseries, gave EdibleLandscaping 10 positives to 1 negative in the past 12 months. No matter how good a merchant is, I figure everyone is going to have one customer that won't be happy unless he gets service to complain about. My Autumn Britten Raspberry has not done as well in the heat as Apache and Arapaho Blackberries. The Autumn Britten has had a few canes wilt and die back, even though I've kept it water correctly.

Greg

Here is a link that might be useful: English Thorness Raspberry from ediblelandscaping.com

Hi Sunni,

Some people above suggested prelude which may be a great choice for you since you want an early ripening raspberry. I was browsing online at nourse farms for some plants that I may want for next year and saw this about Prelude:

"Recently released by the N.Y. State Experiment Station, Geneva, N.Y., Prelude is identified as the earliest ripening summer red raspberry, ripening in mid-June under N.Y. conditions. Although Prelude is also fall-bearing, it produces the biggest portion of its crop in the spring. Very winter hardy and vigorous, Prelude berries are round-conic, coherent, with very good flavor. An excellent choice when early fruit and quality are required."

Just something to think about,

Brian

Yep. I can't say enough good things about Prelude. It's awesome in that it's sort of a hybrid between a summer bearer and a fall bearer. You get very early berries with it like you would a summer, but then again you get two crops like a fall bearer. Great size. great flavor two, great production, good vigor. It's only minus is that it's thorns are tougher than my average raspberries. -Glenn

Thanks, guys! I have it marked on my calander to place my raspberry order tomorrow. Since I've never ordered raspberry plants before, you all have given me good things to think about! I do like EL. I've actually been to their nursery. Even in the very early spring, it was pretty and neat and had loads going on (in an horicultural sense). Back then I was getting a fig tree, never even glanced at the raspberries. I'm sure they will be in good shape. And yes, thanks, I did want a spring and a fall bearing variety each.

How many plants do you think would be a good starting number? I was thinking about 10 of each, but honestly that was a shot in the dark. There's just the two of us, but I love raspberries!

Cheers!

Sunni

Well, I went ahead and ordered 5 4-inch pots of the English Thornless, so we'll see what it looks like in a couple of days! I did get a little note back from EL that let me know that this variety does spread by suckering, so I feel better that I won't need to trellis it. Of course, now I wish I had ordered a few more, but there's always spring!

Cheers!

Sunni

Not to worry Sunni. Those 5 plants will become 15 canes the first year, and then you'll have 40 the next year! Let us know how they turn out!
-Glenn

any news on how they turned out i know this post has been dead a while but i too am very interested in the english thornless variety

I'll presume to answer for Sunni. Salmonslayer, other than reporting on the condition of the potted berries she ordered, Sunni won't have anything to report on their growth until later this summer and, if she's lucky, she might get/leave a few berries to taste from whatever fruiting buds that grew from the potted up floricane(s). You might have to wait until summer 2012 for a fruit report.