I have a very erect thornless blackberry (NOID and I have no clue as to variety so far) that is mature, but the canes are in excess of 6' tall. I will have several to move, so I can trade some. They will fruit better in the next year or two after you plant them, since the shock of transplant will probably set them back some. I would take some black raspberries and some Allstar strawberries. I also have a number of fig cuttings. Email me and we can discuss the particulars. I sent you email as well. Mark

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

Hi everyone! Gardening newbie here. Well, I joined Gardenweb last year when I started attempting to grow things but hadn't started chatting 'til now. I think I have bored my friends, family,co-workers and anyone i could get to listen to me to tears with my constant garden chatter. I thought I should start chatting here before I start seeing people run when they see me :) I bought a raspberry shortcake bush last month from Armstrong. Yes...they are very pricey but they guarantee their stuff so I buy many of my plants from them. I also happened to have a gift card so it didn't hurt as much. :). Anyways, for my garden it's a good fruit bush. My backyard is fairly small, very strangely configured and its 90% cemented. I have almost everything in pots. I had 2 very delicious looking large fruits yesterday and I had 2 more that looked almost ready. Probably today or tomorrow. It's a very compact bush and I almost missed the ripe fruits because the greenery was hiding them. Now, I say delicious looking because when I ate them I had made the mistake of eating them just after I brushed my teeth. Not good. You know how it is if you have OJ just after you brush your teeth? So....when I pick the other two berries, I will let you know how those were. I happened to go to Chino Farms one day in March when they were selling some of their raspberry canes. I am clueless as far as species but the fruit is a pale pink and on the small side. They aren't the color of supermarket berries. They are very delicious. I'm in Encinitas. I'm not sure zone 10 is correct. I'm fairly close to the beach and have that marine layer that cools everything down. Whew....ok....see? Word babble! :))). Jude

This happened to me too. I had a thick patch of red raspberries, and no blacks. Two years ago I transplanted a lot of them 5-10 feet away to spread them out. When the berries showed up, about half of the plants had black raspberries. This year they are all growing black raspberries, except one plant with reds. I don't buy any cross-pollination theories, for the reasons given above. Maybe the red plants were all displaced by incoming black plants - doesn't seem very likely. My Mom suggests this possibility, without any real justification: the red plants are actually black raspberry plants at the roots, which have had red branches grafted onto them for some botanical reason. If they die back too far, the red grafting is gone and when they grow up again they show their true biologic colors. If that's not it, then I have some good conspiracy theories which would make an excellent sci-fi movie.