I remember this topic coming up not too long ago. I have not done very well with these but some others in hot and humid areas have done better. For me they just don't have the vigor of the east coast types, they don't put on consistent growth. It could be some problem specific to my site. You will lose some canes at 0-5F based on my experience with Black Diamond. Columbia Star is new for me so I'll know its hardiness in a few months.

Scott

I have overwintered both of these in zone 6a. My winter was extra cold this last year, reaching -12F but both varieties survived if they were 'reasonably' covered. I have a couple of test plants, Wild Treasure and Loganberry, that I left uncovered and both survived but were generally killed back to the crown. You will likely lose most of your cane growth to cold temps once you get below 5F but you can actually grow them if you set the right expectations. During the growing season, my trailing varieties (Marion, Newberry, Columbia Star, Siskiyou, Wild Treasure, and Black Diamond) grow quite well at about .5 to 1ft per week....Black Diamond being the least vigorous of the bunch.

My Black Diamond floricanes didn't make it, but Columbia Star did. I did protect both but my dog disturbed Black Diamond. Columbia Star for me seems like a real winner. it is very flexible, some of the trailing types break easily, CS does not. It's thornless too, which is nice. It's supposed to taste better, and is more productive than Black Diamond. I will get a decent crop off of it this year.

In the second full year, the canes on these varieties grow thicker and less flexible. I lost at least 40ft of cane length off one Siskiyou this winter because the canes broke at the crown due to the weight of snow on top of it. Each winter I try to learning something new and going into next winter I think I'm going to have to create a semi-rigid structure over the plants to keep the weight of snow off of them. I'm also going to try the Wilt Stop you mentioned in another post.

Black Diamond is officially a dud for me, its just not growing. Columbia Star on the other hand is looking really good, it has been vigorous and is surviving uncovered for me. I'll get my first fruits on it this year.

My main loss of canes over the winter is from the cane borer. Life was a lot easier before it showed up.

Being so isolated here in the middle of suburbia, some pests are just not here. Nothing is that close. I have had some, but no borers of any kind, Stink bugs, SWD, etc Knocking on wood, no doubt any or all could show up at anytime.
Yes Columbia Star appears to be a winner, Mine was slow to take off, but once it did, it made up for lost time.
Still any that can produce sweet are tart are good for me. Some of the more acid stronger blackberries really bring out the flavor of jam. Much like black currants. There too the super strong ones are the best jam ever. Having some for fresh eating too is wanted. I have Triple Crown, Navaho, Newberry, Boysenberry, Marion, and Columbia Star for fresh eating. Natchez, Loch Ness, Wyeberry, Chester, and Tayberry for jam.
And others like Black Diamond if I can get it to produce.
I'm going to add Darrow for winter hardiness. So I will at least always have some crop.

And I forgot Kotata..probably the most cold hardy trailing blackberry I grow. It's kind if a pain growing these but so far I like the challenge and the berries are also very good overall.

Scott - Were you trying out some of the Eastern / Western hybrids that Chad Finn's program was testing? If so, any updates?

I've been reading up on the Columbia Star blackberry lately. What piques my interest about it is that it has the dominant gene for thornlessness from Lincoln Logan (Normal thornless Logan isn't genetically thornless) and is supposedly hardier than Marion for example. Here's the pedigree for those interested.

Unfortunately, it was no hardier than Marion. From my testing, Newberry and Thorny Boysen have been the most cold hardy for me. I left all of the plants uncovered last Winter but it was quite mild with 5F being the coldest temperature. That was still too cold for it but Newberry and Boysen seemed undamaged and produced fruit this year.

Hey JT! My Columbia Star was undamaged, and appeared hardy to me. I did remove it though. I feel New Berry is superior, good to know it is hardy for you! Mine is still in a container. I will plant out a tip rooted plant and see what happens? I decided just to keep a few of the top tasting plants. New Berry, tayberry, and Boysen (also wyeberry). I prefer so many other fruits, it made no sense to keep so many blackberries. Honeyberries and service berries will be going in the newly opened spots.

JT, that's a shame, probably won't be seeing it offered on this side of the pond then. It's still interesting as potential breeding material though.

It's good to know Boysen is among the hardier ones, although the plant I ordered turned out to be the thornless type. I should be able to find the original if this one's too tender to work with.

Edit: Interesting that it did better in Drews climate!

Newbery is a more recent release by the USDA but there are a number of older hybrids that may be around the EU. Boysen and other hybrid blackberries If you cover them, you can grow most of the trailing blackberries. It is the erect and semi-erect blackberries which are more difficult because they do not lay close to the ground easily. I grew Kotata and it is winter hardy but very thorny. Siskiyou is also cold hardy and has a very good flavor but it is a large plant.

Drew - I still have the wyeberry from you and it is going strong! I tried starting several others but this was a tough climate year and let the weeds get way out of control, which held back their growth. I'm going to have to do some significant reworking of my berry patch. It is not in an optimal location and it has been a struggle to keep raspberries alive. Deer have been a problem lately with the new plants and I had to treat for cane borers because they had become a major problem with all of my plants. I'm trying out a variety I acquired called Fantasia. It is a thorny, trailing variety and grows prolifically. I have one plant that has more than 60ft of canes on it. Hopefully most of those will overwinter and I can try some of the berries from it.

Yes as time goes on here too, it is getting harder to grow. Not the best crop this year. SWD is a problem and the drought like summers these past two years also didn't help. I added Josephine, it's a huge raspberry and it has good taste. This year my harvest was low,, but the the raspberries extra sweet this year.

Besides that just trying to keep them going. I'm still getting a few berries.

Himbo Top is an impressive cultivar, it has low acid berries, I'm not that fond of those, but must say they are growing on me. The plant is very productive. I would say my top performer, right there with Prelude. Ripens summer crop early too. Produces a decent summer and fall crop.

Nourse Farms has this description

Himbo Top™, a primocane red raspberry variety introduced in 2008, has
demonstrated high tolerance to Phytophthora root rot disease. This
variety produces extremely large, firm, bright red fruit that does not
darken. Berries have good flavor, are conic shaped, have small, well
constructed drupelets and are easy to pick. For best results in
commercial production, we recommend closely managing your cultural
practices, especially water and plant density. This variety is extremely
vigorous and will require less fertilizer. It ripens a few days later
than Autumn Bliss. We feel it has the potential to be the most
productive of any variety we offer today.

Apparently some of these trailing blackberries do ok in the UK and was positively surprised that they even deliver to my location. I was able to find three varieties in addition to the classic hybrids, waldo, black butte and karaka black. Waldo is an older thornless variety from Oregon (Austin thornless in part) while karaka is a newer variety from NZ and has massive berries. Black butte is 50% siskiyou and perhaps hardier than Marion but supposedly less tasty.

I keep hearing good things about Marion and have found a supplier. I only wish the breeders paid more attention to hardiness but they seem more interested in things like yield and disease resistance. Semi erects would be the more logical choice but it's the taste I find lacking. Most commercial blackberries here are Loch Ness which I also have, but after freezing there's not much sweetness to it.

I'm sold on the Marion already, was even able to find a source for Kotata berry. To me, next to wild nordic raspberries Boysenberries are the sweetest thing ever. I had to check if they're sugar coated the first time. I understad climate plays a massive role in how they turn out.

I think I'll settle for one or two new trailing blackberries next year and see how it plays out after that. As of now I only have Boysenberry and a wild Pacific blackberry which I find interesting.. something to compare to. Kotata apparently is part eastern blackberry which probably is a good thing for hardiness and Columbia star just sounds appealing.. Still plenty of time to decide.

I have two fully hardy blackbarries which I would classify as semi erect. The problem with those is not so much hardiness but their slow ripening. No chance of finishing the harvest without a greenhouse. That's enough reason to go for trailing varieties.

I had no idea about Chad Finn posting here, I'm always interested in some good breeding titbits, I better keep my eyes open!

Columbia Star and New Berry are both out of the same program, USDA, and OSU worked together. Linage is almost identical. But New Berry has thorns, and it's bigger, and tastes better. A Columbia Giant is now out, I have not tried it. I think I'm good for now. I did make some crosses and hope to grow them out, I needed room for that too.

I have heard Mr. Finn speak in Oregon at the Caneberry Field Day in years past. Two summers ago at Field Day, Columbia Star was among the best flavored blackberry out of dozens of varieties. It was "all you can eat" as we trouped down the rows. This is a trailing variety that may be easier to cover over winter.

I like Columbia Star because it is easy to cover. The canes are very flexible. It is a good berry, but many good cultivars are out there. Some are rather obscure like Wyeberry. It just depends what you need or want. It is a small berry, not super productive compared to Triple Crown. Berries take a long time to ripen too. I have grown over 15 cultivars, and have had Columbia Star since it was first offered 3 or 4 years ago. So I had many opportunities to compare to other berries. i would say it's above average in taste, although New Berry, marionberry, and tayberry are better. Local conditions could produce different results, it is worth trying. I would like to hear comparisons to Columbia Giant. Understandable why they developed Giant as Star is a small berry.

Tastes vary a lot, none of my favorites really taste like typical blackberries, which I think are OK, not great. I prefer raspberries, and New Berry and especially Tayberry have heavy raspberry tones in their flavors. Tayberry is the only hybrid I tasted that is more like a raspberry than a blackberry. Only Tayberries taste like Tayberries, a very unique flavor that my wife once mistook for a strawberry flavor in a smoothie with Tayberries. I never had Logan? Marion is in a class by itself as already stated. It's closer to traditional blackberries, yet still has it's own unique flavor. I can't taste any raspberry in Columbia Star or very little, so was not really impressed with it's flavor let alone it's small size, and medium productivity. Some berries are long, and of decent size, but some are not, at least on my plant. Size is only one criteria, Tayberries are even smaller, but I'm keeping that one. Brady has a Tayberry with bigger berries, I need to get one from him and compare to mine.

Columbia Star in this region has fruit larger than Marion--about the same diameter but easily longer. Its test yields here compare favorably with Marion. The (Star) fruit in the test field was very heavily set, many berries touching each other.

My thornless Logans are more similar in color and flavor to red raspberries than to any blackberry, although you would never confuse the Logan and a raspberry for flavor. Main advantage in my berry patch is that Logan is steady year after year; raspberries never made it past year 3 due to root rot.

I think it is too cold here for Star to reach its potential. Not so for new berry. If you have problems with root rot and still want to try raspberries try Himbo Top. It is resistant to root rot.

I have one Loganberry plant which has survived for several years despite my neglect for it. I'm not sure my Logan fruit ever reached the flavor it is supposed to have, because they always tasted like a bland red raspberry.

I'm going to replant Cascade Delight red raspberry, which has been the most successful raspberry for me to date. It handles the winters here, has large fruit and is quite productive. It also does well in wetter soils where other raspberries die. The only other productive raspberry for me was Purple Royalty...and it makes incredible jam.

Has anyone tried Waldo? Also thornless but is any good?

Logan flavor: That is about right, a bland red raspberry, but bland by comparison, as it is a reasonably flavored fruit.

Barry - I have not tried Waldo but I have tried many of the others. I also have an olallieberry and a tayberry, neither of which I have been able to fruit yet. That's in part to not having enough time to care for them. I over planted and didn't figure in the amount of time it would require, so all of the plants have been somewhat neglected. In addition to blackberries and raspberries, I have gooseberries, blueberries, and black currents. I'm planning to cull the weaker, less productive plants to allow myself more time to better care for the rest.