Raspberry Varieties: 20 Types Compared for Home Gardens

Types of Raspberries: Summer-Bearing and Primocane

Raspberry varieties sort into two fruiting types and four colors. Summer-bearing (floricane) varieties such as Boyne, Killarney and Encore crop once, in June and July, on canes that grew the year before. Primocane varieties, also sold as everbearing or fall-bearing, fruit on the tips of first-year canes from early August until the first frost. Heritage, Caroline, Joan J and Polana are the common ones. For most home gardens a primocane red such as Heritage or Caroline is the simplest choice, because the whole patch can be cut to the ground each winter.

The words come from the canes themselves. A primocane is a cane in its first year, and a floricane is the same cane in its second year, when it flowers, fruits and dies. Summer-bearing plants carry both ages at once, which is why pruning them means telling old wood from new. Primocane varieties can be handled two ways. Leave the canes standing and they fruit again lower down in June and July of the second year, for up to two crops per season. Mow them and you get the fall crop only.

Timing shifts with color as well. In central Pennsylvania, purple raspberries are picked from late July to mid-August. If you grow strawberries too, the split works much like June-bearing and everbearing strawberries: one type gives a short, heavy flush and the other spreads fruit over months.

Raspberry Varieties Chart

Zones in this chart are the USDA hardiness ranges printed in Oregon State University’s cultivar table. Ripening and flavor notes come from Penn State, NC State and University of Maine variety descriptions. “Not listed” means the variety is described by those sources but has no zone range in the Oregon State table.

Variety	Type	Color	USDA zones	What sets it apart
Boyne	Summer-bearing	Red	3 to 7	Early, very winter hardy, naturally short plants
Prelude	Summer-bearing	Red	4 to 8	Very early, with a light fall crop on new canes
Killarney	Summer-bearing	Red	4 to 7	Midseason, light-colored sweet fruit, needs a trellis
Nova	Summer-bearing	Red	Not listed	Midseason, nearly thornless, very good flavor
Encore	Summer-bearing	Red	4 to 7	Late, large berries, nearly spineless canes
Meeker	Summer-bearing	Red	5 to 8	Rated two zones less cold hardy than Boyne
Cascade Gold	Summer-bearing	Yellow	5 to 8	A yellow that crops with the summer reds
Polana	Primocane	Red	3 to 8	Ripens 2 to 3 weeks before Heritage, mild flavor
Joan J	Primocane	Red	4 to 8	Early, spineless canes, glossy dark red fruit
Caroline	Primocane	Red	4 to 8	Early, long harvest, excellent flavor
Polka	Primocane	Red	Not listed	Early, large firm fruit with good flavor
Heritage	Primocane	Red	4 to 8	The standard fall-bearer, firm fruit, very vigorous
Crimson Knight	Primocane	Red	Not listed	Shorter, compact plants and very dark fruit
Nantahala	Primocane	Red	Not listed	Ripens 2 to 3 weeks after Heritage, intense flavor
Anne	Primocane	Yellow	4 to 7	Late, large firm fruit with a hint of banana
Fall Gold	Primocane	Yellow	4 to 8	Soft, very flavorful, very winter hardy
Jewel	Summer-bearing	Black	5 to 8	The most widely grown black raspberry
Niwot	Primocane	Black	Not listed	The primocane-fruiting black raspberry that Penn State’s list names
Royalty	Summer-bearing	Purple	4 to 8	Very large fruit, sweeter than Brandywine
Brandywine	Summer-bearing	Purple	4 to 8	Tart, firm fruit on very vigorous thorny canes

Red raspberries are the hardiest group. Maine’s extension service warns that temperatures below 5°F can injure or kill the canes of most purple and black raspberries, so in the coldest gardens the red rows of the chart are the safer place to shop.

Primocane Raspberry Varieties in Ripening Order

Heritage is the yardstick that extension variety lists measure every other primocane raspberry against. In Pennsylvania its season begins in late August and runs until a severe frost or freeze, and the fruit shrugs off light frosts. Caroline, Joan J, Polana and Polka all ripen 2 to 3 weeks ahead of it. Nantahala and the yellow Anne ripen 2 to 3 weeks after it.

That spread of roughly a month decides which variety will finish its crop where you live. Late varieties need a long, warm fall. Penn State describes Nantahala as very late and best for warmer locations. Earliness is relative, though. Maine’s extension service notes that Polka and Joan J ripen about a week later than Polana and may be too late for more northern sites, which leaves Polana (zones 3 to 8) as the pick where the first frost comes early.

Among the early reds, the differences are in the fruit and the canes. Caroline has medium berries with excellent flavor on dense stands of canes. Joan J has spineless canes and glossy dark fruit, with flavor rated fair by Penn State and good by NC State. Polana is a pretty, mild berry that is susceptible to phytophthora root rot and needs a well-drained site. Polka is attractive to Japanese beetles and potato leafhoppers, so it helps to know how to get rid of Japanese beetles before planting it.

Best Raspberry Varieties by Situation

The right variety depends on which limit your garden runs into first. The picks below match the searches that bring most readers here: low maintenance, heat, flavor and compact size.

Low-maintenance raspberries. Grow a primocane red for the fall crop alone. Oregon State’s instruction is to cut all the canes to just above ground level in late winter, around March. Heritage suits this well because the plants are very vigorous, sucker freely and make durable, long-lived plantings. Caroline is the earlier alternative.

Heat-tolerant raspberry varieties. Raspberries prefer cool summers, and the choice narrows quickly in the South. NC State rates only Dormanred for all three of its regions: coastal plain, piedmont and mountains. Latham is rated for the piedmont and mountains, while Joan J, Caroline and Nantahala are rated for the mountains alone. Dormanred’s flavor is rated fair and the fruit is recommended for jam. In dry climates, Oregon State adds that intense heat with low humidity can cause ultraviolet damage to red and yellow fruit.

Best tasting raspberry varieties. Flavor ratings in extension lists cluster around a few names. Caroline and Nantahala carry “excellent” ratings among the reds. Anne and Fall Gold lead the yellows, and NC State rates the black raspberry Jewel excellent as well. Among purples, Royalty is the sweeter one and Brandywine is tart.

Compact raspberries. Crimson Knight is a primocane red with shorter, compact plants that Penn State says have ornamental potential. Boyne is a naturally short summer-bearer. For pots, Oregon State calls for a container or raised bed at least 2 feet deep and says a 20 to 30 gallon container works well.

Fewer thorns. Joan J is spineless, and Nova and Encore are nearly so. If thornless canes matter more to you than the berry itself, compare the thornless blackberry varieties too.

Red, Yellow, Black and Purple Raspberries

Color changes more than the look of the bowl. Red and yellow raspberries spread by root suckers and are grown as a hedgerow, a continuous strip of canes kept 12 to 18 inches wide at the base. Yellow varieties are grown exactly like reds, and both Anne and Fall Gold are primocane types. Anne sends up relatively sparse canes, so Penn State suggests setting plants closer than usual, 16 to 18 inches apart.

Black and purple raspberries are usually grown as separate plants, often called hills, and want more room. They are almost all summer-bearing. Black raspberry canes are tipped in late spring or early summer, removing the top 3 to 6 inches at a height of about 3 feet, so that they branch. Purple Royalty is an exception to the hill habit because it suckers freely from the roots and can be grown in a hedgerow like a red.

Spacing, Soil and Pruning by Type

Plant red and yellow raspberries 2 feet apart for primocane varieties and 2.5 feet apart for summer-bearing ones, in rows 8 to 10 feet apart. Give black and purple raspberries 3 to 4 feet between plants. All of them do best in full sun and well-drained soil with a pH of 5.6 to 6.5. If you have not tested yours, how to read a soil test report explains the numbers. NC State puts the water need at about 1 inch a week from bloom to the end of harvest.

Pruning follows the fruiting type:

1. Summer-bearing reds and yellows. In late winter or early spring, before the buds break, remove every cane that fruited the previous year. Thin what remains to four or five canes per foot of row.
2. Primocane varieties, fall crop only. Cut all canes to just above ground level in late winter.
3. Primocane varieties, two crops. Keep the canes that fruited in fall and cut off only the dead tips, a couple of nodes below the dead portion. Those canes fruit again in June and July.
4. Black and purple raspberries. Tip the new canes at about 3 feet in late spring or early summer so they branch, and take out canes once they have fruited.

A sharp pair of bypass pruners handles all of this, and how to choose pruning shears covers what to look for. The effort pays back for years. Oregon State puts mature summer-bearing red or yellow raspberries at 18 to 27 pounds of fruit per 10 feet of row, with primocane and black varieties slightly lower, and says a planting stays productive for 5 to 15 years depending on berry type, soil and pest pressure.