Grow Your Own Fresh Fruit!
Raspberries are a favorite of many home gardeners. The most popular purple raspberry variety today, ‘Royalty’ is a summer-bearing variety and one of the heaviest producers. Its light sweet flavor produces outstanding jellies and jams. It is late-ripening and excellent for table use or freezing. This cross between a purple raspberry and a red raspberry was produced by the Cornell Research Foundation. It combines the desirable features of both, coupling the large fruit size and plant vigor of a purple hybrid with the high fruit quality of a red raspberry. ‘Royalty’ is hardy, suckers sparingly, and has excellent yield potential.
Plant as soon as soil may be worked in the spring. Your plants require 1″ of water per week during the growing season and regular, shallow cultivation. The bush will bear only on one-year-old stems. As soon as canes have produced fruit, prune them back to the ground to make room for the strong new canes. Additional pruning will be required to eliminate tangling and improve their ability to bear.
