Description
Absolutely dazzling flowers in mesmerizing shades of fuchsia; described as “a vivid and bold color that blends purple’s richness with pink’s bold energy.” It’s really hard to believe that this is a raspberry; we typically think of raspberries as thorny and rather ornery, with bright white flowers that are just “alright”, certainly not kept around for their ornamental value. If it wasn’t for that tasty fruit we would continue to hack away at them with reckless abandon. Well, not only does purple flowering raspberry have those eye popping flowers, but it doesn’t have any thorns. In a wild evolutional divergence from most other species in the Rubus genus, its thorns have been replaced by sticky resinous glands. It still has those 2-3 foot arching canes that typify raspberries, and it forms colonies, just like other upright growing rasps. Older canes develop an “appealing”(!) exfoliating cinnamon brown bark. The leaves are big and velvety, being of a deep rich green, that we often find in shade tolerant species. I have always assumed these particularly vibrant greens are due to more chloroplasts in the leaves, perhaps in greater density than plants of sunnier habitats because they have to be much more efficient at capturing all the photons they can in their shady haunts. The fruit is of a similar color to the flowers, it is hollow and peels off the stem like fruit jerky and tastes, like the flowers look; divine.
I have been pushing and advocating for this plant for years, now, finally people are asking for it and offering it a place in their gardens. Three cheers for purple flowering raspberry! (Maybe just one, that’s a really long name 🙂
