jane wrote:

On Wed, 13 Oct 2004 19:00:00 +0200, Ellie C
wrote:

~Hi All,
~
~I recently moved to the south of France from the northeast part of the
~US, so I'm completely unused to the new climate, and am not sure what to
~expect. I have planted some raspberry bushes and I'm wondering if I
~should expect them to shed their leaves in the autumn, or if they stay
~green all year. Where I'm from, in Massachusetts, the leaves would have
~fallen by now, so I'm just a bit surprised to see these small plants
~looking very green and happy.

hhmm according to the RHS, raspberries are a cool climate crop growing
best where there is plenty of moisture. They grow much better in
Scotland than the south of England (which is why our better varieties
come from Scotland!), so the south of France may be a little too
far... I think they need the cold winters and dormant period.

Let us know how your experiment proceeds, since global warming is
going to make it progressively harder to grow certain things
including soft fruit!

~Do they need any special treatment to make them stop growing before
~winter (such as it is) sets in? Stop watering them perhaps?
This I have no idea - I know that a couple of years ago my canes from
Marshall's arrived at the end of January as the winter was warm and
they said the canes just wouldn't go dormant. And that was here...
Perhaps they just won't.

Good luck!

They grew very well in my dry, sandy field in Massachusetts, so there
must be varieties that don't require a moist climate. The ones at the
local garden center I guess are varieties suited to this area - I hope.
It's just that I was wondering if they should be "hardened off" by
having water restricted with winter (such as it is) coming on.