Yellow fruited raspberries in Australia

This past summer I had a few people comment on my yellow fruited raspberries.  Most people were taken by their stunning colour.  The people who tasted them were amazed by their delicately floral and surprisingly sweet taste.  They are an impressive plant and something that always generates interest in the garden.

Yellow fruited raspberries, productive and tasty

These yellow raspberries are a slightly different version of the regular red raspberries.  There are very few places in Australia to get yellow fruited raspberries and I count myself lucky to have had a chance to grow them.  The plants look like ordinary red raspberries, they grow the same, they spread the same, they flower the same, but the fruit is yellow instead of red, and it tastes different.

I would almost say yellow raspberries feel different in the mouth, but I grow a few varieties of red raspberries and each of them feels slightly different in the mouth, so this trait probably isn't unique to yellow raspberries.

The yellow fruited raspberries I grow are quite productive.  Sometimes they grow a few flowers, but mostly they have clusters.  The berries don't all ripen at once, so the harvest gets spread out somewhat.

Yellow fruited raspberries - this cluster eventually had nine raspberries

Spreading out the harvest instead of ripening all at once means that if birds happen to steal some, of if there is a swarm of bugs, or if the weather turns dreadfully hot and the plants get fried, I should still get to enjoy some of these yellow raspberries.

Yellow fruited raspberries - berries don't ripen all at once

There is a story that birds ignore yellow raspberries (and yellow or white strawberries) and will only eat the red ones.  Many passerine birds do see red especially well, so this story almost seems logical.  Many people swear by it, and I even see places advertise white or yellow strawberries to 'beat the birds'.

Birds, however, are not that simplistic.  If they were they would have all died out long ago.  Birds eat yellow raspberries in my garden just as much as the red ones, perhaps a little more so.  I don't lose a lot of berries to birds, so I normally just let them share.  Strangely enough, I lose far more white or yellow strawberries to birds than I do red ones when they are grown side by side, but that is a story for another time.

If you have trouble with birds, net your raspberries to protect them, don't rely on their colour to stop birds from taking them.

Yellow raspberries taste similar to a red raspberry, but yellow raspberries tend to be sweeter and more floral.  I quite like them and my kids seem to prefer them to the red raspberries.  While I enjoy the taste of yellow raspberries, I grow both red and yellow fruiting raspberry plants.  If I had to chose a favourite I think I prefer most of the red ones.

Yellow fruiting raspberries

Over winter when my plants are dormant I sell yellow fruited raspberry plants (as well as a few varieties of thornless red raspberries).  I don't have huge numbers, but I should have a few extras most winters.  I can post them, but not to WA or Tasmania or outside of Australia.  If you are interested they are listed on my for sale page.