Purple-Flowering Raspberry

Rubus odoratus

Purple-flowering raspberry is the most distinctive Rubus in the native landscape. nothing else in the raspberry family has flowers this large and this vividly colored. The rose-purple blooms are two to three inches across, fragrant, and produced continuously from June through August in a way that most shrubs can't manage. Bumblebees work the flowers hard all summer. The flat red berries that follow in fall are edible but bland compared to commercial raspberries; the birds take them enthusiastically nonetheless. What makes this shrub special for a garden setting is what it does in shade. It actually thrives in part to full shade, flowering and spreading along the edge of woodlands where most flowering shrubs would fail. The large, maple-like leaves create a bold textural contrast. The canes are fragrant and thornless. you can walk through it without getting scratched, which no other raspberry can say.