Zone: 3 to 8

Soil: sand to clay

Light: Full sun to shade

Bloom colour: Pink to purple

Bloom period: June to August

Height:4 to 6 feet

Moisture: Dry to moist

Attracts: Bumblebees and birds

Notes: This is a good garden plant for a naturalised area in the garden. It is also useful in afforestation projects as it can be used to quickly fill in the gaps between young trees, which keeps the weeds in check. This plant is native to most of the Eastern U.S. and Canada. This plant is harder to kill than it is to grow and while it is not overburdened with flowers at any particular time, it has a long flowering season. The colour of the flowers varies from pink to quite an intense purple and the flowers are nearly as large as roses. The plant itself differs from raspberries that we use for fruit by having larger flowers, larger leaves and thornless stems.

This plant, like other Rubus sp., has to be kept in check by barriers or by pulling out the suckers in early spring otherwise it will spread and take over. You have to plant it in a position where you can get easy access to do this from all sides. Do not let this put you off from planting this shrub. The suckers are easy to pull by hand and there are only a few of them.

Although the plant can be grown in full sun, it also does well in a shady area with dappled sunlight. Its natural habitat is forest. In full sun, it needs moist soil and it is an excellent wildlife plant.