# American Red Raspberry (Rubus idaeus subsp. strigosus)

> The native red raspberry of northern woods and mountain clearings, a bristly, suckering bramble with soft, sweet red berries in midsummer.

Also called wild red raspberry, grayleaf red raspberry, Rubus strigosus. Category: Nut & Fruit Trees. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-red-raspberry/

![American red raspberry (Rubus idaeus subsp. strigosus) ripe red berry on a bristly red cane on a mountain slope](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/american-red-raspberry-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Matt Lavin, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ARubus_idaeus_-_American_red_raspberry_-_Flickr_-_Matt_Lavin_%285%29.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Shrub
- Mature height: 3 to 6 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 3 to 8
- Grows wild in: The Appalachians, stream banks, old fields and edges
- Native range: [Alaska](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AK) and 36 other states, north to [North Dakota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ND), south to [Arizona](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AZ) and west to [Oregon](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OR) ([Alaska](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AK), [Arizona](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AZ), [California](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CA), [Colorado](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CO), [Connecticut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CT), [Idaho](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ID), [Illinois](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IL), [Indiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IN), [Iowa](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IA), [Maine](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ME), [Maryland](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MD), [Massachusetts](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MA), [Michigan](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MI), [Minnesota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MN), [Montana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MT), [Nebraska](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NE), [Nevada](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NV), [New Hampshire](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NH), [New Jersey](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NJ), [New Mexico](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NM), [New York](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NY), [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC), [North Dakota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ND), [Ohio](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OH), [Oklahoma](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OK), [Oregon](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OR), [Pennsylvania](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=PA), [Rhode Island](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=RI), [South Dakota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SD), [Tennessee](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TN), [Utah](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=UT), [Vermont](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VT), [Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VA), [Washington](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WA), [West Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WV), [Wisconsin](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WI) and [Wyoming](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WY)). Also recorded, not native, in [Delaware](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DE) and [Missouri](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MO)
- Sun: Full, Part
- Soil moisture: Average, Dry
- Growth rate: Medium
- Flowers: May to July
- Fruit: Berries, July to August
- First crop: 2 years
- Mature spread: 9 ft
- Traits: Edible, Wildlife value, Honey tree, Bears young, Erosion control
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Saplings ship [bare-root](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md) or [in a pot](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/a-sapling-in-a-pot/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their [height and age](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/reading-a-nursery-listing/index.html.md) are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

## Notes

American red raspberry is the wild native subspecies of red raspberry, not the garden raspberry. Garden raspberries are named varieties of this plant, of the European subspecies or of crosses between the two. Its canes bristle with gland-tipped hairs and sharp prickles, and the old bark peels. It is among the first shrubs to fill clearings after logging or fire, and its seed can wait in the soil for decades. It has been used to hold soil on road cuts and other bare ground. Set it in a narrow row along a sunny fence for wild berries and bird cover.

## Size, growth and what to expect

American red raspberry grows at a medium pace, about a foot a year in our growth estimator. Its erect to arching canes stand 3 to 6 feet tall, and a patch spreads 3 to 9 feet across. The roots live for years, while each cane lives two summers. A wild patch often fades within 5 to 12 years as trees close over it.

Small white flowers open in loose clusters from May into July. The berries ripen in July and August, red, soft and sweet, and they come off the core as a hollow cup. Songbirds, black bears, coyotes, foxes, raccoons and small mammals eat them.

It grows wild across Canada and Alaska and south in the East to the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. In the West it reaches south through the mountains to New Mexico, Arizona and California. It lives in clearings, burns, old fields, roadsides and woods edges, on stream banks, and on rock slides above timberline. Records from Delaware and Missouri are of plants escaped from gardens. North Carolina lists it as threatened.

## How to grow American Red Raspberry

American red raspberry fruits best in full sun and thins out in shade. It grows in most soils, sandy loam to silty clay, if they drain well and stay moist, and wet ground rots the roots. It spreads by suckers from its roots and soon fills a patch, so keep it to a row about a foot wide by pulling the strays. Keep it away from a patch of garden raspberries or blackberries, since wild brambles nearby can bring diseases into the patch. Set plants 3 feet apart, and keep each one 4 feet from a wall. It is small enough to stand within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them in early spring while they are still dormant, in a hole wide enough to spread the roots and at the depth they grew. Put the native soil back in, firm it gently, and water it well. Sow the cleaned seed outdoors in late summer, an eighth of an inch deep. For spring, hold the seed damp and warm for 90 days, then in the refrigerator for 90 days first. Seedlings come up in spring, some not until the second. Most plants are raised from suckers or divisions, since seed is slow and uneven to sprout. Seed-grown plants vary in the size and flavor of their berries, and none comes true to a named garden variety.

Water weekly from flowering until the harvest when rain is short. Rabbits eat the canes in winter, so circle young plants with chicken wire. After the harvest, cut the canes that fruited to the ground. Thin the new canes to four or five strong ones per foot of row, and tie them to a support.

Wild red raspberry almost always needs pollen from another plant to set fruit, so plant two or more from different seed for a crop. A patch spread from one root counts as one plant. Bees do most of the pollinating, with help from flies and beetles. Each cane bears in its second summer and then dies, so a seedling first fruits in its second year. Anthracnose, gray mold and root rot can be serious diseases. Cane borers and crown borers are its most serious insects.

## Sources

- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Rubus idaeus subsp. strigosus](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/rubus-idaeus-subsp-strigosus/)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Rubus idaeus ssp. strigosus](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=RUIDS2)
- [Flora of North America, Volume 9: Rubus idaeus subsp. strigosus (Alice, Goldman, Macklin and Moore)](http://floranorthamerica.org/Rubus_idaeus_subsp._strigosus)
- [USDA Forest Service, Fire Effects Information System: Rubus idaeus (Tirmenstein 1990)](https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/shrub/rubida/all.html)
- [Virginia Tech Dendrology: raspberry](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=424)
- [Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder: Rubus idaeus](https://plantfinder.mobot.org/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=295999)
- [Native Plant Trust, Go Botany: Rubus idaeus](https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/rubus/idaeus/)
- [Missouri Department of Conservation Field Guide: Black raspberry](https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/black-raspberry)
- [Trees and Shrubs Online: Rubus idaeus var. strigosus, from Bean](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rubus/rubus-idaeus/)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (Agriculture Handbook 727, 2008): Rubus, blackberry, raspberry](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Rubus.pdf)
- [University of Minnesota Extension: Growing raspberries in the home garden](https://extension.umn.edu/garden-and-home/yard-and-garden/gardening-in-minnesota/growing-raspberries-in-the-home-garden)
- [North Carolina Natural Heritage Program: 2024 Rare Plant List, revised 11/03/2025](https://www.ncnhp.org/media/833/open)
- [Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation: Natural Heritage Resources of Virginia: Rare Plants, September 2026](https://www.dcr.virginia.gov/natural-heritage/document/plantlist-current.pdf)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Rubus idaeus ssp. strigosus](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.961939/Rubus_idaeus_ssp_strigosus)
- [USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Rubus idaeus ssp. strigosus](https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/RUIDS2)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [The habitat around a tree is part of the tree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/habitat-around-a-tree/index.html.md)
- [What a young tree looks like: first-year seedlings of oak, walnut, hickory, chestnut, maple and redbud, and the weed trees to pull](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/what-a-young-tree-looks-like/index.html.md)
- [Invasive vines and shrubs are what is killing your woods](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/invasive-vines-and-shrubs/index.html.md)

## Related

- Other brambles (Rubus) we grow: [Allegheny Blackberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/allegheny-blackberry/index.html.md), [Black Raspberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/black-raspberry/index.html.md)
- Plants that share its sun and soil: [Beaked Hazelnut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/beaked-hazelnut/index.html.md), [Riverbank Grape](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/riverbank-grape/index.html.md), [Nannyberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/nannyberry/index.html.md) and [Sand Cherry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/sand-cherry/index.html.md)
- Trees to plant it under: [American Elm](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-elm/index.html.md), [Common Hackberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/common-hackberry/index.html.md) and [Slippery Elm](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/slippery-elm/index.html.md)
- Same size, similar character: [Allegheny Blackberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/allegheny-blackberry/index.html.md), [Black Raspberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/black-raspberry/index.html.md), [Swamp Doghobble](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/swamp-doghobble/index.html.md) and [Missouri River Willow](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/missouri-river-willow/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on American Red Raspberry, add ?species=american-red-raspberry with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 3, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=american-red-raspberry&zone=3&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for American Red Raspberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=american-red-raspberry): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Tree growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for American Red Raspberry as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=american-red-raspberry (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how American Red Raspberry is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=american-red-raspberry (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what American Red Raspberry needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 2 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=american-red-raspberry:2
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant American Red Raspberry where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=american-red-raspberry&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far American Red Raspberry goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=american-red-raspberry&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months American Red Raspberry flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=american-red-raspberry