# Purple-flowering Raspberry (Rubus odoratus)

> A thornless bramble for part shade, with fragrant rose-purple flowers 2 inches across all summer over big, maple-like leaves.

Family: Rosaceae (rose family). Also called flowering raspberry, fragrant thimbleberry, sweet-scented bramble, Rubacer odoratum. Category: Native Shrubs. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/purple-flowering-raspberry/

![Purple-flowering raspberry (Rubus odoratus) rose-purple flowers and buds among broad maple-like leaves](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/purple-flowering-raspberry-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Antony-22, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AFlowers_of_Nichols_Arboretum_2023i.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Shrub
- Mature height: 3 to 6 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 3 to 8
- Grows wild in: The forest understory, rocky ground and stream banks
- Native range: 23 states and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC), north to [Maine](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ME), south to [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA) and west to [Wisconsin](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WI) ([Alabama](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AL), [Connecticut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CT), [Delaware](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DE), [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA), [Illinois](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IL), [Indiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IN), [Kentucky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KY), [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), [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 York](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NY), [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC), [Ohio](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OH), [Pennsylvania](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=PA), [Rhode Island](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=RI), [Tennessee](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TN), [Vermont](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VT), [Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VA), [West Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WV), [Wisconsin](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WI) and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC)). Also recorded, not native, in [Washington](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WA)
- Sun: Part, Full, Shade
- Soil moisture: Average
- Growth rate: Medium
- Flowers: June to August
- Fruit: Berries, July to September
- First crop: 2 years
- Mature spread: 12 ft
- Traits: Showy flowers, Tolerates shade, Wildlife value, Honey tree, Fall color
- 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 and October to November. 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

Purple-flowering raspberry is a thornless bramble of the Northeast and the eastern mountains, grown more for its flowers than for its fruit. Unlike our black raspberry and American red raspberry, it has simple leaves shaped like a maple's and big, fragrant flowers in place of small white ones. Indiana lists it as endangered. Give it a shady woods edge or a wild corner where it has room to spread.

## Size, growth and what to expect

Purple-flowering raspberry grows at a medium pace, about a foot a year in our growth estimator. Its thornless canes stand 3 to 6 feet tall, and a patch spreads 6 to 12 feet across. The bark of older canes peels, and the young stems bristle with dark purple, gland-tipped hairs. Its simple, maple-like leaves run 4 to 10 inches across and turn pale yellow in fall.

Fragrant rose-purple flowers about 2 inches across open from June to August, a few at a time over a long season. Songbirds, game birds and mammals eat the berries.

It grows wild from southern Quebec and Maine west to Michigan and south through the mountains to Georgia and Alabama, with outposts in northern Illinois. Its home is moist, shady woods and woods edges, rocky slopes, wooded talus and stream banks.

## How to grow Purple-flowering Raspberry

Purple-flowering raspberry grows in part shade, sun or shade, and in part shade its flowers last longer. It wants a moist, well-drained soil rich in organic matter, and it dislikes clay, soggy ground and hot, humid summers. It spreads by underground stems into a thicket, so give it room or pull the strays. Set plants 4 feet apart, and keep each one 6 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 a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the canes. Sow the cleaned seed outdoors in late summer or early fall, an eighth of an inch deep. For spring, hold the seed damp in the refrigerator for 60 to 120 days first. Seedlings come up in spring, some not until later springs. Plants are most often started from suckers, which dig up easily.

Water it every day for the first two weeks after planting, then every two to three days until week 12. After that, water weekly through the first two summers. Prune right after it fruits, and take out the old canes each winter. Every few years, dig up part of the patch and replant it more thinly.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, so there are no male and female plants to pair. Bumble bees, other native bees and honey bees visit the flowers, and native bees use the plant for nesting. Honey fungus, which troubles most brambles, is its one known problem. The flat red berries ripen from July to September, and they are edible but dry, crumbly and bland.

## Sources

- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Rubus odoratus](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/rubus-odoratus/)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Rubus odoratus](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=RUOD)
- [Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder: Rubus odoratus](https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=286467&isprofile=0)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 9: Rubus odoratus](http://floranorthamerica.org/Rubus_odoratus)
- [Native Plant Trust, Go Botany: Rubus odoratus](https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/rubus/odoratus/)
- [Trees and Shrubs Online: Rubus odoratus, from Bean](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/rubus/rubus-odoratus/)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (Agriculture Handbook 727, 2008): Rubus, blackberry, raspberry](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Rubus.pdf)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Rubus odoratus](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.128389/Rubus_odoratus)
- [Indiana Department of Natural Resources: Endangered, Threatened, and Extirpated Plants of Indiana, 2025](https://www.in.gov/dnr/nature-preserves/files/np-etrplants.pdf)
- [Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife: Rare and Uncommon Plants of Delaware](https://documents.dnrec.delaware.gov/fw/conservation/Rare-and-Uncommon-Plants-of-Delaware.pdf)
- [USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Rubus odoratus](https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/RUOD)

## 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), [American Red Raspberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-red-raspberry/index.html.md), [Black Raspberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/black-raspberry/index.html.md)
- Plants that share its sun and soil: [Roseshell Azalea](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/roseshell-azalea/index.html.md), [Virginia Creeper](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/virginia-creeper/index.html.md), [Wild Hydrangea](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/wild-hydrangea/index.html.md) and [Gray Dogwood](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/gray-dogwood/index.html.md)
- Trees to plant it under: [Hop Hornbeam](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/hop-hornbeam/index.html.md), [Common Hackberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/common-hackberry/index.html.md) and [Eastern Hemlock](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/eastern-hemlock/index.html.md)
- Same size, similar character: [American Red Raspberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-red-raspberry/index.html.md), [Allegheny Blackberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/allegheny-blackberry/index.html.md), [Black Raspberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/black-raspberry/index.html.md) and [Florida Flame Azalea](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/florida-flame-azalea/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Purple-flowering Raspberry, add ?species=purple-flowering-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=purple-flowering-raspberry&zone=3&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for Purple-flowering Raspberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=purple-flowering-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 Purple-flowering Raspberry as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=purple-flowering-raspberry (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Purple-flowering 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=purple-flowering-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 Purple-flowering Raspberry needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 1 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=purple-flowering-raspberry:1
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant Purple-flowering 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=purple-flowering-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 Purple-flowering 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=purple-flowering-raspberry&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Purple-flowering 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=purple-flowering-raspberry