Jeremy Jones | 18 Sep 2011

Joan J is an awesome late cropper. I know it has been a wet year but in Surrey this heavy cropper has been the envy of my allotment. If I was to plant a raspberry for quality and quantity for jamming etc I would have a row of just this variety.

James Rowe | 10 Sep 2011

I bought this collection a couple of years ago and they are the best thing on my allotment. Joan J in particular is astonishingly prolific and continues to bear fruit until the first frosts. They took a little while to establish compared to Glen Moy and Glen Ample despite all being treated the same way (and following the instructions provided) but now I get many suckers which I am able to move o... [more]r harvest from as well. I particularly appreciated the fact that these (and all the other fruit and veg plants I have ordered from Marshalls) were sent to me at the right time of year for planting, so I had the best chance of getting them to thrive. This is very helpful for those of us who still have a lot to learn - and planting times for raspberries are especially confusing!

James Cowburn | 8 Aug 2011

I only have 1 problem to report on.not knowing a great deal about the raspberrys on my new allotment I wanted to replace 1 row of poor early type with the same type and was sold JOAN J, I have now found these to be lates, I have to say this was poor advice or maybe the peson I spoke to made a mistake, The plants are doing fine but I wanted earlys sorry.

Steph Fox | 26 Jun 2011

I took delivery of the raspberry collection in mid-February--brown sticks with hefty long roots and no green growth. The canes ended up sitting in a bucket of water for over a week because I wasn't ready for them; I was waiting on a delivery of supports for my fruit cage, since these had to be sunk into the ground prior to planting. The canes finally got into the ground at the end of the month, 12... [more] in my dedicated (but north-facing) fruit patch and 6 up against a south-facing wall in open ground. A couple of the north-facing Joan J plants looked a bit sad for a while, but now everything's caught up and I've been picking Glen Moy (huge, plump, slightly tart) berries for the last week or two, as well as a handful of out-of-season Joan J berries (dark, sweet and plump)--presumably the heatwave we had in March threw everything out of kilter. There are plenty of berries forming on the Glen Ample too, and new canes springing up all over the shop means this already looks to have been a good buy. One sour note: the unprotected canes on open ground have been decimated by at least one fox rubbing itself up against them just as the first flowers started to emerge. (I witnessed this.) It's definitely worth protecting the plants if you can.

David Hopkins | 2 Jun 2011

These items came bare-root (that is, not in soil in a pot) and with no green growth. The canes, which are about 10-12 inches long came well rooted (about 8"x8"x1"); some of the roots having a large girth. The Glen Moy canes were particularly beefy, with girth of about 3 cm on the fattest cane. On the other hand the Joan J's are only about 1-1.5 cm in circumference. The canes came... [more] with instructions, which I followed. Although there was no mention of how to space them (most recommend to space 6-8" between canes). Once in the ground the Glen Moy & Glen Ample canes greened very quickly, while the Joan J's came through much slower & two are yet to have any growth. The Glen Ample variety has shot up a number of shoots, which you can dig out and grow as a new plant. At £1.80 a plant, these are excellent value. The canes I have seen in garden centres tend to be about £6, although, these have growth, but judging from the pot size, don't have as substantial roots as the ones I got from Marshalls.

John Pattinson | 3 Jul 2009

A fabulous collection. I had taken delivery in November and could not get them planted till the March due to the wet weather. I kept the canes in the garden shed (Marshalls Comment - we do not really recommend this. Better to heel them in, in a border outdoors!)and followed the instruction provided, now in July every cane has established itself nicely and all three varieties are now bearing fruit... [more] which have a sumptuous taste. If you buy this product you will not be disappointed.