Just a guess here - usually raspberries spread by suckers or seed so if there aren't any within 15 or so feet of the garden and the volunteers showed up, they probably came from seed so I'd bet that at least some of the raspberries bear fruit.

The thing is I think it's tough to classify the wild raspberries locally since there are a bunch of pick-your-own places along with some market growers, home growers (and I think I saw some at a vineyard last weekend) that are growing all kinds of raspberries and the ones you have could be from any one of these.

I've not seen the wild ones bear fruit but it may be just that they weren't getting enough sun or I wasn't looking closely enough. Depending on the type though, they can either bear on last year's canes around the June / July timeframe or this year's growth in last August to Mid September. This didn't seem to be a particularly bad winter in terms of killing raspberry canes so it's strange that yours didn't re-grow unless they had already fruited. Wish I could be of more help.

Hmm ... I'll keep an eye on them, and if they don't look like they're doing much, maybe I'm better off buying plants commercially.

The nice part about the commercial route is that you know exactly what you are getting and they're pretty much certified disease free. For reasonable prices in a mail order, check out Nourse Berry Farms in Mass - good quality for the price. Also, if you don't get decent production and want some everbearings (Heritage), swing by with a shovel ... I'm growing them between the laterals of a new leach field so I'd suggest taking bare root plants just to be safe but the darn things are already trying to take over the known universe and they fruit well.

Yes, the catch with wild raspberries are viruses. They do fruit however but on last year's canes. So the shoots they are sending up this year will fruit next summer. After that the canes die but new shoots come up to bear the following year. You may have interrupted the cycle by transplanting them.
If you are going to grow cultivated raspberries, be sure to eradicate all the wild ones in the vicinity to prevent them passing on their viruses.

Thanks for the suggestions, all. Nourse looks like a good source and may even be worth a trip.

There doesn't seem to be much advantage to growing "wild" raspberries  as opposed to the local wild strawberries, which differ from the cultivated kind and are reputed to be wonderfullly sweet. Think I'll look for a good commercial raspberry cultivar, and meanwhile see what happens to the volunteer strawberries I've let naturalize.

Well, I replaced the volunteers today with two cultivars from Nourse Farms (who, by the way, were a real pleasure to deal with): an early red raspberry aptly called Prelude, and a late-season one called K81-6. Sneaked out to the garden between thunderstorms. We'll see how they do but, as makalu says, at least now I know what I've got Â.

Glad to hear Nourse treated you well ... I've been very happy with their service and even more so with their plants. I also planted Prelude from them last year and for a while it seemed that the plants were either shocked or just going to be scrawny. They made it through last year on growth that was in the 2 foot range and more prostrate than vertical so I thought they were going to be a poor experiment - so far, I'm really wrong. This year's cane production is very good with a nice dense row forming and 2-3' tall canes that are very upright. The old growth is already in flower with some berries already forming so they are living up to the "early" moniker and it looks like they'll be decent in terms of production, not like Heritage but I don't have to mow the suckers every second day either ;). Good luck with the berries.

Great! Good that the plants held up. The bare-root gooseberry I planted on Thursday already has green leaf buds, so I guess they know what they're doing.

I hope you get a good harvest! Please let us know how the canes produce and how the berries taste.