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Everyone will be happy with those enormous berries 🍓
Family: Rosaceae · Pot diameter: 13cm · organically grown · Height: approximately 40–45cm
Rubus idaeus PRIMEBERRY® ‘Autumn Happy’ makes an impression before the first berry is tasted. Exceptionally large dark-red raspberries fill the palm, offer juicy balanced flavour and ripen through a long autumn season. Completely thornless strong canes keep picking easy and enjoyable, creating a generous productive screen that rewards every visit to the garden throughout autumn.
Give it firm support, abundant water while its large fruit fills and space between canes so light reaches the lower flower clusters.
‘Autumn Happy’ was bred for spectacular berry size, thornless access and cropping deep into autumn.
Dark-red berries are among the largest in the range and remain firm when carefully picked.
Complete absence of thorns makes tying and picking comfortable through the full height.
Fruiting laterals open successively from August and continue while temperatures remain mild.
Why you will love it: It delivers the wow factor of a giant raspberry without thorns, plus many weeks in which to enjoy it fresh.
Plant in sun to bright partial shade, spacing plants 70–90cm apart. Avoid strong exposed wind because tall laden tops need stability.
Tall airy flowers beyond the row continue autumn interest without entering the cane line.
Sun or bright partial shade; afternoon shade during heatwaves.
Even moisture through flowering and harvest, without standing water.
Very good winter hardiness; the final late berries naturally stop with the first hard frosts.
Wash fully ripe fruit before eating.
Plant in deep, humus-rich soil that drains freely yet stays cool. The shallow roots respond very well to a 5–7cm organic mulch kept clear of the canes.
Water deeply when the top few centimetres of soil dry. Maintain even moisture from flowering to the end of harvest, as sharp fluctuations affect fruit size and firmness.
Use two strong wires at about 80 and 150cm and tie 5–7 canes with space, using a separate tie for each cane.
In early spring add mature compost and a balanced fruit-plant feed according to its label. Avoid excess nitrogen, which produces soft, overlong canes.
Keep the root zone cool, remove weeds by hand and pick ripe fruit frequently. Light afternoon shade helps during heatwaves.
Keep the crown open, thin weak surplus canes and pick the huge fruit frequently before it becomes over-soft.
It is self-fertile and crops alone. Abundant insect activity helps each large berry fill evenly.
The first fruit ripens in early August and picking can continue into early October.
Ripe fruit is deep red, full yet slightly yielding and releases without pulling. Support it from below with two fingers.
Set netting above the row before colouring starts and keep it clear of the large berries.
After planting: water deeply, let the strongest new canes reach the wires and maintain even moisture until the crown establishes.
Late winter for a complete restart
‘Autumn Happy’ fruits on canes grown in the same year. The cleanest method is to remove the entire old set each winter and retain only the strongest new canes in spring for large well-lit raspberries.
Action: Let 5–6 strong new canes rise to the wires and remove only very thin or broken competitors.
Retain: Keep the complete healthy tips that will flower later.
Action: Choose 5–7 straight canes, spread them over the wires and remove surplus growth at the crown. Do not cut the tips.
Retain: Keep 12–15cm gaps between canes for light and air around large fruit.
Action: After leaf fall cut every fruited cane 3–5cm above the soil and remove old ties.
Retain: Keep the crown clean and the support ready for a new set.
Use sharp, clean tools suited to the diameter of the wood.
Remove only the thinnest late shoots from the centre. Leave strong canes at their natural length.
Do not do this: Do not tip strong canes to fit below the wire; bend them gently because fruiting begins at the top.
Thick green canes rise quickly and are tied with space to the wires.
The first short flowering laterals appear high on the cane and progress downwards.
Large dark-red fruit hangs in open clusters along the upper half.
Mature ‘Autumn Happy’ forms thick thornless canes on two wires and exceptionally large dark-red fruit in the upper half.
For exceptionally large fruit to fill well it needs even water and good pollinator activity; gaps are easy to see on its surface.
What to expect after planting: Thick green canes rise quickly and are tied with space to the wires.
‘Autumn Happy’ began in the collaboration between Lubera and the historic raspberry research centre at East Malling in England, now part of NIAB. The teams combined germplasm and experience to pursue thornless canes, enormous fruit and a long autumn crop.
Breeder Felicidad Fernández and colleagues evaluated seedlings in English and continental conditions for almost a decade. One selection stood out for exceptionally large dark-red fruit, completely thornless strong canes and cropping from early August.
The selection was released as ‘Autumn Happy’ in the PRIMEBERRY® range and became the first cultivar presented from this collaboration. Its name captured the programme’s approach: comfortable picking and impressive fruit that extends the pleasure of the garden.
Each raspberry comprises many drupelets, each formed from a fertilised carpel. The size of ‘Autumn Happy’ results from both numerous drupelets and strong enlargement of each one.
On primocanes the upper nodes become floral first and lower nodes follow. This creates the long top-to-bottom harvest sequence.
Six practical answers for choosing, growing, harvesting and pruning this exact cultivar.
No. It is self-fertile, but good bee and bumblebee activity fills its very large fruit more completely.
Approximately 1.6–2m high and 70–90cm wide when trained on two wires.
Yes, in a container of at least 50 litres with very firm support and consistent watering.
From early August into early October, when dark-red fruit releases without pulling.
Yes. ‘Autumn Happy’ has completely thornless canes.
In late winter cut every old cane 3–5cm above the soil.
