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A raspberry cultivar with generous crops and sweet flavour 🍓
Family: Rosaceae · Pot diameter: 11cm · Height: approximately 50cm
Rubus idaeus ‘Glen Ample’ brings the pleasure of freshly picked raspberries to a cultivar distinguished by large, vivid red fruit. Their sweet flavour and clear raspberry aroma lift a bowl of yoghurt, a summer dessert or simply the first mouthful beside the plant. Completely spine-free canes make picking all the more enjoyable. It is the kind of small summer pleasure you soon want to have waiting in your own garden.
Upright growth lends a clear line to a fruit garden, while the fruiting laterals hold clusters of raspberries out in front of the foliage. In an organised row, fresh green canes and red fruit create a living screen with seasonal change and a useful role.
‘Glen Ample’ became a classic through thornless canes, large firm fruit and reliable summer cropping.
Uniform red berries have a clean conical shape, good firmness and full sweet flavour.
Canes carry no thorns, making tying, thinning and picking comfortable.
The main crop ripens during July and quickly fills the basket before autumn cultivars begin.
Why you will love it: It is a proven summer raspberry offering generous quantities, comfortable thornless picking and fruit firm enough to reach the table beautifully.
Plant in sun to bright partial shade, spacing plants 50–70cm apart and rows 1.8–2m apart. Long canes need a firm framework.
Simple cottage-garden plants in the outer zone underline its Scottish character without entering the cane row.
Sun or bright partial shade; afternoon shade during heatwaves.
Even moisture through flowering and harvest, without standing water.
Very good winter hardiness; canes are best protected from dry freezing winds.
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 three wires at 60, 120 and 170cm. Tie fruiting canes to one side and new replacement canes to the other.
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.
Remove old canes immediately after picking, retain 6–8 strong new canes per metre and pick frequently so ripe fruit does not remain in a dense row.
It is self-fertile and crops alone. Good bumblebee and honeybee activity fills large fruit evenly.
The main harvest falls during July, with small variations according to climate.
Ripe fruit is evenly red, smells sweet and releases with a gentle lift. Place it in a shallow basket.
Hang netting on a separate frame in front of the row and open one side like a curtain for daily picking.
After planting: retain a few strong canes, tie them loosely to wires and let the roots establish in evenly cool soil.
Immediately after harvest · final check in late winter
‘Glen Ample’ is a summer raspberry that fruits on previous-year canes: green canes grow in year one, fruit in year two and are then removed. Tying the two ages separately makes pruning completely clear.
Action: Choose 6–8 strong green canes per metre and tie them loosely to one side of three wires. Remove only thin surplus shoots.
Retain: Keep the full length that will form flowering laterals next year.
Action: Move brown fruiting canes to the opposite side and let long laterals flower. At the same time train new green canes separately.
Retain: Keep a clear passage between ages and all fruiting clusters.
Action: Trace every brown fruited cane to the crown and cut it 3–5cm above soil. Move green replacements onto the wires.
Retain: Keep only 6–8 strong new canes per metre.
Use sharp, clean tools suited to the diameter of the wood.
Remove damaged tips back to a healthy bud and renew ties. Do not cut healthy previous-year canes.
Do not do this: Do not cut every cane in winter as for an autumn raspberry; living previous-year canes carry the entire summer crop.
New thornless canes rise from the crown and are tied separately for the following year.
Previous brown canes fill with long flowering laterals along the wires.
Large conical red raspberries ripen in clear clusters in front of the foliage.
Mature ‘Glen Ample’ is organised on three wires with brown fruiting canes on one side, green new canes on the other and large conical fruit in July.
Roots are perennial but each individual cane lives for two years; this distinction explains the entire pruning system.
What to expect after planting: New thornless canes rise from the crown and are tied separately for the following year.
The story of ‘Glen Ample’ begins in 1978 at the Scottish Crop Research Institute in Invergowrie, near Dundee. Ronnie McNicol and Derek Jennings crossed research selections SCRI 7326E1 and SCRI 7412H16, whose wider ancestry included ‘Glen Prosen’ and ‘Meeker’.
In 1981, one young plant stood out under the code 7815B8, combining upright spine-free canes, large bright fruit and high yields. Evaluation followed in Scotland and at Brogdale in England, while propagation by cuttings preserved the selection’s characteristics.
Introduced as ‘Glen Ample’ in 1996, it became one of the best-known members of the Scottish Glen series. Its journey from the original cross to commercial fields and home gardens had taken almost two decades.
Roots and crown live for many years, but each cane completes vegetative growth, fruiting and death over two seasons. This physiological division maintains continuous renewal.
In ‘Glen Ample’, buds enter winter dormancy beneath protective scales. Exposure to winter chilling helps complete this phase, allowing the mature canes to resume growth in spring.
Six practical answers for choosing, growing, harvesting and pruning this exact cultivar.
No. It is self-fertile, but good insect activity helps large fruit fill evenly.
Canes reach about 1.8–2m high and are organised in a row 60–80cm wide.
It can, but needs a very large container, three firm wires and room for separate cane ages.
Mainly during July, when conical red fruit smells sweet and releases with a gentle lift.
It is a summer cultivar and fruits on previous-year canes.
Immediately after harvest cut only the brown canes that fruited at ground level.
