Raspberries do indeed grow in Atlanta. They need excellent drainage - no wet feet!!! We have some at the top of a slope at church. They still struggle. Frankly the blackberries do better.
You use a strong trellis as a light trellis will just fall over once the canes are attached to it. YOU are the attacher. I've seen Walter Reeves recommend a slightly different approach, he uses metal cables between two posts several feet apart and lets the canes arch naturally between them so he doesn't have to tie them. I'd be afraid this would be hard to prune thorny canes.
From my understanding you only trim spent canes after the first few years. Since I train ours to a flat fence, I use a completely different pruning method. Flat training takes less space and provides optimal sunshine. Yep, lots of it.

Want to know more? Read the Southern Living Gardening guide published several years ago. An encyclopedic volume which is very helpful. You can also find out much more by joining the Atlanta Fruits yahoo group.

Thanks GGG, Are you refering to this book: The Southern Living Garden Book?

And I'll check out that Atlanta Fruits yahoo group.

Any more ideas?

Yes, that's the book. The Backyard Berry Book has also been recommended to me.

Here is a link that might be useful: Walter Reeves Grows Raspberries

My "Backyard Berry Book" arrived yesterday and I immediately devoured everything on raspberries :-) I also have several other neglected reference books (and the internet!) to read up on.

I think my problem was that the young plants never got established and could not compete with my weeds. They are on top of a long a long low hill/mound that never gets drowned and I have a similar bed next to it that I'm thinking of dedicating to more raspberries since we love them so much (and they go so well with grandkids).

As mentioned in my original post, we have Bristol Black, Caroline (from Edible Landscaping, but still a baby) and the yellow is "Fall Gold" which we absolutely love. I'm thinking of adding Cumberland Black (solely on Ison's recommendation, since it's the only black they have in stock), Heritage (because it has worked for so many for so long) and Anne (because it is supposed to be "the best" yellow).

So you people near Atlanta, what varieties have done well for you in our hot humid climate? I'd like to try Bababerry but Ken from AL says all of his from Willis Orchard died quickly. Any suggestions or other reliable sources of the Bababerry variety? Also for interest, does the Royal Purple do well here? And I'd maybe like to have a very early variety.

Thanks a bushel!
Ron