They were popular 20+ years ago and only in the central peidmont (I believe NC State released them). Other varieties are promoted now and so they are hard to find. I have them. They are worth growing. The berries are not the biggest (not the smallest either!) and everyone favors larger berries nowadays. The flavor is excellent. They have a lot of Japanese Wineberry in their genes which you can see in their leaves. Wineberry or Rubus phoenicolasius doesn't like our heat in the summer so it has to be grown in full shade. Most red raspberries also need some sun protection to do well in this area. The biggest problem I see with 'Mandarin' is that it is difficult to propagate. Other raspberry varieties are basically weeds but not this one. They don't root easily and out of my 8 plants in the ground I'm lucky if I get three side shoots each year. I also have okay luck with 'Polka' which I found at Home Depot a couple of years ago. 'Heritage' does fine but the berries are tiny and have weak flavor fresh (they taste great cooked down).

I was hoping you'd respond! I saw a post you had composed a few years back where you'd mentioned getting in trouble for referring to nurseries that were going to carry the variety in stock on the forums. I was hoping they'd be more popular by now.

I emailed the raspberry and strawberry research lead at NC state, hoping to get something out of her. If I haven't heard back from her by the end of this week, I'll give her inbox a little tickle again!

Have you heard anything about Nantahala? It's a fairly recent release from the 'pack from 2009.

I had been reading up on how raspberries can't really cope with our excessively fickle to start with weather, and then the atrocious heat waves we have. I'm going to be planting a lot of stuff at my mother's house, since I don't yet own a home, to see how certain cultivars do in the different microclimates at her place.

Maybe I'll just stick with blueberries and blackberries. I'm sad - because I really wanted raspberries and Mandarin looked so promising. I forget - do autumn gold raspberry varieties do alright here? Ugh. So much to look up and do in between kids, school, and work! Thanks a load, John. :)

I keep hearing good things about Nantahala but so far I haven't stumbled upon one (even when visiting Asheville nurseries, which is odd, it should be popular there). All the red varieties are going to be tricky here. Even when planted in the shade they eventually catch some sort of disease and go downhill. Most of the 'Mandarin' that exists is diseased - mine don't show it but I imagine their days are numbered. Even 'Heritage' eventually catches something. But, keep in mind that most of them propagate easily and grow fast when they are happy so you can just keep planting them while you yank out the dying ones.

Black raspberries like 'Jewel' do well here and don't seem to need the shade to survive. The flavor is different and the production seems lower than the reds.

I grew 'Kiwi Gold' and 'Anna' (I think that was the name) and both eventually died but sometimes I'll find one tiny baby plant poking its nose up out of the weeds. They produced fine for the first year or so before getting sick. The flavor is different, more sweet than berry flavored.

Blueberries need a bit of soil prep to keep them happy but once you have them going they will be your biggest producer. Blackberries can be easy but they make much bigger plants so you have to set aside some room for them.