Raspberry Belle de Malicorne - Rubus idaeus

The Belle de Malicorne® delgrosse Raspberry is a perpetual variety that produces very large light red fruits, conical in shape, with a sweet and flavorful soft flesh. The first harvest takes place in June and July, while the second, more abundant, occurs from September to November (until the first frost). Very productive, with few thorns, this raspberry is a creation by Georges Delbard.

The Belle de Malicorne® delgrosse Raspberry belongs to the Rosaceae family. It is a cousin of blackberries and wild roses. The wild raspberry is native to Europe and temperate Asia, where it grows in cool climates alongside elderberry, beech, or mountain ash, especially in mountainous undergrowth, but also in plains. It is a deciduous bush with upright stems, forming a 1.20 m (4ft) bush in all directions over time. The stems are biennial, each having the peculiarity of dying after fruiting. It spreads from a perennial sucker root that produces new stems armed with small, not very prickly prickle every year. It has green leaves on the top, white-green and downy underneath. The flowering is very honey-bearing. The white flowers are small (1 to 2 cm (0 to 1in) in diameter), grouped in small clusters of 10 to 12, and appear in two waves: in April - May and then in July - August. The fruits are formed by small agglutinated drupes, not adhering to the receptacle *, detaching very easily when ripe. The first fruiting occurs in June and July, and the second from September until the first frost in October and November.

The fruits are consumed fresh, as soon as they are picked, as they do not keep well and must be consumed or processed quickly, for example, into jam. Production reaches its normal level in the third year after planting. A plant can produce fruit for several years, around 10 years.

The Belle de Malicorne® delgrosse Raspberry can be associated with non-remontant varieties like Magnific Delbard® to obtain a continuous harvest throughout the summer.

The fruits can be used to make jams or to garnish pies. The cultivation of raspberries seems to date back to the end of the Middle Ages. In the forest, five to ten years after a beech tree is cut, wild raspberries appear in the cleared area, and they produce fruit for three to four years. Raspberries are not very energetic, they contain two specific sugars, levulose and fructose, and very little sucrose. The fruits also contain ellagic acid, tannins, vitamin C, and are a good source of potassium. It is also a medicinal plant, with its young shoots and buds used in gemmotherapy.

*This non-adherence is actually a distinguishing criterion between raspberries in the broad sense and blackberries (including Rubus fruticosus, our European blackberry), where the receptacle remains on the fruit.