Raspberry Magnific Delbard- Rubus idaeus

The Magnifique Delbard Raspberry is a non-perpetual variety that produces very large (10-12g), dark red, fragrant fruits with an excellent flavour and a good shelf life. With a late harvest in July and August, Magnifique Delbard is resistant to common raspberry diseases and drought. Created by Georges Delbard.

Magnifique Delbard 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 elderberries, beeches, or rowans, especially in mountainous undergrowth but also in lowlands. It is a deciduous bush with upright stems, forming a bush 1.50 m (5ft) in all directions over time. The stems are biennial, each dying after fruiting. It spreads from a perennial sucker crown, which produces new, prickly shoots each year. Its leaves are green on top, white-green and hairy on the underside. The nectar-rich, white flowers are small (1 to 2 cm (up to 1in) in diameter), grouped in small clusters of 10 to 12. The fruits are formed by small clustered drupes, not adhering to the receptacle*, detaching very easily when ripe. Magnifique Delbard fruits abundantly in July and August, when most raspberries take a break. Thus, it can be grown with perpetual varieties like 'Versailles' or 'Golden Everest' (with astonishingly perfumed yellow fruits) to obtain a continuous harvest from June to October and to vary the flavours throughout the season.

The fruits are best consumed fresh, as they do not keep well and should be consumed or processed quickly, for example, into jam. Production reaches its peak in the third year after planting. One plant can produce fruit for around 10 years.

Raspberries can be used to make jam or to garnish pies. The cultivation of raspberries seems to date back to the end of the Middle Ages. In forests, five to ten years after cutting down beech trees in particular, wild raspberries appear in the vacant space created and produce fruit for three to four years. Raspberries are low in energy, containing two specific sugars, levulose and fructose, and very little sucrose. The fruits also contain ellagic acid, tannins and vitamin C, and are a good source of potassium. It is also a medicinal plant.

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