North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>]

Bill,
    I'm pretty sure that Jim Fruth has blackberries up there in zone 3, so 
zone 5 shouldn't be that big a deal.   I'm not sure red raspberries can take 
the heat and drought all that well.  Comments anyone?  The black raspberries 
do sort of ok here, but never the huge crops that blackberries serve up.
Here is a nice map and listings from Pense Nursery:
http://www.alcasoft.com/pense/success.html

I notice that they have some different info on their plants from Simmons 
Berry Farm, where I ordered last year. 
http://www.alcasoft.com/simmons/index.html
Simmons orders were for 5 plants each, looks like at Pense you can order 1 
of each if you like.  I'd order at least 2 of each variety, (after digging 
around for info on just which varieties you want), just in case you lose 
one.
When I did a search for blackberries + zone, I got a NAFEX archived offer 
from Vic to Del offering him some Z3 blackberries.  So you needn't worry 
your little head about blackberries taking the cold.  As for the heat and 
drought, they can probably take that if you can get them established. 
Chickasaw is said to be the most heat and drought resistant.  We were as dry 
as your fencepost was back in the fall of 2005, and still had wild 
blackberries cropping in '06.  What I have read is that the thornless ones 
like the soil a little more acid than the thorny ones.  As for flavor, 
berries picked commercially will be picked for black color, not for 
ripeness.  Most people buying them were probably planning on cooking them 
with lots of sugar anyway, or putting them in a salad with sweeter fruit 
just for their color.  RIPE blackberries are plenty sweet enough to eat in 
the field, and with a minor bit of lily gilding, are excellent eating in the 
kitchen.    Donna