Raspberries wild and tame

I used to live in a house in central Scotland with a garden which contained a patch of raspberries. They were completely neglected, but bore a reasonable amount of fruit every summer. I don't know how long they had been there, but my guess is that they had been there for years.

I now live in a house in the north of Scotland with a garden that was (until I started clearing it) over-run with raspberry canes. They were seriously invasive - spreading from the roots. They were probably been planted in the 1970s, but had taken over much of the garden within 25 years. However they bore almost no fruit. They were merely an irritating weed.

Which brings me to my questions.

1) Would I be correct in assuming that the reason that the raspberry canes in the two gardens behaved so differently was not so much because of the different soil and climates of the two gardens, as because they were two completely different kinds of raspberry?

2) Would I be correct in assuming that the raspberries that bore fruit but were not invasive were some sort of "wild" raspberry - whereas the invasive ones were some sort of cultivated raspberry which were either past their best, or not receiving the TLC that they required?

3) (the practical question) - if I wanted to plant raspberries which would be reliable in the north of Scotland (near the west coast, gulf stream - so not much problem with late frosts, but with cool wet summers), producing tasty raspberries with a minimum of TLC, what kind might I get?

 

Hi Wildernessman,

I know what you mean about the invasivness of the cultivated ones, much more vigourous than the odd wild patch i've ever found, but that could be the soil conditions too.

I'm not aware of any difference, both are still Rubus Idaeus as far as I know (Aesculus will put me right about that in a minute)