Sounds like a decent plan. You may lose some of the berries, but at least you'll have the plant. There will be lots of underground runners that make the new plants, so it may be easier to place them on top of the ground and dumping potting mix on top. Then all you have to do is keep them watered until you can get them in the ground where you want them. Trying to stuff the plant and its runners into a pot would be a heck of a job.

Thanks! That's just what I needed! Now I just have to get over there really early to dig before it hits 100*! Whew! Nancy

I held some bare root dormant plants last year for about a week waiting for weather. We'd already prepped raised beds (mounded rows) on top of our ledge. When you tranplant the non-dormant plants, you should do the same, just pile topsoil and compost about 1ft deep on top of your clay, pop them right in and keep them mulched and watered through the heat. You can always dig them up (shallow roots) later (I think spring would be better, while they're dormant) and dig your soil if you need to later. But if you can do the raised beds now you probably won't have to dig into your clay at all (maybe just to loosen it a little right now before putting the good soil on top?)

In Aug. 1997 I dug up some raspberries and planted them. The person that was supposed to house-sit while I was going on vacation had a last minute impediment and could not come. The rasps went unwatered for two weeks, but it rained, and they all made it. They are very tough. I would keep the pots in shade to minimize stress.

Not sure if I'm understanding your post. Are you saying that where you want to plant these raspberries is in heavy clay that you cannot dig in at the present time? I would think you would have more success if you dig that stuff up and get rid of it, put some decent soil in its place if you want the raspberries to do well.

They are very resilient plants, I agree. I had to rejuvenate the bed once when it was overtaken by quackgrass. Dug up the whole bed and got rid of most of it and took out the weeds...it was a vast improvement.