Ochita take heat well here zone 8b plants stop growing in july and august some of september then if cools they take off growing. Thorny but the Tupy should work fruit low chill hours. Blackberry plants heavy feeder to make fruit 10-10-10 and chicken nasty make good December fertilizer I go online to pense nursery to buy my plants they high up in ozarks in Arkansas if order they ship after freezes there so plants be dormant ask if can leave alot roots on plants that good in sandy land they will drown in wet place.

The Apache grows in zones 6-10, the Natchez in Zones 6-9; so either of those will do. The Natchez is the better of the 2.

Apache Wont work here in zone 8b, but Arapaho will work berries small.

Of the Natchez and the Ouachita, which takes heat better?

Thanks.

Bamboo rabbit-
Yeah I do need thornless-- I was asking because my son wants some for his raised garden box and he won't want to mess with thorns if he doesn't have to. (Kids these days!! I used to go out in the woods and pick wild ones for my mom to make pie out of, and I'd get all scratched up and I didn't care. The pie was worth it. :-) )

If anyone know of a blackberry variety that will be happy and do well in SW Florida 9B let me know - I have tried most of the ones listed on this thread and they weren't happy with the heat here.

Try Sweetie Pie, it is a new USDA release and is advertised a highly heat and drought tolerant as well as producing one of the sweetest blackberries on the market. It was developed in south Mississippi and is a cross of one of the University of Arkansas earlier thornless releases with something else. It does have a trailing growth pattern though, so needs active trellising. I have 4 I am trying along the 8b/9a line in Louisiana (I am also growing Osage, Ouachita, Prime Ark Traveler) the young Sweetie Pies are much less erect growing than any of my others, although I might categorize is as semi-erect vs trailing, I have a set of zigzagged cattle panels that I will be using as a trellis when they get big enough, right now they are only 18-24 inches tall, but they were planted relatively late from tissue culture plug around the first week of March.