Another website gave "Rubus niveus" these alternate names:
Hill Raspberry,
Mysore Raspberry, < - - -
Black Raspberry,
Indian Raspberry
Searching the ATP Plant database for "Rubus niveus" gave five hits:
Hill Raspberry (Rubus niveus) < - - - -
(Rubus niveus var. furfuraceus)
(Rubus niveus var. pauciflorus)
(Rubus niveus var. sericeus)
(Rubus niveus subsp. leucocarpus)
Assuming "Hill Raspberry" is the one you want, another synonym might be "Ceylon Raspberry".
Hill Raspberry (Rubus niveus)
However, I see no photos and no descriptions of any of those varieties in our database!
Usually I would suggest saving a lot of effort and finding some variety you CAN grow in Zone 16. The other website database (pay-for-view) gives "Zone 11" as the hottest limit where they are likely to grow.
If you decide to try anyway, "Zone 11" makes it sound like they need to get down to 5C (40F) or lower.
Do they grow fast enough that you could take cuttings once each year, root them in pots, move the pots to a lighted cold room, then plant them and
get a crop from the first-year growth?
Elaine might be right, that they need
gradually falling temps to convince them to go into dormancy
before the big chill. I don't know.
Do you travel to colder climates often? Maybe transport rooted cuttings back and forth to the mainland - chill them elsewhere
You might ask first, about transporting species considered invasive in some places where they do thrive.
Or, if importing them to St. Croix IS legal, maybe get a mainland friend to ship you pre-chilled cuttings yearly.
It sounds to me like you might be taking on a lot of work. Are these really that much better than other raspberries?
On the other hand, if you succeed, you will have major, MAJOR bragging rights!
The other two places I can think of asking the same question (How to give Mysore Black Raspberries as much cold dormancy as they need) would be the Florida forum, and 'Edibles'
http://garden.org/forums/view/...
http://garden.org/forums/view/...
Maybe, perversely, someone in the "Tropicals" forum would have an idea:
http://garden.org/forums/view/...
Vines and Climbers?
http://garden.org/forums/view/...
When I "searched all forums" for "rubus", I got 9 threads where someone mentioned it. If you try that and then search each of those threads for the word, you might find some fans of the genus, and ask them if they know. One way to "ping" someone in a context is to post to a thread, perhaps this thread, or the thread where you found their name), their exact screen name preceded by an "@" sign like so:
@coconut.
