rspberry suckers

These suckers are this years growth and will form the canes on which next years (2012) fruit will grow. After fruiting you should cut out the canes that bore this years fruit and just leave these new ones.
Raspberies grow canes one year that fruit the following year, after which they should be cut down.

Hi Wurry & welcome to GoY. Reading your question I believe that you have an autumn fruiting raspberry as summer fruiting ones cease to fruit by September at the latest and are not growing new canes right now. This being the case my beloved Bulba has got it wrong :-) (it's okay we are married!) Autumn fruiting raspberries fruit on the current years canes. So, you need to cut last years canes to the ground and allow the new canes to grow, ideally this should have been done a few weeks ago but it is better to do now than to leave or you will get a much poorer crop overall. Next year cut the canes that fruited this year down to the ground in late February early March.

Could be, could be!

Thanks to you both. They are definitely the autumn fruiting variety, and I had already cut the old canes right back. I was confused really because the new growths seem to be coming up a long way from the 'mother' plant. I will try to tie them in and hope they all fruit - because last year they were delicious!
Rgds Wurry.