blackberry summer n chiefly S Midl
= blackberry winter n.
1907 Jonesboro Eve. Sun (AR) 18 Oct [2]/1, Blackberry summer has arrived. 1924 Sikeston Std. (MO) 13 May [7]/2 (newspaperarchive.com), This blackberry summer and our b. v. d’s. make it very unpleasant for us old folks. It doesn’t seem to handicap the bob-haired flapper, who looks to wear fewer garments than ever. 1940 Charleston Gaz. (WV) 23 June 4/7, Charleston’s “blackberry summer” weather continued last night after the temperature had hit a low of 46 degrees. . . Unseasonal coolness at the time of the summer solstice’s beginning was given the name “blackberry summer” when oldtimers in the Virginias noted that this brand of weather seemed to hit the same [time] summer blackberries are best. 1946 PADS 6.6 NC, VA, Blackberry summer. . . The season when blackberry vines are in bloom. Rainy weather is said to prevail. 1960 NW AR Times (Fayetteville) 20 May 4/7, Our recent prolonged cold spell is known in some circles as “Blackberry winter.” Heard one neighbor calling it “Blackberry summer.” Maybe the length had to do with about three winters all rolled into one—dogwood and whip-poor-will, along with blackberry. 1974 Casa Grande Dispatch (AZ) 21 June 4/6, They used to talk about blackberry summer when the weather turned chilly for a few days in late spring or early summer, but we seem to have missed that. 1987 Esquire 108.20, Blackberry summer is the name that people who know their briers and brambles give to a certain time of year. Sometimes it occurs as early as May or even as late as September, but the pattern is always the same. For weeks the sun lolls around hot in the sky like a dog panting on its leash. Then, without notice, a breeze shuffles in, a wind hits hard as the thunder begins; the rain falls fast for a few hours, maybe a couple of days. When the storm clears, the blackberry bushes spill open into clusters of pink and white flowers.