this is a generic black/white/red wild cross of some kind, from a different tree, a root sucker. it’s years old now. last winter that fast early freeze got the branch tips and leaves, but it’s still alive.
it hasn’t fruited at all though! very frustrating. I live in northtown.
I’ve got one- put in late last year. it has leaves, I’ll have to see if it puts on growth this year.
So growing mulberry presents difficulty for you in the Spokane area? I was under the impression it would be fine in zone 5.
I’ve had no problem but for that one tree not fruiting. it’s 6b here in town but we get extreme, fast transition from very cold to very hot. our spring and fall last a week. it’s high desert. so the zone isn’t much to go by.
I’ve never tried to grow from a very small seedling, only from suckers rooted then grown on their own roots. I wonder if that matters. I know the black mulberries people prefer the most, are less cold hardy too. I’m not growing any of those, though.
That makes sense. The zone designation often doesn’t tell you the entire story. The other day I was talking to my buddy about how Brookings, Oregon and Palm Springs, CA are the same exact growing zone. Yet there are extreme differences between those places.
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Many folks – and many nurseries think they have Morus nigra but they don’t. There was a lot of buzz about M. nigra years ago and it got into the popular press and blogs … and all of a sudden every nursery and online seller had it … not. I’ve been duped by it a couple of times. There is a $25 test (ploidy test) to determine if the plant is M. nigra.
I’m growing several fruiting mulberry cultivars and species. M. nigra is not my favorite of the species, I prefer M. macroura. There are also some cultivars of other fruiting mulberry species I’d choose over M. nigra.
Oh I didn’t realize that was available at such a reasonable price! Can you point to the lab you recommend? I’d love to test the seedlings I’m growing from Sheffield’s seed company.
so whenever I go to get plants or to the feed store, I’ll drag my partner along to carry bags of dirt, plus I enjoy their company. they do not enjoy the feed store, so I tell them to pick something out when we go.
my partner has picked out a pretty big bare root nectarine. I’m not really sure what they need; full sun? warmth? if so, I’ve got a gap just big enough, between this dwarf plum and the corner of the fence (that ugly tree is getting cut back to leave only the trunk for beans to climb.) it’ll be ten feet from a semi dwarf pear and about ten feet from the plum.
do they need any shade? if I put it here, it won’t get any.
there’s a dead hibiscus in there somewhere from the last time my partner picked something out. I babied the thing for two years before giving up on it. (we are zone 6 and it was a zone 7+ plant)
Hibiscus outdoors in Spokane 
Tons of projects going on!! Well done.
I KNOW
he’s also chosen a peach, dahlias and glads. I’m not digging this stuff up every year! for flowers?
I spent the day with friends putting down cardboard and mulch from an old chip drop, planting in some pumpkins and squash, and cleaning up the front.
newly mulched around peach trees
some weed whacking
tulips doomed in the side, it’s full sun all summer out there and I only water the trees. you can see two that died last summer- I think a nine bark abd a serviceberry? both sold to me as local “drought proof” full sun plants… nope. nope.
no idea what will do well, so there’s crabapple and I think a cheap mulberry there now. and the surviving serviceberries.
I threw all the tulips I was pulling that were coming up outside their bed, and buried them in the side yard. also weed whacked. all the trees are leafing out except a harrow delight. I’ve got to spray grass out on the devil strip still, I keep putting it off.
Industrious!
my achin back.
Mine talks to me daily. Staying ambulatory is the key 
if I sit still it’s because I’m at my day job. I sit down there, 4 to 6 hours 3 or 4 days a week. I used to sit 10 hours a day, 6 days a week there. then come home and do my drawing for clients on my day off.
always on my ass! I’m glad I’m 27 years into the job so I can kick back a little.
oh, I pruned off every dead branch, cleaned and raked and planted beans up by the tree of doom from the ugly tree thread. maybe I should post it there, but here it is
chip drop came a day after I finished off the last of the pile from 2 years ago.
one day
they blocked my gate and tool shed. I had to move some by hand to get to the hay fork.
my partner helped with some wheelbarrowing, but I did the forking. all of it. I got an adult stepson living here who was busy working out in the AC to help… modern problems.
modern solutions:
I filled the entire side 8 inches deep.
gaps around each tree. 6 feet from the house. all the way to the sidewalk.
I’ve got to spread out what’s left so it doesn’t catch fire if it rains tonight. it’s a pile 6 feet deep and ten feet long. well, 5 feet long and 6 feet deep, now that I’ve been at it all day. my arms are pretty numb.
It’s okay to splurge and buy a set of three pairs of generic work gloves from home depot
