It’s not unusual at all. Morus nigra grows throughout my country and Balcans, Bulgaria is our neighbor country, so I believe the situation is similar. And not only morus nigra, also morus rubra and morusa alba. My place is in zone 6 also. It grows like a tree not like a bush. Trees are very large. Once had a lot of trees, nowadays less. Morus wood was used and still using to make barrels for wine and rakija (our alcohol drink).
It is growing rapidly, i had in my yard 2 seedlings. Probably brought by birds and grew almost 2m (6ft) in one year. Father grafted both of them at about 1m high and they grow for another season another 2m. He took the scions from our neighbor, supposedly it have big fruit. One was given to a friend, and the 2nd is planted on a plot next to ours. We will see this year if it will give fruit.
I have one question about the topic. What’s the taste of Illinois Everbearing and pakistan mulberry ? My friend from here is interested in them, so I want to know whether to engage in procurement or not.
It is here, the nigra strains we have will not survive zone 6 or just barely hang on producing little to no fruit. We have albas like that too, Pakistan is one of them. I can’t tell you how it tastes as it will not survive in zone 6 where I live. Illinois Everbearing is a good fruit, although I actually do not grow it. At least not yet.
Thanks for the info it is a relief that this hardy strain is alive and well. In Bulgaria the articles I read said the biggest tree is dying and efforts to clone it failed.
I will photograph the fruits and trees that I see in the village during the summer and I’ll post them here. As much as I know the morus does not freeze here. Here in nurseries it says that survives up to -20C or -4F
That’s really good, although here we can go to zone 5 temps. I know I will never get one to live here, but if I grow in a large pot I can move to attached garage in the coldest part of winter.
Here is one night a few winters ago. Even all my peach and plum fruit buds were killed this year.
I love the serrated edges on nigra leaves. The best looking mulberry leaf I saw was on Shangri La, about a foot long, beautiful large leaves. A very pretty tree. We had an early fall freeze in 2017 and it killed my tree. The first freezing temps of the year and it was 21F that cold damaged all but two of my figs. Killed 2 figs, 2 mulberry trees and 3 of my crossed peach trees (Arctic Glo x Indian Free) I decided not to replace the mulberries, well with the same trees. i went for the hardy mulberries like Oscar, Wellington, Sweet Lavender etc.
I crossed again Arctic Glo and Indian Free last summer and have 2 seedlings under lights right now
nigras can survive 17F unprotected outdoors in vegas conditions, so yours should have some leeway
i share the same sentiments, considering that it is growing on own roots. There’s still the likelihood that it was grown in crowded , low-light conditions and over-watered, so hopefully it is just that which resulted in alba-type growth. Or perhaps grown from seed(?)
i remember that and actually felt sorry you had to remove it. That was definitely a nigra from what could recall.
I do not, Richard is one of the most knowledgeable plant people I know. He owned his own nursery that sold trees, retired now. Richard has his own line of fertilizer products he sells. Their is no way he bought a fake nigra. You could not fool an old tree nurseryman that easily. Kinda like saying Tom Spellman bought a fake nigra. .
quite certain @Richard knows his stuff. He’s quite passionate about this endeavor we all share. As with most other posts in this good forum, the concern @chriso and i brought up was nothing more than brotherly heads-up, and not intended to slight anybody’s expertise. Perhaps we are wrong about the concern.
speaking for myself, i am actually so much happier proven wrong than proven right. It is way more enlightening. I don’t gain extra knowledge if am right.
My apologies as I’m constantly questioned about my knowledge, and after 7 years of the same person still doing it, it is getting old very quickly. I didn’t mean to take it out on you. I know you have loads of experience too. I could have worded that a lot better.
We are very lucky to have both you and Richard here. I’m a much better grower thanks to both of you.
it happens to me quite often too. A dose of sincerity and humility in one’s responses often works, and if that still fails, putting a light-hearted humorous spin to the ‘tit for tat’ often will 
You’re a better person than me. I will try to take your advice.
As far as my experience Fred Hoffman (Farmer Fred) once said “the more plants you kill the better gardener you become.” I keep telling myself that!
well you just did take my advice! But have to say we are all peers and students here. No one should think of one’s self being better than the other.
When i first met Richard I liked him as he says what he thinks. I met him on the tomatoville forum. Well I often do too, one needs to think a little more before they speak. So I too have this tendency to have no filter. I blame my wife, she pisses more people off than anybody I know. She really has absolutely no filters! Man do I have stories because of it! The best is the 3 MSU football players she pissed off, that ended badly, mostly for me!
Anyway back to Richard well that tendency to say how it is got him banned from tomatoville… He was right on what he said, and they should not have banned him!! That still irks me. I talked to him about it on the Dave Wilson Nursery forums. Anyway I invited him here and he came.
That was years ago already, will someone put the breaks on time please?
@Richard and i do get into some exchanges too. Like myself, am sure he doesn’t take it personally either. Or he stopped taking it personally, if there may have been a time that he actually did lol
actually find people who challenge and engage the blurbs i post here quite interesting, and will respectfully go out of my way to consider and analyze the points conveyed in the challenge
hey, if you build it, @Richard will come. So everyone better step aside 
Yeah I probably owe Richard an apology now for bringing this up! Sorry!
What is the best technique to propagate Morus Nigra on its own roots? Would hardwood cuttings work?
I got some extra cuttings beyond what I have rootstock for.
have never tried propagating nigra’s as cuttings and airlayers, and from what have gleaned online it is not easy to do. And hopefully online info is wrong. @Richard is perhaps the first usa resident in this forum to post a picture of a supposed nigra supposedly on own roots(not propagated from seed-- but as cutting from mature tree). Hopefully he’ll continue to post updates about what could possibly be a blue chip rarity.
Hardware cuttings do not work well. Softwood cuttings is the way to go with decent results. But in general morus nigra is not easy to root from cuttings.
Either are blueberries, but will root with a misting system. I suspect so will nigra.
I may try it in the future. Another way to root blueberries is air layers.