you did! If the berries are good, and the tree is hardy to your location, that’s what matters most, as many cultivar-hoarders could attest-- there will always be totally different cultivars of the same name, and there will be totally similar cultivars with different aliases
even possible it may have been obtained from a yet unnamed seedling of wellington parentage.
Right on @jujubemulberry.
I’m also hoping Kokuso turns out to be something better than average. I have a graft and my buddy has several and we got to try the fruit this year. It was nothing special. It was easily agreeable between us. I’m hoping with age the fruit will become better.
Kokuso has the same flavor as 9 out of 10 wild alba seedlings here. Age certainly could be a benefactor for Kokuso or so I hope it is.
Dax
Is this the “Wellington” you sold on Ebay?
I have a tree purchased as ‘Wellington’ from some PNW nursery (may have been OGW) 25 years ago. It’s an albaXrubra hybrid… and the sorriest one I’ve grown. We don’t even bother picking from it… and the birds don’t even like it all that well.
Chris Homanics sent me ‘Boyleston Everbearing’ scions this spring… another variety name with ‘-ton’ at the end.
I am also growing a Wellington from Raintree Nursery, propagated at Whitman Farm. I like this one quite a bit compared to the 6 other varieties of mulberry I’m growing here in Western WA. The flavor of the medium-sized fruit is very good, nice mix of sweet with just enough tart to keep it interesting. It’s the first to ripen for me, and it’s still ripening fruit after many of the others are finished, so I suspect this may be part of the ‘everbearing’ family of mulberry varieties that ripen over a long period.
I’ll also weigh in that this cannot be a M. nigra - in my zone 8 we can barely grow Pakistan, and any M. nigra wouldn’t stand a chance.
lauraflora,
What other mulberry do you have? I’ve struck out twice with Wellington and had pretty much decided to move on.
I’m in 8b and have Pakistan as well as a couple of nigra. The Pakistan died back the first year but since hasn’t had damage.
Hey, Murky -
Sorry for the delay in reply. At our hobby farm in Onalaska we grow the following varieties:
El Dorado - white mulberry fruit with occasional blushes of lavender, and it’s very tasty - with the dense sweetness and honey flavor of many white mulberries, and good size to the fruit. It took a long time to grow up - it’s 7 years in the ground and just got past 5’ - but I don’t give it supplemental water.
Shangri-La - beautiful large leaves but kind of a bust for fruit quality and especially quantity. Medium-sized fruit without any real characteristic flavor. It’s ok, but not great.
Illinois Everbearing - newly planted, but gave us fruit right away. I’m looking forward to seeing how this performs in the next few years.
Wellington - this everbearing variety is clearly my current favorite! I’m going to start calling it Wellington Everbearing to distinguish it from the British Wellington that seems to be underwhelming. Fruit is good size, narrow but longer than most, and the flavor is just excellent! Skin is very thin so my hands are always stained after picking these, but I don’t mind at all.
Silk Hope - recently planted. Not getting much summer water, so it’s pouting.
Dwarf Mulberry (own root) - also recently planted, but not doing well at all, even with regular water.
Pakistan - I’ve managed to kill 3 of these. They tend to come out of dormancy early and buds swell in March, then we have more cold and wet weather and they just die. It’s so odd - I’m at 600’ above sea level in the Cascade Range foothills, and I can’t get this to grow to save my life. That said, my neighbors up the road at Burnt Ridge Nursery are an additional 500’ above my elevation, on a steep south-facing slope, and they have hundreds of Pakistans planted and kept very short. They sell the fruit at local farmers markets and make jam and wine from them - and they do great! I guess the combination of all-day sun and a slope that allows cool air to drain away is better for Pakistan.
What I have learned about mulberries in the 7 years I’ve been growing them is that the PNW is really unsuited for them without a bunch of intervention in the first few years of establishment due to these 2 reasons: