I’m looking into mulberries that are hardy to zone 6. I have a few rooted cuttings from productive local trees, but I want to see what a few of the other selections look like. I’m thinking 3 or 4 varieties? If any don’t leaf out too early and get zapped by early frosts that would be an added bonus. I’m not looking to collect them all, but I think having a small mulberry grove to fill a freezer for smoothies would be amazing.
So far I’m looking into getting cuttings of Miss Kim, Kokuso, Illinois Everbearing, Maple Leaf, and maybe Easter Egg to have a lighter colored one in the mix. I’m not entirely set on the lighter colored mulberries, since I like the darker juice anyways.
Are there any real winners for cold climates I might be missing? I’m assuming each of these has the potential to grow into a full-sized tree. Any recommendations on spacing if I will be doing minimal pruning?
Also does anyone know if maple leaf is hardy or not? I saw it listed as alba x rubra so I would assume so.
Maple Leaf is an alba and typically they are very cold hardy but I don’t think Maple Leaf is. It buds out “very early” and wouldn’t work in z5 but might in z6
Sorry @rubus_chief …I haven’t received any feedback as to its cold hardiness, but I feel that it probably can’t take a zone 5 winter since it buds out very early in the spring. Bass Samaan (of Facebook’s Mulberry Growers) might be able to provide some insight since I believe that he named the cultivar (but I could be mistaken). Let us know if you get any info on it.
You should be good with any Rubra hybrid and might look at Silk Hope (some prefer over IE) or Kip Parker (again some prefer over IE)
IE will be good for you. I have issues with Popcorn Disease on it here in southern KY, but mainly on the first flush of berries.
Silk Hope is a must-have, in my opinion.
Oscar’s has been around for quite a while, and I’ve never seen a bad review on it.
Lawson Dawson, which I introduced, is good, and has drawn favorable reviews from folks in NJ & VT.
Kip Parker is one I’m really looking forward to fruiting here in the next couple of years.
Our friend Kevin @thecityman introduced us to ‘Orlinda’, which I’m hoping fruits for me next year… it looks like a very heavy producer.
Kokuso was just ‘meh’ for me, and I removed it a couple of years back - but performance of mulberries varies from place to place, so it may be great for others.
I’ve mostly avoided pure albas, opting only for hybrids and a few pure rubras. I’m not a ‘purist’, by any stretch of the imagination, but I mostly detest the growth habits of most albas, and have rarely found a pure alba that I liked enough to do more than sample the berries, much less propagate them for anything other than rootstocks.
have you tried any of Cliff’s alba tatarica selections like Taylor 1? This year I was given 2 other England selections that were said to be better then Taylor- GH-1 and Lucille. Neither took so Im wondering if I should seek them out again.Anyone?
albas I have include Honeydrops, White Ivory, Beautiful Day and will try and graft several other varieties this spring (hopefully sangue e latte, narechena, among them)
I love what Buzz is trying to do, finding new trees, esp cold hardy ones. I have “Shaker Village” from him, a probable IE seedling that he found in PA that might have a longer fruiting period than IE “well into August” per Buzz.
But I thought Taylor #1 was this super cold hardy mulberry that had ok fruit but was for people limited to z3-4 that couldn’t grow more well known varieties
if it is really good or there are alba tataricas worth growing, I would be all for them; I think we are becoming spoiled when Kokuso is becoming meh since there are so many high quality ones to grow (and we cant grow nigras, which are at the top of the list) and so where does Taylor #1 fit, when other better tasting ones don’t get people excited.
Would love to learn more about Taylor GH-1 and Lucille (and Orlinda)
you’re probably thinking of ‘Trader’. ‘Taylor’ is a Cliff England selection from KY. One seedling from a batch of tatarica seeds given to Cliff by someone named Taylor as I understand it
Taylor is an alba tatarica, so it will be cold hardy and alba tataricas are most well-known for being rootstocks (and not well known for having great fruit)
Trader is a rubra hybrid, but also super hardy
while they are different names, I think they are planted for the same reason
That’s good to know, since I’d love to get more cultivars going here. With the price of nursery trees these days most of us are better off doing our own propagation and grafting. When I first started planting this orchard 4 years ago the average price for a grafted tree at the local nurseries was around $30, it’s now $80! I think there’s some gouging going on. I’d like to see proof of increased production costs that justify nearly 300% increases.
The only pure albas that I have are ‘Sicilian Black’ - purchased from Lucille Whitman when she was still advertising it as M.nigra… which it is not, and ‘Black Beauty’, purchased in the mid-1990s when I did not know what shysters the folks at TyTy were… it’s nothing more than a nondescript alba seedling with tiny little tasteless berries that even the birds pass up… mainly because all the GOOD mulberries are bearing at the same time.
I detest the trashy growth habit of most albas - and some of the hybrids. We bought a bundle of 100 ‘Red Mulberry’ seedlings from the KY Div. of Forestry nursery some years ago… there was not a M.rubra in the bunch… all are hybrids, and many have that trashy M.alba habit suggesting that they are probably from rubraXalba hybrids back-crossed to alba.
I did graft a couple of ‘Honeydrops’ this spring, from scionwood sent by a friend, but I didn’t realize at the time that it was an alba… and a barely-pigmented selection at that. IDK if I’ll plant them or not… I’ve never encountered a white-fruited alba in the wild that had more than a barely sweet, grassy flavor… not to my liking. Perhaps it will be useful as a drying berry, as touted… IDK.
Thanks for all the info here. Definitely given me a few more avenues to research before I start going at it.
My list is now looking like Illinois Everbearing, Silk Hope, Kokuso, Oscar, and Taylor 1. I was going to put in an order at fruitwood nursery for Silk Hope and IE scion for grafting since I have a few rootstock seedlings to use. Looks like some sellers on Figbid have Kokuso and Oscar cuttings that are reportedly on the easier side to root.
Any chance anyone has to prune back their mulberries this winter? I want to set up a bottom heat propagation bed for figs, mulberry, honeyberry, seaberry, etc. so I’ll have to find somewhere to scrounge some sticks.
I have two seedling mulberries which popped up in the orchard and were moved to the barnyard, one comparable, if not better than IE(‘Corral’)… that I thought were seedlings of IE, . However, I’ve had folks more knowledgeable than me who suggested that IE is a triploid, and unlikely to produce viable seed. IDK.
