Please help identify what kind of mulberry tree I got from mail order

At 11 feet you will know in one more year exactly what you have. What’s the worse case scenario? You can graft it over and have a vigorous rootstock tree if its not what they say. The pictures do look like its a male but the blooms look bigger than any I have seen. In this case I’m not at all sure and would wait it out. Male mulberries can be grafted to females so either way it will work out.

We can’t really take care of a massive tree as we live in a small area and have to do the maintenance ourselves. If this turns out to be some kind of giant tree without fruits we definitely want to remove it asap and plant a true black beauty mulberry or any kind of semi dwarf mulberry with fruits that drought tolerant. I think we can wait another year although too bad the birds won’t have any fruits either then this year. What should we look for next year how can we tell next year what we have. If there are no fruits again next year or if the fruit is white or red then that means for sure its not black Beauty ?

It looks like a male alba to me. Hopefully a mulberry expert will show up here, but it looks like you have a dud. Willis is not a reliable nursery so its not a big surprise.

Mulberries can be kept shorter with summer pruning, I would still consider grafting it over. You could also put multiple varieties on the one tree.

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Just so you know, Last year I posted a photo of the Black Beauty that I bought from Willis Orchards 2 years ago. Everyone who saw the photo and heard my description of how fast it was growing told me it was NOT a real Black Beauty. Mine is still dormant this year so I don’t know if its going to bloom/behave like yours, but I’m pretty sure we both got burned from Willis!

i hate to break it to you, but not only is it not a morus nigra(black beauty), but from what i see as noted by @clarkinks , those seem to be male catkins.

white mulberries may have white, red, pink, or black fruits at maturity
red mulberries don’t have white fruit, and only comes in deep red/maroon/dark berries when mature or near maturity
rubra-alba ‘crosses’ are all dark fruited as far as i know
nigra’s(such as black beauty) are all dark-fruited when ripe

nigra’s are the easiest to identify from the rest, simply looking at the buds(black or darkbrown), the leaves, and the growth habit of the stems/leaves.

And if fruiting, by how the fruits are borne.

the nursery is wrong about it being black beauty. And that nursery is not even a place where true nigras are grown.

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FYI, @Saskatoon , here is a link to the 4 photos I posted of my suppossed black beauty from Willis Orchards. Just curious, does this look like yours. It may look more bushy because I let 2 equal scaffolds grow 3 inches from ground (as shown on photot) so its sort of like 2 trees attached together at the base (and it may split there one day). It was actually on 3rd leaf last year and has never bloomed/fruited.

Hi I tried to look at your mulberry bush and it does seem similar to mine. Because the leaves some look heart shaped and some other shapes and the fact that they don’t have fruits but mine is more of a single trunk tree. It seems strange that the trees are not producing fruits. I was readin about black beauty trees and they seems to bear fruit even when very small trees. So it’s not really making sense we have large trees that don’t fruit

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Can anyone suggest the best place to get a true black beauty mulberry that is self fertile and only grows to about 15 feet that I can order online ? I

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I bought another to replace mine at Grow Organic/Peaceful Valley.They are not available now,but probably will be again at the end of year or beginning of next.
Whitman Farms,I think has them sometimes.Lucile looks likes she knows her stuff.
Burnt Ridge Nursery has one they are calling a Dwarf Black,but I’m not sure. Brady

Saskatoon,

If it turns out that you have an alba and/or rubra, then I would recommend you topwork it with the Geraldi cultivar. Geraldi is a natural dwarf that is compatible.

I got some wood from a generous forum member here that I will be grafting soon.

Maybe I could share some wood with you next year.

Geraldi also goes by several other erroneous names, such as Gerardi, Girardi, Giraldi, etc etc.

Definitely not black beauty. True BB fruit are formed on very short stems. Also, the leaves are too thin, BB’s leaves are thicker. My BB, 4 years in a pot, is barely 3.5 feet tall.

Those catkins are male. I bet either you or someone in your family gets stuffy and stays that way the entire time that tree is in bloom. I’ve got Illinios Everbearing, Sweet Lavender, Black Beauty and Kokuso. IE will be getting a severe haircut (think pollarding) in a couple weeks, I’d you want to graft yours over. Be warned, Illinios Everbearing is a fast-growing big tree. (At about 10 years the trunk is about 5-6 inches in diameter). SL and K will also be getting much smaller prunings as well (SL is just 2nd year and I’m taking out one of the leaders) Kokuso, at 5-6years is only about 8-10 feet tall. All of them fruit, though BB does so very lightly (because it’s in a pot I suspect).

Scott

I read that black beauty fruits over an extended period of time and that the berries are smaller also that if you cut the tree back after its finished fruiting then it can fruit again. I saw that bay laurel nursery had black beauty but they are old sold out for this year and their season is closed until December

both sell true nigras.
and i agree with @Matt_in_Maryland that gerardi/geraldi is the only alba which is a true dwarf and which will likely survive frigid winters better than nigras.
gerardi actually has shorter internodes than nigras.

I believe the USDA suspects that Geraldi is an alba/nigra hybrid.

Here is the link with more information:

https://npgsweb.ars-grin.gov/gringlobal/accessiondetail.aspx?1564295

not doubting that one, as it is just as slooooooow-growing as nigras! Branches are also tortuous, just like true nigras.
actually bit the bullet by buying a 7 ft nigra tree, as the two foot tall ones have painstakingly been growing 6 inches in height and width, the past 3 years, considering that we have long growing seasons here.

please don’t cut them back, especially if it is a true nigra! Not only are these slow-growing, but just like pakistani’s and many alba’s, they fruit on branches(usually laterals) which are at least one year old. Which means you’ll be regressing to a waiting time of more than a year

This mulberry when I got it about 1.5 years ago was a bare root 6 foot tall tree. In its fist year it grew about 4 feet. It was pretty surprising. It is covered in flowers that have dried up and are falling off. No fruits. I thought that some black mulberries also fruit over an extended period of time and that occurrs later in the summer. So it’s strange that this one flowers so soon in the year the flowers developed actually before it leaves out.

Does anyone know about the dwarf everbearing black mulberry that is sold everywhere online like Amazon. It’s advertised at a bush that grows 2-6 feet high. But in other places I saw it advertised to grow 10-20 feet. Are these all the same plant? Is there some kind of a dwarf black everbearing mulberry bush and also a black dwarf tree as well. What’s the difference between a black beauty mulberry tree and the dwarf everbearing mulberry bush ? Does the black beauty bear the fruit all at one time or over an extended period of time? Everywhere I look things are advertised as different names and characteristics.

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I agree with everyone else a male catkin they are normally longer and thinner. My Black Beauty from Grow Organics is still alive but but doesn’t like the southeast. Not a real surprise but I hold out hope. My Geraldi on the other hand is a fine little tree Pic below from today Those nodes are close and last year I eat more from this tree than any other mulberry and at eye level. I really like the structure of this tree.The taste is not Nigra, but I enjoy it. I wonder about the albaXnigra I know UC Davis has changed what they list some Mulberry before. Am I the only one that seems to find inconsistency on that species they are listed as. I forget which one I was looking at a couple years ago and saw it listed as 3 different species

And I found a pic of Geraldi last summer

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