IE is a hybrid of native M.rubra with the introduced M.alba - as are quite a few really good ones, like Collier,David Smith, Stearns, and my own Lawson Dawson selection.

I'm very dubious that F2 seedlings - even if self-pollenized - would 'come true from seed'. If he's located in St.Louis, I'll guarantee that there's tons of M.alba pollen floating around - some good, some not so good. Unless he's doing controlled pollenation, there's no guarantee that the pollen parent of any seedling is not a small,bitter,or tasteless white mulberry. But,even if self-pollenized, the F2 generation will likely segrate over a wide range of disparate types and fruit quality.

Buy a grafted/budded IE and be done with it. Top producer here, with great fruit quality - but I'm experiencing a lot of 'popcorn disease' fruit infection the last couple of years.

Thanks lucky! I suspected this was the case. I am going to wait and buy a grafted IE. This gentleman was in New Orleans, however, I am sure there are other varieties floating around still which could have cross pollinated his tree. I was hopeful though, because the only mulberry my local nursery seems to carry is "Native Red Mulberry." I may have to order IE online. I would rather get it locally though, because the trees I got from Stark Bro's came basically as whips and are significantly behind all of the trees I bought locally in development. I imagine they wont have them back in stock until fall or spring. Oh well, probably best not to plant this late in the year anyway right?"

There was a really big mulberry with juicy mulberries in Chicago, Illinois and Jeffersonville, IN when I was a kid and I came across the same type in Zurich, Switzerland too when I worked there. All had red berries that turned purple when ripe and were really big trees.

I think they are run of the mill red mulberries from America. I only ever heard of white mulberries and black mulberries in trying to identify these two shrubs in my yard a couple of weeks ago.

As I have discovered two mulberries in my yard but I am not sure what they are yet as they have been repeatedly cut down to the stump and are more 'bushy' as a result.

I guess who ever planted them didn't realize the city won't let them get that big close to the utility lines like they are. I hope they are the America red mulberries or whatever those mulberries that are purple and good to each in the later part of the summer.

Good luck.

I have grown some mulberries from seed and the results are all over the map as far as flavor. I had stumbled upon some short bushy plants at a park, they were fruiting while the "trees" were less than 8 feet tall. Of all the seeds I got and planted each plant has different colored fruit and different flavor - at least they fruit while young and seem to want to be bushes instead of trees. In the woods beside my house there is a long row of mulberry trees and none of them have decent flavor and some of them have no flavor at all!

If flavor matters, stick with grafted plants.

I plan on grafting some of my Illinois Everbearing and Wellington onto these bushy forms in the future.

Thanks for the tips! I am going to take this advice and get a grafted one.

I ordered 2 IE mulberry from brunt ridge. Both times they sent well rooted nice trees. I would order from them.