The American landscape industry has done a disservice to the public and for wildlife by promoting fruitless (no messy fruit) mulberry trees as shade trees. They're not especially ornamental & male mulberries are notorious pollen producers as many allergy sensitive people are aware. The named varieties of mulberry we sell are all females, producing little or no pollen, but loads of sweet, nutritious fruit. Without a male, female mulberries produce seedless fruits that many people, birds, and other creatures find delicious.
The trick to avoid a mess is to plant in grassy areas away from patios, driveways, etc. where stain can be a problem. No staining varieties (White, Pink, Beautiful Day, Sweet Lavender or Pakistan) can also be planted.
Grown freely they can achieve the stature of a nice shade tree or with annual pruning they can easily be maintained as a bush since the fruits are produced on the new growth.
Best hardy variety. Extremely precocious, self fruiting, and heavy yielding over much of the summer. Illinois Everbearing Mulberry has a very sweet delicious flavor. Seedless. Zone 3- 8.
Dark fruited Korean variety. Earlier ripening than Illinois with very high quality firm fruit. Kokuso mulberry is reportedly even hardier than Illinois Everbearing and grown even farther North, up into Minnesota. Zone 4-9.
Large, sweet, black fruit ripening over a long summer season. The Mojo Dwarf mulberry variety is a Japanese selection by H. Matsunaga. It won1st prize at the Chelsea Flower Show where it was called "Charlotte Russe" .
Edible in the red stage when they have a raspberry like flavor, or in the black stage when they are among the finest flavored of hardy mulberries. Oscars Mulberry is very early ripening. Zone 5-9.
The king of mulberries. Fruit up to 4 1/2” long, sweet and flavorful. Very productive over a 2 month period. The maroon fruit doesn’t stain as easily because the fruit is firmer. Pakistan Mulberry is very vigorous. Zone 7-10.
Extremely flavorful sweet tart fruit. Round and juicy. Persian Fruiting Black Mulberry is best adapted to the Southwest and West Coast states. Grows to 25 ft. if left unpruned. Self-fruitful. Zone 7-10.