Morus × ‘Illinois Everbearing’ – Mulberry

This variety has a sweet-tart flavor that is considered by many to be the best amongst the hardy Mulberries. It originated as a chance seedling found in Illinois in 1947 and commercialized in 1958. Fast growing, self-fertile and bears at a very early age. Ripens over several weeks in Summer, hence the varietal name. Birds love the fruit as much as people. The first year or two they may beat you to most of the fruit, but as the tree matures there is more than enough for birds and people. Deer love mulberry – you’ll need to cage your tree or otherwise protect it from browsing.

A 2022 genetic analysis indicates ‘Illinois Everbearing’ is primarily derived from our native Red Mulberry (M. rubra) with a small trace of non-native White Mulberry (M. alba) introgression. Even so, we continue to list the variety as a hybrid, though it’s probably about as close as we are going to get to being able to offer Red Mulberry given the difficulty in finding the species in our area from which to collect seed; sourcing from other growers is problematic due to misidentification issues by nurseries not familiar with trait differences between the two species. Pure Red Mulberry CAN be found in more southern states, where introgression from White Mulberry appears rare (partially due to differences in flowering phenology and partly due to the species occurring primarily at different locations – White Mulberry in more urban areas, Red Mulberry in more forested areas). However, southern provenance trees are almost certainly going to have cold-hardiness issues in our area.