Odds are all Gurney's is going to sell you is seedling grown stock, especially if not specifically advertised as a named variety in the catalog.

I have the Illinois Everbearing, and it really is a wonderful mulberry, enormous fruit and very flavorful and sweet.

Haven't tried the other one, so can't comment.

A lot of places sell I.E. -- personally, I'd kind of stay away from the whole Gurney's/Fields consortium. I have ordered from them in the past, but results are "iffy" - things often are NOT as labeled or poor quality, or both, and customer service tends to be surly and rude.

I had Illinois everbearing for 5 years and after a winter experiencing -21F for a low, it never came back. Not sure what others experiences are when its hit the -20s for this cultivar.

I didn't get to eat its fruit as much as I would have wanted before its demise. The times I did, was usually not great, maybe was picking it too soon in anticipation. Because I remember tasting its fruit on a particular day and the warmth of the day and the vivid flavor fed me images of sitting in a tropical heaven. Hmm, maybe I'll try the tree again in the future.

I got the northrop for cold insurance purposes, but haven't been able to try its fruit yet since its young.

In general, seedlings of white mulberry grow everywhere here , so I have alot of variety already to eat. If you don't have feral mulberries growing around there, you'll probably have to stick with trying the northrop. Because even if its average tasting, would beat having no mulberries at all.

I planted Illinois Everbearing and it has done minus twenty in upstate NY two seasons. Some dieback on vigorous late season growth tips. If I had feral mulberries everywhere I would graft over them with IE. Mulberry grafts will take only when the temps are warm.

Here is a link that might be useful: Morus Alba $2.97

That's impressive, maybe my I.E. died as a fluke and had subpar roostock or any other reasons I can't think of.

Though quite honestly, I tend to gravitate towards the white mulberries that just ooze sugary sweetness. But its still fun checking out the cultivars and seeing what the hype is about.

and about your link, 4seasons nursery is a bad nursery that most people give negatives, too. Just heads up if anybody thought that is good place to order from.

Yeah, I ordered that one from Gurney's a while back, and it was certainly a seedling Morus alba, or White mulberry (sometimes called Russian mulberry). The measly little bare-root twig they sent never even leafed out. Denninmi probably has good advice about avoiding Gurney's. Now I only order seeds from them.

You could also look into a native red mulberry, M. rubra, which occurs naturally all the way up into Vermont. They have numerous small but delicious fruit.

I bought eight 2-3' Morus Alba for $21.80 + shipping from fourseasons. This is a great deal and I will post the condition of these when I get them in two months. I am pulling out some potted figs and the Mulberries will be easy to graft and transplant when they are potted.

fab native,
Every M.rubra I've had occasion to sample had fruits significantly larger(and much tastier!!!) than any of the typical fencerow/ditchbank/vacant lot M.alba weeds that abound in urban/suburban areas here.

IE is the 'gold standard' for mulberries here in my orchard, but I'm well aware, from conversations with friends who've grown it elsewhere, that performance varies from place to place - and in some localities, other varieties may surpass it.
IE should be fully hardy in zone 5, but I've seen reports of folks in zone 4 and some colder areas of 5 having problems with winterkill, etc. If your IE is grafted low enough that you can plant with the graft union below ground level, even if you get a really severe winter kill - back to the ground - it should re-sprout and re-grow. I've handled varieties too tender to survive z6 in that manner, with some success.

I got my IE from Whitman Farms. I had the chance to visit there when I was in Oregon. Lucile swore that she liked Oscar better than IE, so I did buy both but the Oscar was girdled last winter by mice. The IE did survive -16 in the winter of 2010.

Personally I would steer clear of Gurney's.

Here is a link that might be useful: Whitman Farms

Everyone, Thanks for the info.
I plan to order the IE. I also ordered the hardy ones from Gurneys and I am sure they are not as good as IE. They are offering a $20 off deal so the 2 mulberries will only cost me $6.95. I figure I can always use them for root stock for the IE. In years past I have heard of the bad press about Gurneys but I have to give credit where credit is due. All of their fruit trees I have ordered in the past have been very good and the one that died they replaced quickly. I have also had good luck with many of the other nurseries and especially SLN.
I am glad to hear that mulberries can easily be grafted, layered or sprouted.
Thanks again.

I have two of the Gurneys mulberries that I ordered when I first got into this hobby/part-time-job and before I knew better. The fruit from the seedlings is lousy compared to IE and I am grafting mine over to other varieties.

I have ordered some proprietary varieties from the Gurneys conglomerate over the years since, and the quality has been ok, but does not approach that of the best nurseries. Even with the coupons, their trees are still overpriced. In my experience, they do honor their refund/replacement policy with no hassle or charge, though.

Old post but for anyone wondering I am growing Illinois Everbearing in Canada zone4b with low temps of -34C (-29f). Had abranch die last winter but it was the one that had grown the most (8+ feet). Some tip dieback on other branches but 90% of the wood is fine. Good production of fruit. Rootstock is probably some seedling mulberry from Montreal (zone 5).

Ok, I'm very late to this discussion, but hopefully someone will answer; here goes:

I want to plant a Illinois Everbearing mulberry tree in my garden in the middle of Sweden. As far as I can understand it would survive the temperature which in wintertime seldom goes under -20 degrees Celcius, but beeing as far north as we are here means that the summers and autumns are short when it comes to light (In the summer we have many sun-hours, but autumn comes early). This may have the effect that the I.E. doesn't prepare itself for winter fast enough and so dies down instead.

Is there anyone here who has grown the Illinois Everbearing far north, like in the Yukon territory or northern Quebec or Newfoundland? Around the 60th parallel maybe. Or of course in Norway, Finland or Russia ...

/Tomas

I don't have any experience growing mulberry in the far north, but I would say give it a try. My understanding about damage from early fall freezes has more to do with the sudden change from warm weather to freezing, as it catches the plants by surprise. This is actually more of a problem at lower latitudes I would think. As long as your transition from summer into fall/winter is gradual you might be fine growing mulberries.