MULBERRY ‘CHARLOTTE RUSSE’
Article by David Marks
Mulberry trees have been grown in the UK dating back to Roman times but there are a large number of misconceptions about them. Firstly some truths, they are beautiful, large trees often reaching over 15m high depending on the variety. Aged examples display stunning gnarled and contorted branches.
As far as the fruit goes, one species is king for flavour, Morus nigra, commonly called the black Mulberry. White and red Mulberry fruits are most definitely second class and simply aren’t sold in the UK for their fruit.
In 2017 the RHS gave a new hybrid type of Mulberry, ‘Charlotte Russe’, the title of Chelsea Plant of the Year. The plus points for this new tree was that it fruits on old and new wood, producing fruit in as little as a year after planting. Your normal Mulberry tree would take about eight years from an initial cutting to produce fruit.
Even more dramatic is the fact that ‘Charlotte Russe’ is naturally dwarfing, growing to an average height of only 1.5m / 5ft making it ideal for small gardens and container growing.
But the RHS forgot to do the one thing which actually mattered, taste the fruit! The plant supplied to them had only unripe fruit on it and unripe mulberries are notoriously bad tasting. In fact, there is an art in harvesting mulberries at exactly the correct time to get that ever-so-fruity taste.
How could the RHS do that you may ask, I have also asked the same question? But there is not one single mention of the flavour of this new hybrid reported in 2017. Possibly because no one at the RHS had ever tasted the fruit in the UK?
As at 2018, the only UK supplier of Mulberry ‘Charlotte Russe’ is Suttons. Their only reference to the taste of this variety is a mere two words – “great tasting”. That’s it, literally! Lots of superlatives about its size, its speed of growth etc. but only two words about its taste.
The cost of this new variety (only available through Suttons) is £17.99 plus £4.99 postage, totaling £22.98. And that’s for a tree (if you call it a tree) which is 20cm / 8in high! That is truly, gob-smackingly, incredibly expensive, especially so because mulberry trees (including this variety) root almost 100% of the time from cuttings – propagation is almost foolproof.
Well, we have bought one, purely on the basis of maybe saving you the expense if it doesn’t prove to live up to expectations. But maybe it will, who knows? So expect an update to this article in 2018.
If you have bought a Charlotte Russe mulberry and would like to leave your comments about it then please scroll to the end of this article, read comments from others and then send in your own.
Suttons don’t state the full Latin name for this variety on their sales website, they simply call it Mulberry Bush Charlotte Russe. This is significant to us because from time immemorial, the only Mulberry tree fruit worth tasting is from the Morus nigra or black Mulberry. The other varieties are simply also-runs by a large margin.
We strongly suspect that Charlotte Russe is not a Morus nigra, it may be a one in a million chance interspecies hybrid, possibly between Morus nigra and a white Mulberry. But that seems very unlikely (if not impossible) because of the genetic make up of Morus nigra compared to other Mulberry varieties.
Genetically, Morus nigra has 308 chromosomes whilst other Mulberry trees have only 28 chromosomes making hybridisation between the two almost impossible. The Latin name of Charlotte Russe would seem to be Morus rotundiloba.
So far, we can find only one report on the internet of someone who has grown and tasted the fruits, the article can be found here. The lady who wrote the article (Beryl Randall) sums up the flavour as follows:
“When totally black they are juicy and taste very sweet but have absolutely zero flavour. When picked juuuuust before all the red vanishes they taste like a memory of mulberry, but have a slightly odd rubbery texture and not much in the way of juiciness”.
Certainly, I will report back in 2018 with my own impressions. For others who have purchased this “tree” from Suttons I would be extremely grateful to receive your comments / questions. There is a form at the end of this page where you can send them to us.
FEBRUARY 1st 2018
The Muberry Charlotte Russe arrived from Suttons in a commendable six days after ordering and you can see below how it looked after unpacking it.
Mulberry Tree as delivered from Suttons February 2018
Yes it does look a bit bedraggled but at this stage of year it should really be dormant so its appearance is not out of order. What is rather surprising is the very small size of the tree given that it cost £22.98 including postage. Expect the next update in late February to early March when we pot it up. In the meantime, we will keep it outside but in a protected position and against a house wall.
APRIL 19th 2018
All the fruit trees on my allotment are bursting into life now, except one, the Mulberry “Charlotte Russe” from Suttons. I won’t consign it to the compost heap just yet but to me it looks as dead as a dodo!
No sign of any buds at all. Very disappointed. I will give this tree a couple more weeks and if there is no sign of growth I will be asking Suttons for a refund. I will keep you updated.
OCTOBER 2018
The “tree” has been consigned to the compost heap, a complete waste of time.
COMMENTS / QUESTIONS LEFT BY OUR READERS
After initially thriving inside south facing conservatory last summer, the majority of fruit failed to ripen and those that did still tasted bland with rubbery texture. The plant although inside lost all its leafs through winter and started looking a little sorry for itself. Fast forward to this summer and WOW!
I decided after two years (2017/18) i would plant in garden and as soon as weather turned mild i transferred from pot to garden, up against fence panel so sheltered from direct sun (south facing garden).
Since transferring from pot the plant has doubled in size and in June began fruiting. I have literally just picked the first two which were fully ripe (that dark deep red colour that ripe mullberrys should go) and not only did juice explode over fingers the taste was great. Not as great as a traditional mullberry from tree but boy is it heading that way. Up to now there are only about 10 fruits in various levels of ripeness but i have just pruned the bush back to encourage fruit growth and hope to see it explode with fruit in next 8 weeks.
After initially thriving inside south facing conservatory last summer, the majority of fruit failed to ripen and those that did still tasted bland with rubbery texture. The plant although inside lost all its leafs through winter and started looking a little sorry for itself. Fast forward to this summer and WOW!
I decided after two years (2017/18) i would plant in garden and as soon as weather turned mild i transferred from pot to garden, up against fence panel so sheltered from direct sun (south facing garden).
Since transferring from pot the plant has doubled in size and in June began fruiting. I have literally just picked the first two which were fully ripe (that dark deep red colour that ripe mullberrys should go) and not only did juice explode over fingers the taste was great. Not as great as a traditional mullberry from tree but boy is it heading that way. Up to now there are only about 10 fruits in various levels of ripeness but i have just pruned the bush back to encourage fruit growth and hope to see it explode with fruit in next 8 weeks.
I potted it in a reasonable sized pot for it’s size ( small and pathetic). It started producing healthy looking Leaves, then about 10 fruits. They turned red, but when they got to the black colour they should have been – they started dropping off, even though it was in a sheltered spot, against a South facing wall.I tried one of the black berries and it tasted disgusting and an inedible texture.
I thought maybe it was only the first year, so I’d try it next year and hopefully get good fruit. But after reading all the comments, I feel bitter with Sutton’s who I purchased it from, with the same promise it would bear lovely fruit in the first year.
I’m absolutely appalled with Sutton’s misleading the public and think I too should get a full refund. They’re more than welcome for me to return the plant, but they can pay the P+P that I spent on a dud Mulberry.
Had plant in garden over summer and it looked reasonably healthy if a little slow to leaf and increase in size. At the end of July I started noticing several mullberry fruits appearing but not really increasing in size or changing colour from green. In September I brought plant inside my south facing conservatory and water it once a day and bam!
All of a sudden I’m counting approx 70 mullberry’s and the largest ones are starting to turn red. More leaves are appearing and looking a lovely light green. I know people have described the flavour as bland but I can’t wait to try, I’ll post results when they are ripe enough to eat.
REPLY: Do keep us updated because a few have produced fruit but so far not a single person has liked the taste.
Hoping it survives this winter outside.
RESPONSE: From the feed back I’ve had so far I have not heard of a single person who has harvested any decent fruit from this variety of tree. Either the tree dies or it lives but, like you, produces no useful fruit. I would ask for a refund because the tree is not fit for purpose.
There’s a fair bit of die back from an admittedly harsh winter, but it now has half a dozen leaves and has put a couple of inches of new growth on. I suspect a lot of those who thought theirs was dead might just have not been patient enough.
The taste of the berries wasn’t great last year though, hoping as it ages and now it’s in the ground that might improve. One interesting thing is that this year’s leaves are much bigger and much darker than last years, one was even more fig shaped that heart shaped. I’m in Durham, maybe further south it’d have broken dormancy a few weeks earlier and not suffered so much from the frosts – we were below -10 here for a few days.
I grew a mulberry from seed brought back from a Greek Island 9 years ago. It grows in a container and is around 4ft high. New growth is bursting from it, as usual. Thanks for your web site – it saved me from making a bad purchase. I’ll stick with my home grown mulberry and hope for fruit from it one day.
ANSWER: Suttons say they are fully hardy in the UK, and that’s exactly what you would expect from a fruit tree. I strongly suspect that there is a problem with this tree from Suttons. Ask them for a refund is my advice.
ANSWER: I agree with you 100%.
ANSWER: Thanks for that, I will contact them next week.
ANSWER: Interesting comment which matches my experience. I also have another reader who wrote to me direct before I added the comment section on this page, Their experience was exactly the same. It will be very interesting to know your experience of how Suttons respond to your request for a refund. Please do let me know how you get on.
This website is independent so can’t match the number of viewers of the company backed websites such as Gardeners Word but neither are we a small website. If you have no luck with your refund request I will try and take the matter further, using adverse publicity if necessary. Maybe other readers will also chime in with their experiences of Mulberry Charlotte Russe from Suttons.
UPDATE: Suttons replaced Tomas’s three mulberry trees after he complained.
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