Black Italia is a modern hybrid mulberry with a naturally sweet flavour. The fruits ripen over a long period during the summer They can be eaten before they are fully ripe if you prefer a crisp sweet/sharp flavour, or left to ripen fully, at which point they have a naturally high sugar content.
Despite the name, this is actually a white mulberry, producing relatively large black or red fruits.
Black Italia flowers in April and the blossom has some resistance to late frosts.
Fruits are produced on this year's growth, so hard pruning is possible if you want to train the tree.
Mulberries are sweet fruits which bruise easily and do not keep. For this reason they are rarely available in shops, and growing your own is a good option.
Most mulberries are relatively slow-growing fruit trees which eventually get quite large. They are easy to grow, and generally unaffected by diseases, and usually self-fertile.
Mulberries come out of dormancy very late in the spring, around the end of May, when most other trees are already in full leaf.
The fruit is borne throughout the canopy of the tree, out of reach from the ground. The usual method of picking is by shaking the branches when the fruit is ripe in July - August. However you may need to net the tree (or some of the branches) as the fruits are popular with birds.
Pruning is not usually necessary. However mulberries generally fruit on this season's growth, so hard-pruning is a good way to control size, or to aid in training the form of the tree.
Being naturally slow-growing most mulberries can be grown in large pots or planters for a decade or more, although trees grown this way may eventually need to be planted in open ground.
Our mulberry trees are either grafted on Morus alba rootstock, or raised directly from cuttings. In either case they will eventually become full-size standard trees.
This variety description was researched and written by Orange Pippin staff. Last checked: 2024.