Ruth Nakamura · July 10, 2026
I’m Ruth Nakamura, a backyard orchardist nestled in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, where I’ve spent the last 15 years cultivating a diverse array of mulberries. My journey began with a simple curiosity about these delightful fruits, and over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of growing 12 different cultivars in my own yard, including Black … Read more
Ruth Nakamura · July 4, 2026
It was an unusually dry spell that May — the kind that catches you off-guard in the Pacific Northwest — and I found myself watering my young white mulberry more frequently than usual. As I worked through the canopy one afternoon, refilling the soaker hose, I stopped cold. The leaves staring back at me seemed … Read more
Ruth Nakamura · July 4, 2026
Standard fruit-tree nursery tags won’t tell you that black mulberries stubbornly resist cuttings, or that a seedling might spend a decade producing nothing but leaves and male flowers. Garden books treat mulberries as an afterthought, if they mention them at all. The propagation advice buried in those sources assumes you’re working with something cooperative—apples, pears, … Read more
Ruth Nakamura · June 28, 2026
There’s a particular smell to a deck stain that’s been baking in the sun all summer—something between varnish and wood dust—and that’s exactly what I noticed the moment my neighbor appeared with that sheepish grin. A mulberry branch, thick as a small tree limb, lay sprawled across her fence line like an unwelcome guest. Beneath … Read more
Ruth Nakamura · June 26, 2026
Most new mulberry growers assume that your USDA Hardiness Zone is destiny—that if you’re in Zone 5, you pick from the Zone 5 mulberries, and that settles it. But I’ve learned through growing twelve different cultivars that this assumption crumbles the moment you actually compare what different mulberry species can tolerate. The real story is … Read more
Ruth Nakamura · June 25, 2026
The third week of April found me standing beneath my oldest mulberry, secateurs in hand, surrounded by the explosive flush of springtime growth that happens every year without fail. Branches were sprawling in directions I hadn’t intended, reaching past the fence line and into territory that wasn’t theirs. As I worked through the tangle, snipping … Read more
Ruth Nakamura · June 23, 2026
Don’t expect a weeping mulberry to behave like your average ornamental tree. These grafted beauties demand specific handling, or they’ll revert to upright growth and lose the cascading form that makes them worth growing in the first place. What You’re Actually Planting It pays to understand the structure underneath before you dig a hole. Weeping … Read more
Ruth Nakamura · June 21, 2026
It was the last week of June when my kitchen became a purple disaster zone. My mulberry harvest had exploded—hands stained past the wrist, a strainer overflowing with fruit every 36 hours, and my freezer already buried under spring’s jam projects and last year’s frozen berries. I found myself at 11 PM holding a bowl … Read more
Ruth Nakamura · June 19, 2026
I’m Ruth Nakamura, a backyard orchardist living in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, and I’ve been growing mulberries for about 15 years now. My garden is home to 12 different cultivars, including favorites like Black Beauty, Chinook, Illini Star, and Ozark Premier. Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about these delightful berries through trial and … Read more
Ruth Nakamura · June 17, 2026
I’m Ruth Nakamura, and after 15 years of growing mulberries in my backyard orchard in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, I’ve experienced both the joys and challenges that come with this exceptional fruit. One day, while standing over my harvest basket with a colander in both hands and water running cold across my palms, I caught … Read more
