King James 1st mulberry trees

• Self-fertility: Self-fertile

King James 1st is a traditional English mulberry, dating from the reign of James 1st in the 17th century. It is also widely known as Chelsea.

It remains the most popular of mulberries, and is notable for the flavour of the fruits. These are a black/red colour, and should ripen in the middle of the mulberry season - around the end of August in southern England.

King James 1st mulberry trees for sale

Pot-grown

All our pot-grown trees are grown for us to our specification by the Frank P Matthews nursery.

All pot-grown trees are suitable for planting out in the garden, some are suitable for growing in containers.

• PG1Premium half-standard 12L pot-grown tree £71.50
  Grown for us by Frank P Matthews nursery
  Very large tree (4m-7m after 10 years)
  

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Tree specification

Photos of trees as supplied | Tree sizes and forms

Next deliveries

Order now for delivery from week commencing 24th February.

Delivery charges

Delivery for a single tree starts at £9.95, it is calculated based on your postcode.

Growing and Training

Mulberry trees are self-fertile, easy to grow, and tend not to suffer from diseases. They are hardy trees and will grow in almost any situation, but you will get the best results if you can plant in a sunny open spot.

King James is fairly precocious by English mulberry standards, and you should start getting mulberries after about 4-5 years or so, with full production after about 7 years.

Mulberry trees grow slowly but steadily - the tree should get to around 5m-6m high after 10-15 years.

As with all mulberry trees, pruning is best avoided and is rarely necessary.

Keep the tree well-watered over spring and summer for the first 2-3 years after planting, and feed regularly until the tree has established.

History

The original King James mulberry tree was planted in Chelsea in the 17th century during the reign of James I - and it is often known as the Chelsea mulberry for this reason. This tree survived until the Second World War, when it was cut down to make way for an air raid shelter, however cuttings were taken from which new trees have been propagated.

King James 1st characteristics

British-grown trees

Unlike many garden centres and online retailers, the vast majority of our fruit trees are grown in the UK. Find out more.

In addition, all our trees are certified under the Plant Healthy scheme, supervised by the Plant Health Alliance. Other stakeholders include Defra and the RHS. The scheme aims to improve UK biosecurity by setting standards for all growers and retailers involved in selling plants in the UK. Find out more

Guaranteed fruit trees

When you buy your fruit tree from Orange Pippin Fruit Trees we guarantee it for the first season in your garden whilst it gets established. If it doesn't grow successfully, we'll either replace it the following season or offer a refund - subject to some conditions. Find out more.

More about mulberry trees

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.

Mulberries are slow-growing fruit trees which eventually get quite large (although there some dwarf varieties). They are easy to grow, and usually unaffected by diseases, and 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, generally out of reach from the ground - the usual method of picking is by shaking the branches when the fruit is ripe in late 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 and best avoided in older trees.

Most of our mulberries are raised from cuttings, rather than seed.

All the mulberries we supply are self-fertile, or "monoecious", with male flowers which can be pollinated from other pollen on the same tree. However older mulberry trees can ocasionally become "dioecious". In other words they change sex - the flowers switch from male to female. They will still produce fruit, but only if another mulberry with male flowers is nearby. The cause for this switch is not known, but is thought to be a response to a sudden change in the local environment.

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.

There is a long tradition of growing mulberry trees in the UK, especially in the London area. In the early 17th century King James 1st actively encouraged the planting of mulberry trees in London in an effort to start an English silk industry. There is some debate as to whether King James and his advisors knew that sikworms preferred to eat the leaves of the White Mulberry species, but either through ignorance or because they found that White Mulberries were not suited to the English climate (which was much colder then than it is now) the vast majority of mulberry trees planted at this time were the Black Mulberry species. Silk production never took off in London, but left a legacy of Black Mulberry trees throughout the capital, and since these are long-lived trees many stil survive. For more details of Mulberry trees in London, see this article on the Spitalfields blog.