I made clear my views on Mr Wilberforce political choices the other day, so putting that to one side here's a look at his choice of garden plants. You know how it is you have a small town house with a busy bustling river out the back and little space for a garden but you just have to put a bit of green out there to lighten the mood, in modern parlance you want to create "an outdoor room" away from the hurly burly of getting filthy rich ... I suspect that Mr Wilberforce did not plant this or anything hereabouts since he lived in London for most of his adult life but let us, like good little tourists, pretend, shall we? So a couple of small mulberries would be just dandy, hmmm only now they're not small and, despite nursery rhymes, were never bushes. Whoever planted them Wilberforce House has two fine mulberry trees front and back that really fill the place and are quite spectacular. I wonder what the fruit tastes like, maybe go back later in the summer and find out ... if the birds and silkworms don't get them first.
The little brown sign warns the unwary visitor that the fruits from the tree may make the pavement slippy on a cold and frosty morning.
The little brown sign warns the unwary visitor that the fruits from the tree may make the pavement slippy on a cold and frosty morning.
There's a mulberry at the Charterhouse, planted at around the same time. It fruits every year, and the fruits are sharp but edible. People have made pies out of them! All these trees are black mulberries. It's said that they were planted around the country with the idea of setting up a silk industry, but silk worms only feed on white mulberries, so it didn't work.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this information. I did not know there two types of mulberry.
DeleteI've never heard of mulberries growing here.
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