MONTY’S PLANT OF THE WEEK

The leaves of the white mulberry, Morus alba, are the preferred food of the silk worm, but the British climate is better suited to the black mulberry, Morus nigra (left), which the silk worms shun. They are easy to grow, not too large and look magnificently gnarled. They also bear a harvest of delicious mulberries that are good raw, stewed or made into jam. The trees are tough and almost always recover when cut right back or blown over, the branches rooting where they fall into the soil. They are also one of the last of all trees to lose their leaves in autumn.