Description
Not too long ago there was a place called Hawkins’ Corner Nursery in Plant City, Florida, located at SR39 and Trapnell Road. Mr. Skinner inherited the nursery business from his father in law, who’s last name was Hawkins. You can still watch Mr. Skinner’s youtube videos here. Raleigh first met Mr. Skinner in 2015/2016. He was selling several kinds of edible plants citrus, peaches, plums, pears, bananas, apples, etc. During one of Raleigh’s visits Mr. Skinner shared that the white mulberry growing in the middle of the nursery was at least 100 years old and that when he started working there the tree had already been there for a while. Needless to say, the Hawkins Corner Nursery was multi-generational and in the family for many decades.
‘Hawkins white’ is a vigorous plant. It has very large leaves and fruits that ripen white. The mother tree was chaotic with branches that had bent down or broken and touched on the ground only to root again and shoot back up in many different spots and directions. It was a maze, you could walk underneath the tree and climb under and over its big branches. The plant easily covered a circular space with a diameter of at least 40ft, it was difficult to locate the main trunk. The tree itself must have fallen a few times during storms and was never pruned or righted up. It was loaded with fruit at the time of our last visit, hard to spot and reach amidst the ginormous plant we ate as many as we could, ultra sweet and aromatic, little heavenly clouds dangling from the branches.
We collected plant material and propagated it. Today, a specimen of ‘Hawkins white’ guards the entrance to the TID nursery. It grew in an erect manner, reaching as high as possible. In talking with fellow growers we arrived at the conclusion that this cultivar might have been brought in to Florida for cultivation at the time there was intent to establish silk production in the State. Silk worms feed on mulberry leaves. So far the specimen we have planted has not produced an abundance of fruit but enough for us to get a taste of what we remembered. It is possible this cultivar was selected for abundant leaf production with the silk trade in mind. This could be beneficial for those looking to produce fodder. ‘Hawkins white’ is also nematode resistant and a possible rootstock for specialty mulberries.
Hawkins Corner Nursery was eventually sold by Mr. Skinner. He actually told us on our last visit when we collected the scions that the property was being sold because no one in his family wanted to take over the business. We went by there one more time when the business had closed, everything was still there but kind of abandoned. In the back, land clearing for development had started.
6 Cuttings 7″-10″
