Thank you Everyone for all of your help!! To answer a few questions: I took my pictures to another nursery and talked to a very nice man who told me exactly what I needed to do. 1) I was overwatering 2) I needed to scrape back the bark to see if the stems on top were alive, and prune down any dead bark 3) He said the white buds on it mean that it IS a fruiting tree. I don't understand why finding a fruiting mulberry would be hard to find or so pricey (we paid $30) with the nursery owner guaranteeing me it was fruiting but that he just couldn't remember the exact name. The Bamboo stake was in the potted mulberry when we bought it. When we dug the hole we just stuck the whole thing in there, mixed in top soil and original soil, the whole fertilizer, weed prevention, root stimulator bit, mulched, guarded, and done. If you think moving it and tying it straight at maybe an angle is better for it I will do that. I was sort of advised that if I wanted a mullbery TREE VS. BUSH I should just cut that stock at the very bottom off anyways, but I'm going to wait for the stems to start blooming because the notion of a mulberry bush seems cool too.... have to decide... plus if the top dies I'd like to revive the bottom and it can grow anew!

Thanks for your suggestions, bamboo and fruitnut. Given the accolades, I'm very, very anxious to try Sweetcrisp. I should have bought one last year, but better late than never. I've seen a lot of praise for Jewel's flavor, but, based on your description, fruitnut, I might be happier with another variety. I had my eye on Star and Windsor, so I might go with one or both of those. Have either of you (or anyone else) tried Palmetto? From what I can read, it gets very high marks for flavor. As for your question, rayrose, I do have a couple of potted SHB (O'Neal and Southmoon). The lower chill varieties like Sweetcrisp worry me a little bit because of early bloom times, but I can't resist trying them. I already have to protect some of my early bloomers (mostly rabbiteyes), though, so it shouldn't be too much trouble. I used a heavy weight frost blanket over a small greenhouse frame last winter, and that worked very well. This post was edited by shazaam on Tue, May 21, 13 at 21:26

I watered my mature roses about every three to four weeks and watered the babies about 2x a month. By the beginning of August, I thought I was going to lose most of my roses - they looked terrible. However, almost all of them survived. I have had to prune a lot of dead limbs but overall, they look fabulous. My teas (e.g., Mrs. B.R. Cant, Rhodologue Jules Gravereaux, Georgetown Tea) are currently in overdrive, the chinas (e.g. Old Blush, cl. Martha Gonzales, Louis Phillipe) are thriving, the Hybrid Musks actually never seemed to notice the drought, the Rugosas thrived, my climbers did have die back but are currently very happy and seem to have definite thoughts about world domination, and even the bourbons survived (my bourbons are a little more frail and water dependent. Maggie is not happy but she is alive. Zephrine had significant die-back but is going to be OK). We have had a lot of rain this spring (I am north of Ft. Worth) and the roses are responding beautifully. My mature fruit trees are not doing well, however, and many will probably die. My cedar elms and oaks are fine and they were not watered. My pines are fine. We do have a stock tank for the livestock that almost went dry but did not and that helped the local wildlife.

Oh! Yeah, I think so...fingers crossed. I haven't stared too closely at the leaves lately, but I don't see any glaring yellow splotches like I did with that first group -- it was on the P. incarnata. The plant(s) is/are thriving right now; and if I had to start plucking leaves off, it'd be an overwhelming task. I'm certain the Turk's Cap plant I received from my neighborhood friend's yard was affected by this same virus, as it had the telltale splotchiness AND horribly deformed, crinkled leaves -- and it just got worse and worse, so I yanked it.