Excellent report Don. What is impressive really is how small the trees are to produce such a load.
It appears the cherries are possible there, but the plant seems to like warmer conditions, like where I’m at. My first crop was 3rd leaf. Not heavy though, the tree is still small compared to yours. Still I got enough. for a fine taste of them. Nice to know they are similar in taste. One of these days I will go over there and bring Cupid back. The paperwork costs about 75 bucks to bring it back.
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Did you prune these to get the nice rounded shape or is that more their natural look? I’ve thought of planting some of these cherries along side the fence we’re planning for our backyard.
That’s more or less their natural shape but I do prune off some loose or straggly ends with a pair of hedge trimmers. Can’t recall exactly when I do this, but it’s sometime after the big flush of spring/early summer growth but before the fruit begins to ripen so that I can be sure I’m not pruning off any current-year fruit and so that the branches can recover and grow again into mid and late summer so that I’m not pruning off any of the next year’s fruit spurs either. Also, hares sometimes get into my yard and prune some of the lower branches 
I’m just impressed with how nice they look. Great to know that it hasn’t taken a lot of trimming to get them that way – I love shrubs that are both ornamental and useful and these surely seem to fit the bill!
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Thanks Don for the reply. You are certainly way north, good to hear your cherry trees did so well. Guess it’s not a big surprise as these varieties were developed next door to you, so to speak. I can only imagine how cold it can get there, so I guess I can’t complain too much about our winters! But so far, other than a couple nights around 10, it’s been a very mild, but rainy winter.
I think I might try a couple trees like a Montmorency, Danube or North Star, and maybe try some of these Romance bushes. From what our local university’s extension has told me, sweet cherries don’t do so well in this part of the state, so we’ll go with the tart types.
That sounds like your making some pretty potent cider there. So, one can make like a champagne cider? That’s interesting. The last hard cider I had may have been when I was in England a couple decades ago. They had an apple drink called Scrumpy, it definitely had a kick to it.
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What is your go to in Canada? (As I’m even closer than you, heck if I could fly I’m only the distance across lake St Clair)
I miss the good old days when you could go to Colasanti’s and get a free phyto-cert on the spot.
Scott
Hey Don3a,
just curious, whats your spacing in your Romance Cherry row? I do like the idea of forming a hedge I can cover with a long netting (but not too close together where may block sunlight).
Also if you were rank all the cherries from best to least best, how would you rank them ??? (include in your ranking Montmorency and Evan’s Bali for a comparison if you can )
just curious. if HoneyBerryUSA offers 1ft plants (i do see they offer 2ft plants for Carmine Jewel for a bit more $), how big are Gurney’s $40-$45 plants?
About three feet. I’d say the Gurney’s plant was two years older than the one I got from HoneyBerryUSA. But if you do go the Gurney’s route, don’t buy at full price. They offer 50% off coupon codes at least once a month, if not more.
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I second (third?) people’s recommendations of Montmorency over North Star. In my wet spring climate (PNW), North star gets lots of diseases and Montmorency does well.
John S
PDX OR
Oh, put me on the spot! I should really measure the spacing, but it’s a bit after midnight right now, so let’s go by guestimation. I think my bush cherries are on about a 6’ spacing, so that they will grow in to almost a complete row, but still with the option of squeezing right around each bush, particularly if I prune them. If you wanted a more solid hedge then maybe try 5’ or 4’ spacing.
Best of my cherries?.. Juliet is best, easiest to eat fresh and productive.
Cupid come in second, bigger than Juliet and almost as sweet, easy to eat fresh.
Then I’d have to go with Evan’s/Bali, (which IMO really should be called “Bower” or “Boward” or “Borward”, as per the orchard owner (some confusion over the name) who grew them near Edmonton before introducing them to Dr. Evans.
Then I’d go with Romeo (big and productive, but quite tart/sour fruit.)
And finally with Carmine Jewel… it might be the most productive bush cherry, and that scores it bonus points, but it is also the most tart. It makes great preserves and juice, but good luck eating this one fresh.
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I think it’s great, but mine probably get more sun here, so more sugars.
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We eat a lot of these CJ fresh and drink the juice with no added sugar most of the time. If it’s a really sour batch of cherries eg. Montmorency I mix the juice with pear or apple juice. Sour cherry juice reportedly causes people to sleep 20 or so minutes extra per day which extends life expectancy. I’m not talking about chugging a quart of cherry juice but rather more like a 1/2 cup per day. We also eat juneberries, pears etc. almost daily sometimes in the winter. We also eat large amounts of blackberries. When things like oranges or blueberries etc. are in season we eat large amounts of those. We eat our own fruits when fruit is price prohibitive to buy in the grocery store but when it’s cheaper in the grocery store than I can raise it I buy it.
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Cool, thanks for that rating Don3a!
Btw anyone know if Cupid come to any US nurseries yet? I have not seen last year or this year so thought I’d ask.
I only see that http://thehoneytreenursery.com have it, and I guess they ship to Canada only?
From what I’ve read,Crimson Passion is said to be the sweetest,but doesn’t bear as much fruit,like some of the others.Brady
At one time, one was selling it locally. I’m a little confused about cupid as it is not known for high sugar, it also is not as closely related to the others. Why this one and Valentine too, have not made it here yet is unknown?
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Have you been happy with your Gurney trees/shrubs?
They’re not my first choice, but if they have something exclusively, I’m okay with purchasing from them. You can tell they don’t put that much thought or effort into wrapping their trees. And it’s annoying that they don’t specify rootstock. But almost everything I’ve ordered from them has lived. And everything that’s fruited for me has been true to type. So yeah, happy enough.
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God I hate trying to find this info page and always have to go back to an old GW post to find where they put the rootstock info exactly. Rootstock info is near the bottom of the page after the pollination.
Gurney’s pollination and rootstock page
Something doesn’t quite seem right about those pears. The ones I got from gurneys sprout what look like callery from the base.