I’m in San Diego and was wondering if anyone…anywhere… has had any success so far on the relatively “new” Royal Crimson cherry from DWN? This year I planted the trio, Royal Lee, Minnie Royal and Royal Crimson. I’ve seen a bunch online about the other 2 varieties but because the Royal Crimson is so new, I was curious if anyone has gotten any fruit off of it yet. Also, if you can include any growth information (ie; vigor, bloom time, etc) that would be great.
Well I have one tree, planted January 2019. I did an initial pruning (heading cut). For the first season’s growth, perhaps 3 shoots began growing, but they were weak and got horribly maimed by thrips/aphids/something. This winter I pruned it back to one decent shoot to try again. Looks better this year, but growth is very slow. My neighbor has one still sitting in it’s nursery pot…looks weak of course, but better than mine! I planted this variety as a sacrificial offering to the cherry worm, so that it will leave off of my other cherries.
Mine died last season. It struggled for two years then died. I grafted a scion of it to a Bing cherry tree this season, it is doing much better. I hope to have a few cherries from it next season.