I have to leave my fully grown North Star in the house we selling. I was going to plant another one at the new house, but was very surprised with lack of choices. I found one at willisorchards.com, I know nothing about this site, but what I see as picture and description doesn’t fit what I have growing in my old yard.
Here is what the site says: The Dwarf North Star is a medium sized bright red to mahogany skinned cherry, with yellow, juicy tender flesh.
The flesh never was yellow for me and ripe cherries are never bright red, but mahogany, and also the berries pictured do not look like sour cherry at all for me, more like sweet.
Any suggestion where I can buy an actual sour cherry North Star?
I actually was researching different places to get Montmorency cherry and I have come to different sites that have North Star. Of course not all are great sites, but I found Roseland roses, they are in MA. I think they are in Acushnet, MA you can call and ask availability. They don’t ship but it may not be too far from you.
There are many online sources but sometimes I like to buy in person so you can check for things like canker, before you buy. Also I don’t think the trees they have are too expensive.
I have grown North Star. U of MN introduction. Dark fleshed cherry and yes a mahogany skin color when ripe. I always laugh at the photos of fruit posted by online tree sources.
Some look correct and some are not. I suppose they figure even the wrong photo is better than no photo. I even have offered apple photos from my orchard to some but nobody took me up on that offer. Last issue was someone’s photo of wolf river apple that surely was not wolf river.
I have purchased North Star Cherry trees from Jung Seed Co in Randolph, WI. They were fine and true to variety. I believe Schlabach’s in NY offers them too. Never bought a North Star from Schabach’s but I have ordered other fruit trees from them. Including a shot of North Star fruit from one of my trees (15 years ago?).
Why North star. Meteor sour cherry is a better tasting cherry and had less worms in its fruits than North star. It does well on its own roots. Why not Montmorency or Danube sour. I planted a Danube tree and a year later some one dug it up and carted it away to a good home. It had 3 cherries on it just about to ripen.
I was impressed how my baby montmorency actually gave me a handful of cherries last year while it was getting established. This year it put out another small bunch but more importantly, a solid amount of branching. It has the markings of a solid producer.
On the other hand I had to wait four years for my romance cherries to push out half a handful last year, and this year the yield was only slightly better. I would still suggest them because their taste is far superior. It is a bush but given enough time they can get fairly large, the size of a small tree.
There may possibly be a shortage in space as North Star is dwarf, or opinion on taste, I do like North Star but personally I like Montmorency a bit more.
Schlabach is a good nursery. It does not have online business. You need to call them and order a catalog. Order by postal mail. I don’t have their contact on hand but can pm you later if you would like.
What??? Then what I was picking all theses years, cherries, not pies? This is why my neighbors didn’t want any .
And joke aside, if you want to correct my English, you have to be specific I am not a native speaker and do not recognize the error in the header. My English teacher told me that the noun in front of another noun produces adjective. So Cherry tree - tree, that produces cherry. Pie cherry - cherry that produces pies. Pie cherry tree - tree that produces cherries that produce pies. Correct me if I am wrong!
Exactly that!!! Too many horror stories. Please avoid Willis Orchard! But props to them for sticking with their company name for so long and avoiding any confusion.
It’s been a while since I looked at their site but the last time I looked a few years ago, they had some of the craziest things listed as supposedly growing in my area. Almost as laughable as starting a banana plantation, but not quite that bad That alone makes my highly suspicious of a nursery… like if I order a persimmon tree, I might get a used blender.
@galinas in case you’re still looking, I just got one at Home Depot in MA. It wasn’t cheap, and I know folks try to avoid the big box stores…but I couldn’t find it elsewhere and really wanted it (especially if my IKKJ doesn’t pull through ).
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I am not a native speaker and do not recognize the error in the header. My English teacher told me that the noun in front of another noun produces adjective. So Cherry tree - tree, that produces cherry. Pie cherry - cherry that produces pies. Pie cherry tree - tree that produces cherries that produce pies. Correct me if I am wrong!
That alone makes my highly suspicious of a nursery… like if I order a persimmon tree, I might get a used blender.
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