Black Nanking Cherry

I’m looking for a vendor or possibly someone who could get me cuttings of the Black Nanking Cherry. Anyone seen this stateside? I’d like to add this to my collection, rather than use a traditional nanking to pollinate my albino ones. Thanks as always everyone and sorry for constantly posting about crazy idiosyncratic fruits :wink:

http://www.dutchgrowers.com/cherry-black-nanking.html
Black Nanking Cherry (Prunus tomentosa 'Nigra') in Edmonton Spruce Grove Leduc St Albert Stony Plain Alberta AB at Creekside Home & Garden

4 Likes

Any movement on this? I still haven’t been able to track this down. Also any of the other albino nankings, not type #1.

1 Like

I wonder if it is this one: Вишня войлочная, Сорт Смуглянка восточная - ФГБНУ ВНИИСПК or different (use translator) . Nevertheless, even I can’t obtain that, and I live right next to russia :smiley: . Been hunting for cultivated nankings for a while now with meager luck.

3 Likes

Grow as many seeds as you can, and get your revenge :smiley: I’m growing a few, hit me up in few years.

1 Like

I don’t believe this the cherry I’m referring to. But, it certainly intrigued me nonetheless. The black nanking isn’t a mythical fairytale, it definitely exists and is Prunus tomentosa.

Hi DeepBlueDustin. I’ve been watching this forum for a little while, but now I finally signed up so I could message you. I have a black nanking. It is the toughest little bush I have. My local greenhouse lady gave it to me for free because it was 90% dead looking in the fall. It went through a harsh Saskatchewan winter still in the nursary pot (don’t judge me, we were planning on moving early spring so I didn’t want to plant it yet, ha ha). It leafed out beautifully that next spring, and here I am 5 years later and I’ve never had a berry! 2 years ago I bought another nanking because I thought it needed a pollination friend, and they both flowered at the same time, but still no berries! (Well, there was 1 but a bird got it) So I will confirm that a black nanking bush is not a mythical fairytale, but the berries themselves may be.

If anyone has any tips or suggestions for me to help get some fruit, I’m all ears! Thanks!

2 Likes

I’ve noticed Nanking pollination can be strange. For instance I have albino Nanking #1, but it won’t be self fertile. It requires a red or albino’s #2/3. The black may be similar to this requiring one of these matches. I would say try hand pollinating the flowers and see what results. If still no black fruit I’d say sadly they gave you the wrong plant. This does exist, I’ve seen the photos! Just need to find a source if your plant turns out to be bunk.

1 Like

When I went back and discussed my pollinating problem with my greenhouse friend we looked up in her master book and it claimed we needed a red or black nanking for pollinating. I’m wondering if maybe I need to try a different black nanking? I do believe it is a black nanking, the leaves are a little darker green with a red edge and glossier than my red one (which winter killed this past winter).

But here we are, back to square 1, where do we FIND a black nanking? Ha ha!

4 Likes

The University of Saskatchewan Prairie Fruit Genebank seems to have germplasm available of 3 different Sandcherry x Nanking hybrids that they label Black Nanking: https://research-groups.usask.ca/fruit/extension-events-/gene-Bank/Prunusplums-U-of-Sk-Germplasm.xlsx They’d probably sell you scionstock, if you reached out to them. Grafting them onto a regular Nanking would probably be fine. No idea if they’ll pollinate each other, might be like Nigra x Salicina hybrid plums where the hybrids just universally don’t pollinate each other. Probably best to buy a batch of Nanking seedlings, graft some of them over to USask’s Black Nankings, keep the rest as pollinators. I imagine the reason nurseries don’t seem to carry it is because Nankings are usually propagated from seed and these probably wouldn’t come true from seed.

5 Likes

Did you ever find one? I have been looking for one as well. I have a red Nanking (purchased off Etsy out of Michigan) and a white Nanking (edible landscape out of Virginia). They are both small and haven’t fruited yet.

Last summer I was at this small little farm outside of Wasilla and I was buying some fruit and I got a tour of the plants. The guy had some pretty large cherry bushes- lot of the romance series (some that aren’t sold anymore) and a couple of Nanking bushes- I specifically asked about the Nankings because I have a red and white one. He said he had red and white, and then he said he had a “black Nanking” as well. I didn’t know there was a black variety. He did not like the Nanking cherries because they did not perform well in Alaska. That’s the only place I have ever seen or heard of having that bush. I could try to get more info.

2 Likes

St. Lawrence Nursery used to offer these before they switched to new owners. It’s possible they still have a mother plant, however I have not seen any for sale in the past few years. I’ve contacted them about it before and they told me it would be offered in the future but so far they never have…

Maybe if enough people inquire they will make it happen if they see a demand. I want one too!

1 Like

Is there a reason this variety is so difficult to find?

Just not the traditional. Seems to be a case of it being lost in the annals of history. Black fruits probably weren’t the norm, compared to red fruits. Now with albinos taking off, it looks like people are asking for the opposite. Black as the night Nankings!

1 Like

Can you offer cuttings here? I’d be interested in trying to graft it to either another Nanking or Carmine Jewel (if recommended).

Are you in Canada FarmGirl? If so I can send you a piece to try.

1 Like

That’s a really kind offer, unfortunately, I don’t live in Canada, but thanks anyway. I have tried very hard to locate this plant and can’t seem to find it anywhere. It’s really a shame because I was really excited about trying this variety of Nanking. I’m not going to give up, but I have little hope of finding it.

1 Like

I will keep you in the loop on this one, as I’m looking, too. Maybe between us we can hunt up a few.

2 Likes

Good idea. I was going to post here if I found it too. :slight_smile:

2 Likes

We’ve tracked it down to a salty older gentleman in Alaska. It’s a dead lead sadly. I just can’t reason why someone would be that crabby, as to let a cultivar go extinct rather than allowing a cutting…but I digress. My point of posting is Edible Landscaping is finally carrying ‘Jules’ White Nanking for those of us that were stuck with ‘Ian’ for three years. Supposedly these two whites will pollinate each other.

To bad they charge a stupid fortune in shipping. If anyone is willing to make an order I will couple units to bring your shipping costs down.

1 Like