Of all of the shrub cherries, which is closest to Montmorency and a quick grower? My montmorency should have quite a few blooms this coming spring, but I would like back up, for making preserves. Your comments will be very helpful. Thanks.
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Meteor cherry
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My experience with the romance series is that they are slooooooow AF to come into production. Production wise the montmorency tree i planted last year is pretty much on par with the Juliet i planted four years ago. Both should start producing better but the shrubs take much longer to get there.
A second Monty is not a bad option, promote branching much lower and keep it trimmed to size. Evans are also a nice choice. You may also want to consider that both of these are amarelle cherries, yellow flesh. For dark morello cherries meteor and north star would be good choices.
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Thanks Don, my trees are grown in pots. So I have only so much room on my terrace. I thought a shrub might grow quicker. I buy five year old trees here. So they start blooming one year after planting.
Thanks Pon, I’ll look into it!
You could also consider branching out into similar fruits. Nanking cherries can be nice, so can sand cherry. There are cherry plums that can be cross pollinated by cherries such as the sapalta cherry plum, half sand cherry half Chinese plum.
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No plant is perfect. In containers Carmine Jewel is the most dwarf of the romance series. Does very well in containers. Cons: cherries are too small for cherry pitters to work. A real pain to pit. They like colder zones. Tend to be disease prone in warmer climates.
The flesh is a deep red and the flavor is excellent. I would talk to locals and find out what works best in your area. Cherries are very strong growers and may not like container culture. I do know Steve has grown them in containers so can be done.
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Thanks Drew. I live in the sweet cherry zone, unfortunately for me not the sour zone which is farther north, but my Montmorency in a very large pot is doing very well. Like my apricots and peaches I just want more. You gave me the info I wanted. Thanks!
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Another cherry that does well being in containers. Zone 4-9 is the English Morello.
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How big is the pot the Monty grows in, I was looking for a good pot. 
See the picture below your question.
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Wow those are nice pots 
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I forgot to mention that while yes, it takes forever for one of the romance bush cherries to get into production, the wait may be worth your while. The intensity of the cherry flavor is something montmorency cherries cannot match.
I like the flavor of Montmorency. I cannot imagine it not having a stronger flavor. Chaque a son gout! thanks!
In my neck of the woods (which should be similar climate to yours), Belle Magnifique and Sumadinka are popular. They are not bush cherries though and I have no idea about their behavior in containers. Montmorency is not productive here as they need higher chill than what we get.
All of the above are second hand accounts. I just grafted Belle Magnifique and Sumadinka on my sweet cherry last winter.
Mrs. G,
I don’t know much about sour cherry trees esp. in your climate. I can tell you that bush cherries like Juliet or Carmine Jewel produces some in year 3 (from a bare root short stick) and more fruit after that. Typical waiting time for cherries from bare root planting. Just don’t get Crimson Passion.
As for taste, to me, they are sour cherries, nothing exceptional about them. Drew is right that Carine Jewel may be very productive but they are small and more tart than Juliet. I remember Scott said all things considered, he would go with Mont.
What sour cherries they grow in France? The only one I used to grow was Danube. It is not sour 
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Thanks Mam, the sour cherry of choice here is Montmorency, I have never read about bush cherries growing in abundance here. Uzes and the surrounding villages are filled with ‘sweet cherry’ orchards and they are incredible! You can easily sit down and almost eat one entire kilo! But I like making sour cherry preserves and pies. My Montmorency are quite small as well. But they easily pop out of their skins. I’ll know more bout my tree next spring! I will looks for a Crimson Jewel though, for backup. I will be moving in three years so I don’t want any more trees. Bushes are fine!
Thanks so much!
Carmine Jewel is what you should look for if you want tart and productive cherries. You will have a hard time pitting them because of their size.
Avoid Crimson Passion. It is very unproductive.