I like to eat some fresh when I’m out in the garden, just sort of sampling for ripeness. And my college-age kids will eat them as well, but we all enjoy some sour tastes. They are certainly nothing like a sweet cherry, regardless of what Gurney’s, etc. write up in their descriptions. I can eat a giant bowl of sweet cherries, but a handful or so of Juliets is all I’d eat fresh. Great for cooing of course.
I actually like Carmine Jewel fresh as well, even though they are even more sour. If I was starting from scratch, I might just grow Carmine Jewel since I think the “cherry flavor” is more intense and great in a pie. But all taste is personal and my wife thinks they might be almost too intense. I think this year we need to do an all CJ pie, and all Juliet pie and maybe a 50/50 mix to do a taste off. That is a challenge I’m willing to take on! My romance cherries are one of my favorite things I’m growing.
I agree, I made fruit leather and it was so good. Although very hard to make. The stuff did not want to dry. I like them in pies too. I think the flavor is really good.
I have Wowza too but have not had any cherries. I probably won’t get any this year either.
This will be my 3rd year with wowza, didnt get much growth last year tho so they are still fairly small, MIGHT get a few cherries to sample however, if Im lucky.
My big Juliet bush, loaded with blooms. It’s 5 years old and about 7ft tall now, but never got any fruit off it. It’s bloomed the last 3 years but never got anything because of freezes.
After a couple disappointments this year from other nurseries, I just wanted to praise HoneyberryUSA for the Juliet cherry they sent me this year. I was expecting much smaller, in line with the past couple years of plants. This was quite the bush they sent this year.
SWD is a major problem here also, spraying is somewhat effective, if you are diligent about it, unfortunately Im not and often lose cherries for that reason…
If there is plum curculio in your area they will be an issue with Juliet and the other romance cherries. If I don’t spray with surround and keep a good coat on them, the PC will lay an egg in almost every cherry and wipe out the crop.
My Juliet has quite a bit of decent sized fruit on it, I think the birds have been pilfering some of them, though.
Some of the fruit are starting to develop a blush on them. I was curious to ask those who have them when to expect them to be ripe enough to pick. I’m in NE Kentucky, zone 6b.
I lost several generous crops to little white worms and rot. So I tried Spinosad about once a week and and Immunox twice for the season, which solved the problem last year, and for our first successful harvest we got 12 gallons of cherries. I did not add Surround. Also be sure to net.
I’ve been spraying Surround the last few weeks, have had to apply several times due to heavy rains. Fruit looks pretty clean, other than some hits from what looks like curculio. After that threat is over, I’ll be hitting them with Surround and Spinosad.
I picked up a Wowza cherry from Harding’s Market in Plainwell Michigan a couple days ago. It was like $35. 5 gallon pot, 4 year old shrub, full bloom when purchased. There were 5 other Wowza cherries there. I have a Juliet on order from HoneyBerry USA, that is supposed to be shipped next week.
It seems like they were ripe around mid-July, but I picked them promptly, not wanting to lose them again. We are quite a ways north of you, though, near St. Paul.
