I would argue different uses too though. Tart cherries are cooking cherries.
Some people like to eat tart cherries fresh off the bushes. I am not one of them.
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if they color this early, they are aborts anyway.
Juliet makes for excellent fresh eating. But I also like eating plain cranberries.
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Our Juliet bushes are in their fourth growing season here in the greater Kansas City area. This year they produced about 10 lbs. per bush. They were probably 7’ tall, some a bit taller. I mowed them down to about 5’ tall after harvest.
I was a bit disappointed in all the flowers that didn’t set fruit. There were a ton of small fruitlets which turned red and fell off, like MikeB’s photo.
Last year the Juliet bushes produced 3 lbs. per bush. This is with 60 original plants, so a decent sample size.
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I saw the same here, with one bush about the same age. I’m not sure if it’s related to maturity, pollination, or something else. I don’t have room for a whole other bush, so I may try grafting one of the other cherries in the series on it. Still 3-4 weeks out from harvest, but I can see the fruit set is on the low end of acceptable. I’m predicting in the 3 lb range, adjusting for fruit thinning by my avian friends.
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Isn’t one of them in the series supposed to be highly dwarf and compact? Might be able to add that near it.
I’m gonna plant a Juliet and sweet thing in the fall most likely. As long as 40 Leland Cypress trees come down at the start of July 
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We added a couple other Romance varieties just this week. They will obviously take some years before they flower, but that should solve any pollination issues, if there are any.
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These “self fertile” cherries only 30% fertile if you ask me. I have my Juliet for 8 years. It dropped tons of fruitlets.
I have Carmine Jewel grafted to it. It has not helped much. Juliet is ahead of CJ re. fruit development but their bloom time overlaps.
Juliet today.
Carmine Jewel today
Whatever youvwant to plant this Romance series sour cherries, do not plant Crimson Passion if you don’t have patience. 7 years later my CP graft has not even flowered.
Cupid and Romeo would be my choice for Juliet partners.
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Do you know if sweet thing overlaps? Or is Romeo/Cupid the best overlap?
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Tippy, thanks for the pollinator suggestions. I agree, 30% seems about right for what sticks when self-pollinated.
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My Juliet, Carmine jewel and Romeo all overlap. The lone surviving crimson passion blooms about the time they finish. The carmine jewels are by far the best producers. They don’t work well in any of my numerous pitters, though. Now I just pit them by hand with a paring knife. It looks like my Wowza may get a few cherries for the first time this year.
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My Juliet is 7 years old, and has never really produced much before now. This year it’s finally making cherries but still not many. Like others have commented a lot of fruit seems to abort. I’m thinking it’s probably due to size, my Juliet is a bit stunted, just over 6 feet tall, which seems small for its age. The ones colouring up are not aborts. Roughly 60% of the cherries aborted, and those have already fallen off. Perhaps in a few more years it’ll be producing 10 pounds/bush like Olpea.
I’m also the type of person who likes eating fresh sour cherries, they taste very refreshing. I also enjoy fresh haskaps.
Attaching a pic of my Juliet colouring up. Interestingly enough the cherries on my Romeo are still solid green.
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Sour cherries and sweet sweet cannot cross pollinate each other.
If you have a Juliet, you probably need to buy a Romeo or a Cupid and hope it cross pollinate each other. They should.
@thecityman is one of the members here who grows both Romeo and Juliet.
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i have 2 juliet, a carmine jewel and romeo . been fruiting for 3 years. they are 6 and 7 yrs old yet i still get many aborts. not a pollinator issue either as they are covered with bumble and mason bees when flowering.
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possibly nutrition, or lack of?
i gave them a good 2in. top dressing of chic manure in late March. 1st time I’ve fertilized them in 2 yrs. my Juliet’s are over 12ft tall and grow as a multi trunk tree. i didn’t prune them that way either. c.j and Romeo’s about 10’.
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I have had other sours around Juliet and don’t expect it to increase pollination. I think it’s more related to weather and possibly blossom blight. Juliet seems more susceptible than other cultivars. Last year my tree was loaded, not so much this year. But none of the cherries are doing great,not even Monty.
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THis is interesting thread. As @mamuang mentioned, I have Romeo and Juliet side by side. I therefore cannot speak to either one as a self-pollinating. They still abort a fair amount of fruit but I’d put it at only around 15-20% of the total fruitlets that first appear after blooms. They turn red and drop in a week or so after petal drop.
A few other things worth noting that have been said here. One, my Romance Cherries seemed slower to grow and produce than I think others have experienced. First of all, during the first 5 years or so, I would experience a lot of dying sections of both trees. At times, more than half the tree/bush would die for no reason. This happened almost every year for the first 5-6 years. However, they eventually grew out of this and I haven’t had any significant death in a few years.
The slow growth I experienced seems different from others here. But I really didn’t get any significant crops from my bushes until probably year 8! I don’t think I got more than a handful for first 6 years. THe size also seemed quite slow.too. My trees/bushes took 6 years to reach 6 feet tall. Today they seem to have maxed out at around 8 ft.
Here is another strange observation. In recent years I have let a few of the root suckers stay and grow in place, still being attached to the roots of my adult trees but being about 4-6 feet away. These suckers have very different growth habits than the independent mother bushes did, assumingly because they are being fed and watered by the much larger root system of the adult plants. These attached suckers grow really fast and produce years earlier than the independent ones. In this same period I actually dug up a few Romance cherry suckers, separated them from the mother roots, and moved them to another location. Those trees/suckers grew like the originals, very slow to get big, slow to produce, etc.
Hope some of this is helpful to others who come here to read about Juliet.
To be clear, in spite of the slow growth, slow production, and sectional dying the first several years, I do VERY MUCH LOVE the Romance Cherries. Very much. After year 7 or 8, these things put on a fruit load you would never believe- they get LOADED. The fruit is quite sour and even too sour for me at first. Not sure if I’ve just gotten used to the sourness or if the fruit has gotten a little sweeter as the tree gets older, but I now like them a lot.
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they must prefer the colder weather they were originally bred for as i got cherries at year 3 from a 6in. start. full production by year 5. my Juliet is in its 6 or 7th year and is just over 12ft with a 10’ spread. my other Juliet split in half 2 winters ago and sent up a few new shoots that are about 5ft this spring and fruiting already.
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