Juliet Cherry

I was looking at my Juliet’s that I planted a couple years ago. That’s when I noticed a 28" sucker coming up two foot out from the bush! I dug down with my hand and tugged a bit to see which way the roots went. Then after a foot of root I pulled. I had to do that three times and got some good roots with it. Now I can give my sister another Juliet.

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My bigger bush in it’s following year from planting had one about 4 to 6" tall that I had posted about. That didn’t make the transplant because I only got a little bit of root trying to use a shovel. That’s where killing and learning comes into play.

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I just found a huge 3’ Juliet at Rural King - I was so excited to find it! It even had a sucker ready to be on it’s own. They didn’t have any last time I looked, but they got more plants this week and they had them. They probably had a dozen of them. I’m hoping they don’t sell and they discount them at the end of the season, I’m going to have to keep an eye on them…

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Amy,
Since you announced here that this store has Juliet. Every member living within a driving distance from that store is heading there to grab the rest :smile:

Your hope that they did not sell may not materialize!!!

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Is that the Maysville store? I posted in another thread that there were still some Juliet (and Carmine Jewel) at the Ashland store when I was there Wed. Didn’t get one, but was tempted.

Yes, the they were at Maysville store. They didn’t have any other varieties when I was there.

LOL @mamuang, I kinda figured that might happen. Oh well, if someone can get them - they are nice bushes! Plus I gave they gentleman working there a bit more information on them, so now he knows… :slight_smile:

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Ha, I’m planting these in a town (Mayville.)
Here’s the Juliet sucker added to my sister’s collection. I think I’ll skip mowing around my bushes this year to see if more suckers come up. I have friends that want them too but first comes my sister. I want to give her some Romeo and CJ too.


I added some composted cow manure to each one. I want to get a couple more bags to add on top for each one then add some wood chips on top of that. I’m putting them on 12’ centers.

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Check Costco! I just bought a 4-5 ft tall Juliet for $35.00 It even has blooms on it but I don’t know if the tree will be able to hold onto the fruit. I just planted it tonight.

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Where is your Costco? My husband did not see it at Costco in Dedham MA last week.

That’s nice what you’re doing for sis. You sure aren’t taking any chances with varmits with that fencing!

I think I actually saw some little blossoms on my 3rd leaf Juliet yesterday. Hope we get a few cherries to sample this year.

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Juliet is a beast! A year or two less in the ground than my CJs and already bigger. Just busting into bloom in third leaf after just a few dozen blooms last year at second leaf. Hard to see all the buds in the full shot.

But look closer and you can see it will be converted in blooms in a day or 2.

My CJs are covered as well.

Not so much my anemic Crimson Passions. 5 years in the ground and nada. They have a date with the shovel.

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Why don’t your graft Juliet and other cherry on Crimson Paasion. Use it as a rootstock. Maybe, leave on a branch of CP just to find out when it will produce.

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My Cherry bush tent to help keep the rain off during flowering and potentially,what I think is canker,on Carmine Jewel and Juliet.bb

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I thought of grafting to my 2 non-productive CPs last year, but I’ve decided to just pull them. They seem like weaker bushes so I’m not so sure they’d be good rootstocks. Plus I have plenty of suckers coming up from my 2 Juliet’s if I decide to put in another cherry- probably 5 per bush per year now!

I had a lot of PC damage to my cherries last year so I’m considering putting in an apple in place of the CPs since I can protect their fruit better.

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Her is my Juliet second leaf , plenty of blooms,it was not a good growing year last summer so I’m glad it survived maybe it will ripen a few cherries this year

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You and a few other people have talked about Juliet having suckers. My Juliet was planted on a mound (quite packed soil). This will be its 3rd year. No suckers yet. I hope my will produced some soon.

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I’m not really sure what the cause is, but of my 2 CJ plants (which are a couple years older), just one sends up suckers and it is usually just one from the same place each year, although this year there are a few right near the base. I’m leaving the close suckers as backups since I had one CJ unexpectedly die, but it might have been from wet feet. The CJs are in a slightly mounded row beside my driveway, but it is only slightly elevated.

My Juliets on the other hand are suckering machines. They are planted in different areas. One in a mounded area at the end of my raspberry row and one on a slight incline about 12 feet away. The one on the incline does sucker toward the lower side, so maybe that is related to the roots being closer to the surface… although some of the suckers have come up in a raised bed about 8 feet away.

I wonder if planting in mounds would help creating suckers or not, since it probably gets the roots closer to the surface as they grow beyond the raised area?

The only other thing I can think of as a trigger, unless Juliet is just that much more likely to sucker than CJ, is that the areas where my Juliets are have more varied plantings and the soil types would change as the different plants were put in with slightly different soil preparations and amendments. Maybe as the roots hit a different (richer and looser) type of soil near another planting it triggers them to sucker. They are either suckering at the area that would be just beyond where I dug their hole and roots hit the packed native clay soil, or near other plants where they go from the clay back into soil that has been loosened and some manure or other amendments added.

from what I’ve read , juliet is the more vigorous grower out of the romance line. my 2 juliets and CJ are in 3rd leaf and both juliet are 1/3rd bigger. all planted in mounds with the same soil. could be why they sucker more although different soils idea is true as well. path of least resistance.

You could also try root pruning with a shovel. Prunus American suckers easily and any significant piece of root severed from the main plant will likely send up shoots.

I know one of the reason I have not seen any suckers of my Juliet is because of the soil. I made a mound with top soil (store bought bagged top soil). I did not mix it with any compost. I just mounded it with such soil straight up.

After the first year, the mound has become quite compacted. Last year, I needed to break the soil with a shovel so water and fertilizer could seep in instead of running off the mound. If it needed a shovel to break the soil, I feel that suckers would have a hard time poking through such compacted soil, too.

I’ll continue to loosen up that mound. So far, my Juliet has grown well. It set two fruit last year ( 2nd year) and birds got them. Look like it’ll set more flowers this year. Hopefully, I’ll get to taste them.

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