I don’t disagree, pruned roots no doubt grow back fast but it is kind of nice to see a cherry bush with roots like you dug it up in your yard and moved it 30 feet.
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Ok, awesome. Thanks, Don. That is helpful to see- I think I’ve seen either all or mostly pics of them leaves out. It’s good to see how truly bush-y they are.
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I’ve been pruning my CJ to a subtle open center 
It’s really nice to see how ‘crowded’ the branches can get and still fruit well.
Harborseal, I’ll have a few skinny cuttings of CJ and Romeo very soon if you are interested in those. I grafted one of the skinny cuttings onto a sucker from my one sweet cherry and it’s budding, so it might have worked! These scions are mostly leafed out (CJ) or halfway so (Romeo) now.
I agree, and have had the same experience, just not as long. I often prune roots for container culture when repotting. Having said that the nice big roots, show you’re getting a well taken care of plant.
The flavor of these cherries is excellent, Don’s cherry cider looks fantastic! I bet that stuff IS fantastic!
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Any idea if the cuttings will root? I’d be interested, thanks.
There is a discussion of rooting cuttings here http://growingfruit.org/t/propagating-carmine-jewel-cherries/6901
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Could be worth a try. Let me know if you’d like to wait until there’s some softwood growth, too. I don’t have to prune the crossing stuff right away.
Hey Jerry-
I just noticed that Honeyberry USA is using your photo on their web site to promote their Romance Cherries. Just wanted to make sure you knew about it. If you gave them permission, then of course that’s great- although it seems like they could still give you credit (all it says is Iowa). If you didn’t give them permission, then that really bugs me- especially considering its on a for-profit site. It’s really none of my business, but I wanted to be sure you knew about it.
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Yeah, I’d had a few emails back and forth with Bernis, and had included some “proud papa” kinda pictures etc., and in one of her emails she inquired about utilizing some of my pictures on their various sites, which I was fine with.
Then one day she sent me an email with a short slide-show YouTube video thing she’d made of some of the pictures and from info included in some of those emails, and indicated that she’d put it on the site too. So that way people could click on the “Story” link under the “Growing Cherries” sidebar and watch that as well. I’m kinda technically challenged so I thought that was pretty cool… although I guess had I had any input prior to it being posted, I’d have rather it not had full name associated - although honestly it’s been there a long time and I’ve had exactly zero issues as a result so, no harm-no foul.
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Very good- glad to hear that. She does seem like nice lady so I was hoping everything was on the up and up, but in so many cases it isn’t so I wanted to be sure you knew. Actually, those plants are something to be proud of so I’m glad you get to let them be seen by more people. Can’t wait until mine get that large.
Well, and by way of full disclosure… precisely zero of the 5 CJ’s planted here came from HBUSA. All my CJ’s came from Gurney’s, when back then they were sold in pairs. My two CP’s, and two Juliet’s all came from HBUSA, and while they haven’t been in the ground long enough to be as big as the CJ’s, I have no doubt they’ll get there - they’ve grown a ton since going in the ground as little pencils…
Bernis had commented in an email that “The reason I am so nosy is that you have a “poster child” orchard – and it will be very helpful to others”.
And that back and forth dialogue was kind of the genesis of some of my stuff winding up on their site.
So I’m hoping it will be helpful in some small way. One way I think it has, is that she told me that she had revised the growth thresholds/limits on their site to at least reflect what they can potentially grow to. That’s important when folks make decisions to buy a plant and space them etc. Because I think they were initially marketed as 6’ max bushes well before there was a lot of real world experience in growing them in warmer climes than zone 2 Canada.
Anyone growing these in the southeastern US? They seem like a convenient size to put a bag over the whole bush after blooming to protect them from insects and birds, but diseases are another story.
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They have grown well for me in the past and fruited a couple of berries for the first time last year, the third year. This year I don’t think I got the chill they need. My newly planted Juliet is growing nicely while my older CJ still has not broken dormancy. I am in 8b and average about 650 chill hours, got about 350 this year and that is not enough. Summer heat does not bother mine.
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Honeyberry USA was interested in how my Zone 7 Honeyberries were doing. Some died. The survivors look sickly in the fall but some look better than others. They are short season plants and some deal with the extended warm weather (zone 6 and up) better than others. They asked me if they could use some photos I had and I was happy to oblige.
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I’m glad Honeyberry USA is seeking as much knowledge as they can find about their products. They have some great links people should check out so you can make informed purchases about little-known fruits.
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I’m growing in Tennessee but mine are just in their 2ed year (and 1st year for new ones)
@danzeb That is interesting about your honeyberry plants in zone 7. That is my zone too and I’ve had mixed success with getting them to live in the first year (last year) that I planted them. The good news is that those that made it through the hot summer came back this year and look pretty good. I really hope they will make it here.
If they grow during the summer they should be OK. The ones that looked really bad by the end of the season came back OK in the spring. My Berry Blue lost all its leaves one fall and then grew new leaves when the fall weather didn’t get cold enough. It survived and grew some the next summer. I’ve had the Berry Blue since 2012 and it’s only 3 ft. I’m in NY so your season my be longer and warmer than mine. We don’t have ideal weather for them but I think the newer releases will be more tolerant of zone 7 weather. My Honey Bee holds up a little better. My Blue Sky and Sugar Mountain died. As for Romance cherries my CJ planted in 2013 is growing nicely and I’m hoping for a small crop this year. It had 2 cherries last year. It only gets about 6 hrs sun.
On another thread we were talking about the honeyberries from Berries Unlimited. They went overseas and grabbed some excellent cultivars from Russia, grew many out and renamed them. Another site rated many as tart, tart/sweet, sweet, and sweet plus.Yesterday I bought three of the sweet plus category, 2 Russian, 1 Japanese, The Japanese is for chills. I picked up Blue Banana, and Honey Gin Russian cultivars, and Giant’s Heart Japanese for chills. I’m going to experiment with some air layers to back up my cultivars. I put on 4 air ;layers on my figs the other day. An excellent way to propagate figs! It should work. I need to try on my existing honeyberries. I should get a very small crop this year. Maybe 20-30 berries. They have grown the most of any of my plants, here everything is just starting, they are leading. I should put the air layer on now. I may lose some berries, but not getting that many this year.
Oh they didn’t have the cultivars listed on the site yet, as they are still propagating, but will have some in a month. I read about these cultivars on other sites, and they had them all. I called and they will ship ASAP when ready. They might be small, but they developed them, and are the only source. They will replace any that fail.
I have some older plants, three of them at my cottage, and will have 6 here. The cottage environment is low light so I doubt I will get many there. I can’t get up there for 2 weeks yet either. When the ferry starts running.
I was looking at that giants heart also, will be interesting to see how it does for you… Last spring I got solo and maxine from HBUSA and they were very small, but had some branches. I just buried them a little deeper than they were in the pot and by last fall the individual branches had roots on them. Easy way to get a couple extra plants…