Be sure to ask them what has been updated from the stuff that is on the web. It would be great to hear what you learn from them whether it’s good or bad so we can adjust. Keep us informed please Your our first hand guy! Thanks Brady! I would like to know if they plant the same way or if they have found a preferred way and care too.
Now I know most of you growing any romance serie’s cherry probably know this already, but here might be a reason why some may not have higher brix level "A common problem with CJ has been that new
growers often pick the fruit weeks before it is ripe.
When fully ripe this cherry practically becomes
black, yet people have been picking it red! At the
red stage, it likely has half the sugar and twice the
acidity. " Carmine jewel notes from UofS
I got a Carmine Jewel in ground here, hoping to reach the 30 pounds + it’s supposed to produce in a couple of years. I plan on netting it, of course…
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Anyone know who is selling Cupid?
According to duckduckgo web search, “the tree farm . com” has Cupid. They are in Colorado.
Thanks for the tip, but they don’t ship or do online sales.
I got my cherry trees last Saturday at 11:00 AM. I had them planted an hour later.
I have three Carmine Jewels on the left. Then on the top right is Juliet, going down in the middle is Romeo, and then Crimsons Passion. In the foreground you can see my Asian pairs and plums flowering. For some reason it doesn’t look like I will get plums again even though I had lots of flowers and tried hand pollinating. I had my holes dug before the trees came from both Rain tree and Honey berry. It goes fast when you just need to berry them! I had remove some nasty Autumn Olive, Honeysuckle, Bittersweet, and wild grape to get these ready.
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This hill is all stone and sand so I mixed in mushroom compost and composted cow manure with the sand and gravel. I topped it of with shredded pine bark from my firewood mess i cleaned up in my shredder chipper.
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Where did you buy your Crimson Passion? Thanks.
Thanks!
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Hey all,
I bought all the HoneyBerryUSA romance-series bush-cherry varieties to plant up at my friend’s 80 acre place in the Adirondacks NY. I was thinking they are super-hardy so they should be good there.
I wasn’t sure which area to plant them near. I got a few options:
- There’s alot of pine forest with large openings for the trails around the property. I plant alot of stuff along the trails since we mow the trails every-year… There is pretty good amount of sunlight on these wide trails.
Seems like alot of brambles and blueberries like to grow in these open areas and the soil is good. - There’s a creek going through the property. Right before that area is verrrry large & boggy area. But the house sits on high ground and behind the house is a bit more flat area be4 another hill that dips down to the boggy area. The septic system kinda is around there, and things kinda thrive back there. Its not too wet, but can maybe pull from the water-y area if there is a drought?
- an area with alot of sunlight, but alot of sand in the soil. (only brambles seem to do well here)
- a very large open area that has alot of moss-y like plants growing on it (guess not too many trees or brambles grow in this area at all (minus a few pines), cause the moss has a ‘thick coat over the ground-floor’ here hehe).
Remember that this is an area where I can’t water the plants. I usually put a ton of pine needles nowadays to form a nice mulch to keep moisture while we are away from the property. So i need to plant in a place where they won’t dry out. Hoping the Romance Series cherries don’t need too much human intervention and can survive off rain and sunlight available up there.
Note: I also bought some honeyberries and seaberries from HoneyBerryUSA if someone knows what conditions those plants like.
Any recommendations?
In my experience honey berries don’t like direct sunlight. Kansas sun is very hot. Romance series cherries on the other hand do like direct sunlight. I’ve grown both in alkaline soil very well. Honey berries died here due to the hot Kansas sun in the summer. Sea berries did not seem to care for our alkaline soil and lived for about 2 years in full sunlight but did not grow at all and then died.
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I’ve read that the honeyberry is more suited for the boggy areas, but cherries like good drainage. In the Adirondacks I would think the honeyberries would handle full sun. My honeyberries in sand haven’t produced many berries, so I have now planted some in a low pasture area of fertile clay loam. You will most likely also need to net them, which may be easiest to do in rows.
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Glad that someone revived this thread, as I’m looking to add some tart cherry trees this year.
So, how big are these Romance cherries that y’all have got from Honeyberryusa, what is typical growth for a year, and how soon do they produce? Would you say these are more like a big bush or like a really dwarfish tree when fully grown? I know they’re tart cherries, but which are the sweetest?
I’ve been considering getting either a Montmorency and/or North Star tree, but they seem to be hard to find on a rootstock that’d be good for my location. Cummins has lots of cherry trees on Mahaleb, but I don’t think that’d be a good RS for my soil, too wet. They do have Mont on Colt, but those aren’t the most cold hardy. I suppose Mazzard or one of the Gisela RS would suit me better here. Any comment on these RS?
Thanks.
In my opinion skip north star and get a Montmorency for a tree. North Star is highly disease resistant but a sparse bearer. Montmorency is a very heavy producer.
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Subdood,
I agree with Clark on North Star over Mont.
Raintree Nursery has several pie/sour cherries to choose from on Gisela rootstock. My cherries are on G 5 which is very cold hardy. If you don’t mind 8-15 ft tall trees, Gisela would be a good choice.
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I got one from there, and one for 7 bucks at another nursery. I can’t tell them apart, both Carmine Jewel. Carmine Jewel is the easiest to grow or seems that way. I think Juliet is the sweetest of the Romance series. The Montmorency might be a better choice? I don’t know? Again all are northern plants. Carmine Jewel grows 6 to 8 feet tall and 6 feet wide. It is a bush, the cherries are fantastic. Small in size, but so are the pits.The color is fantastic, Montmorency, lacks much pigment. Food coloring is added to commercial pies. Almost all are made with Montmorency cherries. If you used Carmine Jewel, you would not need to darken it. This year was the first year I had a decent harvest of them, and no doubt the surprise of the year. Tart yes, but so flavorful, the best fruit this year. They have to be processed, pies, pastry’s, preserves, etc.
Still I would take either, nice to have that deep cherry flavor however you can get it. I just want to make clear the Romance series taste like excellent tart cherries. Top rate all the way.
Photo from U of S.
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Carmine Jewell are excellent cherries Carmine Jewell Cherry Yields increasing with age. CJ are heavy producers like montmorency Carmine Jewell is living up to its famous reputation.
What is your fave nursery for romance cherries?
I have other options you guys do not. I live 16 miles away from the Canadian border. Lot’s of nurseries there to visit. Honeyberry USA or Henry Fields when they have a sale. I have only ordered one tree from Henry Fields and it was nice. Small, but super healthy. They had some super special on a Carmine Jewel it was only 7 dollars. They have CJ, Romeo and Juliet at decent prices, the plants will be small but should be fine. Romance series grow fast. An 8 inch seedling will fruit in 3 years.