I would try a new romance, but my wife wont’ let me. 
John S
PDX OR
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John,
All you need is a dozen of red roses and nice dinner at the restaurant and you will get your romance without any issue.
Tony
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At least your going to get some growth for next seasons bumper crop.
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I should check and see if I’ll get a crop, I think they are pretty tolerant to cold temps, but if pollinators aren’t out, then that is more of the issue.
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I looked at mine, looks like an average crop of fruit is forming this year, the low when flowering was 19F. .
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Looking at bush cherries lately I revisited my interest in Joy, Jan, and Joel bush cherries. Old cultivars, not easy to find. They ripen in August! I don’t really know much about them?
Meader Bush Cherries — Prunus japonica X Prunus jacquemontii
Developed by E.M. Meader of the University of New Hampshire, these three
cultivars produce a firm-fleshed, tart cherry on a 4 foot bush. The fruit
ripens in August, thereby avoiding heavy bird pressure. About as hardy
as Nanking cherry, (minus 30 F,) although snow cover may afford additional
protection. Loaded with fruit in the late summer and with flashy red autumn
color, it makes a striking landscape plant.
My Carmine Jewel plants are in pots. One I kept in the garage. and it is profusely flowering now.
The other one rooted through the pot into the ground, so I left it outside all winter. it did fine! It is behind the other in flowering.
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I have 3 joy and 1 joel, don’t know what happened this spring as I thought cold isn’t a problem for these bushes, but the 19 degrees not only killed the flowers, but looks like it killed branches as well. First year I had any major damage on those bushes. I am not as excited about those now anyways as swd can make late fruit like that a disaster. But they do have nice fall color.
I guess I was smart to go with Carmine Jewel, Juliet looks like the best of the Romance series. I may add one. I have SWD here too, so far they seem to only like my blackberries. I will attack them hard this year.
swd has been a problem for a few years now for me, though last year they took a break and late raspberries/blackberries didn’t have maggots, but sap beetles filled in and they were the main pest last year, the epidemic attacking most fruits.
Once again frost was very hard on my nanking cherries, a few did make it though. I thought this one was interesting, the other nankings are bright red but this seedling has cherries that are still white
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Keep us posted. Maybe you have a new variety there!
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Every once and awhile, edible landscaping and raintree have offered a white one, though they didn’t have one when I wanted one, and I ended up with a white one anyways growing seed out.
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Does anyone know whether a Carmine Jewel can cross-pollinate a Nanking Cherry? I planted two Nanking bushes a couple of years back, one is now 6’ tall and the other is 1’ and looks terrible. After reading so many positive things here about Carmine Jewel, I was hoping I could swap one for the existing 1’ bush and grow side by side with the Nanking for comparison. I am short on space in that area, so a third bush is unfortunately not an option.
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I was hoping someone else could answer you on this, so maybe my answer will prompt others who know for sure whether CJ will pollinate Nanking. The good news is that if you plant the CJ, it should be self fertile so you’ll at least get cherries from one bush.
I don’t know how good you are at grafting, but if you do decide to pull the smaller Nanking, you may want to take some cuttings from it when it is dormant and graft a few into the Nanking you are going to leave in the spring. That way, if they take and eventually flower, you’ll have the cross pollination still in place all in the one bush.
I don’t know about Carmine Jewel, but I have a Nanking and a Juliet cherry that I was hoping would pollinate each other. They flowered at very different times, maybe a month apart, for me and there was no fruit on either bush.
Sometimes they don’t fruit the first flowering, or the buds were damaged. I only have Carmine Jewel and it fruited fine the nest year, and the year after that. I added Juliet this year.
It is unlikely, without chemical intervention. While Nanking does cross with other prunus. Sour Cherries have double the standard number of prunus chromosomes, A full two sets from the sweet cherry and 2 sets from p.fruitcosa. CJ is a sour cherry crossed back with fruitcosa again resulting in a plant with 1 set from sweet and 3 from fruticosa.
for the curious one of the chemical used to cause plant buds to double chromosomes is colchinice. Its derived from Autumn crocus bulbs.
We have talked about this a few times in the stone fruit hybrid thread. I’m not sure of ploidy level in Prunus tomentosa? Even if ploidy level does not match it still may accept pollen from other prunus species. The seeds could be sterile, but still produce fruit. Not likely, but does occur in certain situations.
Anyone else having a good Nanking year? My two bushes are loaded. It’s nice to have these ripening so much later than my romance series cherries. And for some reason the birds mostly leave them alone. This batch (they’re a lot darker than the photo shows) will be turned into jam tomorrow.
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do all your nanking cherries bear this late? mine start bearing before the sour cherries start.