For what it’s worth - I couldn’t resist the temptation of a new sour cherry and placed an order too. I am now frantically trying to find a spot for “just one more last tree” on my small city lot lol. I hope it’s worth it.
And it’s also the second year of my Carmine Jewel! I hope it had enough time to settle and grow root and will produce something this year.
Got it and put it into the ground. Let’s hope it was worth it, had to squeeze it into a pretty awkward spot in the front yard.
This just popped up in my News feed
I ordered FE, Big Red and Cupid and left a spot for a fourth in what will eventually be a loose hedge/ wind break. They all looked great.
Take note that the size descriptors on the website appear to be clear, but the coding that shows on the invoice might be misleading. When they arrived, I was minorly disappointed that two of the three were identified as “quart” or “gallon” on the invoice and would both have fit comfortably into a single quart pot.
Nice solid roots on all three and opening the box came with the new plant/loamy smell that encourages the plant collecting addiction.
Looks like they promoted it in a few different ways. I already had an order with them for 2 Sweet Thing bush cherries and they sent an email offering to add a FE for no additional shipping. I had been contemplating adding another Sweet Thing or a Cupid, so that was enough to make up my mind for a FE.
I got the larger 1 gal version and I don’t think it was 3 feet tall. Next time I am at the rental I can check to see, but I think it is closer to 1.5’. But, as @Mtncj noted, the roots look pretty good, so it should be fine.
It is planted relatively close to the SW corner of the building. There is a porch right at the corner, which I figure I can drop a net from if needed. You can still see some of the Rhododendron which I removed (I’ll come back later to get the rest) to make space.
In contrast, here is a 2 gal Sweet Thing, which was planted at the rental around the corner from the FE.
Not very tall, but it has a lot of branching.
My experience has been that all my bush cherries from them in the past have arrived looking like your cupid also.
The Juliet, and cutie pie look like the nice one. The sweet thing i got(they were out of the big ones, supplier couldn’t cross border) was very very tiny. Last fall when I planted them.
They all were healthy and had nice roots tho.
This was the pic they sent me when I inquired about the 1gal.
But yeah, decent roots there regardless.
My sweet thing that just arrived from honeyberry USA looks near identical to yours. mine started to leaf out in the box because of the little heat wave we’ve been having here in MD.
Without context I’d have guessed the Sweet Thing was a black currant.
Yes, the form looks pretty similar. Though it should get much bigger.
Per the UoS:
‘Sweet Thing’, a hybrid of ‘Carmine Jewel’ and ‘Erdi Jubileum’, is the highest quality sour cherry we have observed in our cherry breeding program
…
While most of the University of Saskatchewan cherries are 3 to 4 grams, ‘Sweet Thing’ has large burgundy fruits in the range of 5 to 6 grams. They are sweeter and firmer than most sour cherries. The bush is expected to grow to about 2.5 meters, but needs additional testing in more areas. The original plant was a heavy producer when only 1.5 meters tall.
Here’s the PDF:
sweet-thing.pdf (214.2 KB)
Carmine jewel bushes can get quite large. It takes a few years before you see cherries. I have to spray mine with Spinosad or they get worms in them. They make great pies.
I have Carmine Jewel growing in a corner of my frontyard, it seems to be very happy in my climate. I planted it last sprint, and was able to try one berry that same year, although I don’t think it was fully ripe. This year every branch has huge (still dormant) flower clusters Buds, Flowers and Fruits- 2025 edition - #196 by Eugeneb
Also happy to hear it goes well for cooking; if it continues on this trajectory, we probably can make something tasty next year.
my sweet thing is looking pretty happy
I don’t have any more room, but when I saw this cherry I couldn’t pass it up and I ordered two of them. USPS priority mail has gotten really slow as it used to take a package just a few days to get here, but the last two plant packages took about two weeks. I was worried how these cherries would look but they didn’t look bad at all coming out of the box. Now I just need to find a spot to plant them.
