Do you have a source for that? All books I have read list Montmorency as a pure P. cerasus and do not mention any sweet cherry parentage. Since Montmorency is known from about 16th or 17th century, its true parentage is unknown but if it indeed had some characteristics of a sweet cherry heritage, this would be noted.
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This is what i know about them. They are supposedly French Tart cherry of French heritage | Good Fruit Grower
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Tart cherry of French heritage
About 95 percent of North American tart cherries are Montmorency, but in Europe, where it originated, tart cherries with dark flesh and juice are preferred.
January 15, 2011
Montmorency tart cherries are bright red with yellowish flesh and clear juice. They ripen just after the early sweet cherry varieties, or about mid-July in Traverse City, Michigan. Montmorency cherries are borne on trees that seem bush-like but are 15 to 20 feet tall.
Published January 15, 2011
For a cherry that is synonymous with cherry pie and George Washington’s mischievous hatchet, the Montmorency tart cherry doesn’t have much of a pedigree.
It is thought to have come from the Montmorency Valley just north of Paris, France, where it was named after a noble family that had grown it since the thirteenth century. French settlers moving up the St. Lawrence River Valley toward the Great Lakes brought it to the New World around 1760, perhaps earlier. Why they chose Montmorency over other European cultivars, and how it endured before it became commercialized in the late 1800s, are not part of the record.
What is known is that the American tart cherry industry, which is about half the size of the sweet cherry industry, was built on this one variety. More than 95 percent of North American tart cherries are Montmor-ency, an amarelle-type variety with bright red skin, pale flesh, and clear juice. In Europe, the morello type is the tart cherry of choice. Morello cherries have dark skin, flesh, and juice and are larger, firmer, and sweeter.
The Montmorency fruit sweetens as it ripens, but remains too tart for most people to eat out of hand. Its chief positive aspect is that tartness. Most of the crop is packed in 30-pound tins—25 pounds of cherries and five pounds of sugar—and sold frozen to food manufacturers, for use in pies, jams, and baked goods. Some goes into small cans for the dwindling number of home pie makers. And, for the last 30 years, more of the fruit has been going into cherry juice and dried cherry “raisins” made from sugar-infused fruit.
Superfruit
Despite years of promotion and recognition during February, National Cherry Month, consumption of tart cherries in the United States remains steady at less than a pound per person, about a tenth what Europeans eat. One industry focus on market development seeks to develop new products, and dried cherries and cherry juice have shown growth in recent years even as bakery use declines. Recently, it’s been promoted as a superfruit, based on claimed health attributes.
Researchers have verified many of the old myths about the healthful qualities of Montmorency tart cherries. They are a rich source of antioxidants, which can help fight cancer and heart disease, and other compounds in Montmorency tart cherries do relieve the pain of arthritis and gout, just as proponents claimed. Melatonin in cherries is a sleep aid.
New homeland
Montmorency cherries found their best new homeland along the shores downwind of the Great Lakes or on peninsulas mostly surrounded by Great Lakes water. In 1852, a Presbyterian missionary, Peter Dougherty, planted cherry trees on Old Mission Peninsula, an 18-mile long, three-mile wide finger of land that splits Michigan’s Grand Traverse Bay. His cherries flourished, and other growers followed.
Door Peninsula in Wisconsin also became a leading producer of tart cherries in the late 1800s. In Michigan, the industry spread south, finding good sites all along the Lake Michigan shore. Similar sites did not exist in Wisconsin on the cold side of the big lake.
According to the history as told by the Cherry Marketing Institute, the first commercial tart cherry orchards in Michigan were planted in 1893 on Ridgewood Farm, on Old Mission near the site of Dougherty’s first orchard. By the 1900s, the tart cherry industry was firmly established in the state. The region turned out to be ideal for growing cherries because Lake Michigan tempers the winter low temperatures and delays bloom in the spring.
The environment in which Montmorency cherries grow provides a challenge, however. They demand the best fruit sites, the places where rich folks like to perch their homes. Old Mission Peninsula became one of the nation’s first townships with a farmland preservation program, but even then, these sites are often converted to vineyards and wineries if not to houses.
There are about 37,000 acres of Montmorency cherries nationwide, 24,000 in Michigan. In the eastern United States, production sites are around the Great Lakes—in Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and New York and in the Canadian province of Ontario. Utah, Washington, and Oregon contribute most of the balance.
Montmorency cherry trees are smaller than sweet cherry trees, 15 to 20 feet tall, and are spreading and bushlike, having a weak or no central leader. Unlike sweet cherries, they are self-fertile and are planted in blocks of one variety only.
Despite its dominance in the U.S. industry, Montmorency has numerous shortcomings, according to Dr. Amy Iezzoni, the Michigan State University tart cherry breeder, including susceptibility to diseases, insects, and climatic stresses, poor fruit firmness, and the necessity to add sugar and red coloring to the majority of processed products.
She is trying to develop new tart cherry varieties and has helped introduce the Balaton, a morello-type cherry from Hungary, that
some farmers are growing."
Do you have “The Cherries of New York” book by Hedrick? It’s a classic (published in 1915), with tons of information about old varieties. A searchable PDF version can be found online.
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I do not have it but do have the pears of new york. Will look for it thank you! At one point i read evans was a natural dwarf 8 foot seedling of montmorency. Im not sure if that is still a rumor or not.
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Yes, this is an entire series of books: “The Cherries of New York”, “The Apples of New York”, “The Pears of New York”, “The Plums of New York”, and “The Peaches of New York”. I have them all in electronic form (PDF). A lot of invaluable information.
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Im going to link this thread regarding carmine jewell and others it will come up soon Unreleased University of Saskatchewan prarie cherries we want & what we know about them contrasted with romance series cherries . Have grown some of these cherries for years and they really are fantastic Carmine Jewell Cherry Yields increasing with age
" Saskatchewan fruit breeders receive prestigious horticulture award
Bob Bors and Rick Sawatzky, fruit breeders with the Department of Plant Sciences, College of Agriculture and Bioresources at the University of Saskatchewan, are the joint recipients of the prestigious Stevenson Award for their development of sour cherries and haskaps.
Inaugurated by the Manitoba Horticultural Association in 1932, it honours individuals who have “made a conspicuous achievement in the field of practical horticulture.” Named in memory of A. P. Stevenson, a pioneer Manitoba horticulturist who arrived from Scotland in 1874, it has been given only 21 times in 83 years.
As gardeners, we seldom give much thought to their origins as we eat haskaps fresh off the bush or take a cherry pie out of the oven. But it took more than 50 years of breeding and selection work at the University of Saskatchewan before you planted your prairie-hardy cherries and over 20 intensive years went into the development of those haskaps.
Sour Cherries
The first sour cherries planted in the University experimental plots were from seeds from the Central Siberian Botanic Garden in Novosibirsk. These were just beginning to fruit when Rick began work as a technician in 1971. They had low productivity and lacked winter hardiness. Asked to discard them, Rick took two home which he tried (unsuccessfully) to cross with sweet cherries. His goal: to develop a hardy large shrub with large, high quality fruit.
Rick’s next crosses involved a collection of sour cherries, mainly from Europe, received from Les Kerr (who had worked on them for at least 20 years). All these were controlled crosses made in the greenhouse with help from Rick’s kids on weekends. “It was a great botany lesson for them.”
Rick crossed the best of these, ‘Kerr’s Easy Pick’, with ‘North Star’, a sour cherry tree introduced from Minnesota. The result was ‘SK Carmine Jewel’, the first sour cherry introduced by the University of Saskatchewan in 1999.
Bob arrived at the University of Saskatchewan in 1999 when a new generation of Rick’s seedlings were coming into production. He tasted them, began taking data and thought, “These cherries are exciting!” Bob jokingly says, “Rick was their Dad and I became their Godfather.”
Bob tested them further, selected the best and developed a protocol for their tissue culture propagation. He gathered additional cherries from local growers and from Ontario and made more crosses. When making selections he looked at flavour, size, pitting ease and the possibility of mechanical harvesting.
Bob introduced the Romance series of cherries in 2003: ‘Crimson Passion’, ‘Cupid’, ‘Juliet’, ‘Romeo’ and ‘Valentine.’ Of these, Rick’s favorite is still ‘Carmine Jewel’ while Bob’s are ‘Romeo’ and ‘Juliette’.
Rick’s advice on the care of sour cherries: “Grow them as a shrub with multiple stems rather than in tree form.” Bob concurs and adds: “Keep the soil around cherries weed-free.”
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This is all true, about the montmorency cherry. In the south of France they really do not exist. Here they are called Griottes. All sour cherries are called Griottes even though 90% are Montmorency. I think its a nickname.
Their Sweet cherries are excellent. One variety is almost black, I do not know its name, but I will find out. The Balaton are delicous and I eat at least one quart each summer. There are many cherry orchards in the south of France, but most if not all are sweet cherries. The market for sweet cherries is enormous and you cannot have a summer without Clafouti! A cake with sweet cherries in the dough. The French leave in the pits! I find that dangerous for teeth.
Thus I planted my own Montmorency which are easily available in Spring at every nursery.
The French like their sweets and make jams and jellies from Balaton. Occasionally you will find Griotte jam or confiture.
I am hoping that this summer will bring enough cherries for a pie or at least four pints of jam. Fingers crossed. The tree has quite a few fruiting spurs so I am hopeful.
When I lived in RI my Montmorency tree 14 years old, was very large and gave me the least problems of all of my trees. It was a joy to own and provided pies for the neighborhood! It is the classic cherry pie cherry.
I followed a simple spray schedule that I kept to three times a year (except when the cherries were ripe (no spray) but the entire tree had to be netted or there would be no cherries at all. An all time favorite fruit along with apricots! It took 3 people to net the tree!
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400lbs of fruit per tree is pretty good!
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This old thread on Houzz talks about the Evans and others…
Konrad says that Evans doesnt seem to like zones above 5?
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Can always appreciate a good cherry montmorency is one for sure. To this day i still grow it Seedling Montmorency cherries . Kansas weather can be harsh but it is also the land of plenty. A tough cherry like montmorency is important to have around. Love to hear about where you live in France.
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Konrad is a pretty knowledgeable guy on fruit growing. If he says it i’m inclined to think that might be accurate. Would still consider giving the evans a try since i’m in 6a it is more like 5b at times.
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He goes into detail about buying from nurseries… and that some are grafted on mazzard… etc.
I found a nursery here in the US selling them for $39 but they dont talk about rootstock.
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Griottes is the French name for Morello type tart cherries (those with dark juice). Balaton is the Morello type. Montmorency is the other type — Amarelle (those with clear juice). Let me quote Hedrick:
The cherries with colorless juice are the Amarelles, from the Latin for bitter, a term probably first used by the Germans but now in general use wherever these cherries are grown, though the English often designate them as Kentish cherries and the French as Cerisier Commun. These Amarelles are pale red fruits, more or less flattened at the ends. Despite the derivation of the name Amarelle, they have less bitterness than the other group of varieties of the Sour Cherry. They are also less acid than the darker colored cherries and are therefore more suitable for eating out of hand while the dark colored cherries are almost exclusively culinary fruits. The common representatives of this group are Early Richmond, Montmorency and the various cherries to which the word Amarelle is affixed, as the King Amarelle and the Spate Amarelle.
The second group, varieties with reddish juice and usually with very dark fruits which are more spherical or cordate in shape than the Amarelles, comprises the Morellos of several languages or the Griottes of the French. The first of these terms has reference to the color, the word Morello coming from the Italian meaning blackish while Griotte, from the French, probably is derived through agriotte from aigre, meaning sharp, in reference to the acidity of these cherries. Weichsel is the German group name for these cherries, rather less commonly used than the other two terms. The typical varieties of this group are English Morello, Ostheim, Olivet, Brusseler Braune, Vladimir and Riga.
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i dont remember where i read it. it was a very old publication translated from French i found by accident when i 1st researched this cultivar. its got to be true as you cant graft sweet cherry on other P. cerasus, yet you can on Monty. and its listed as pollinating all sweet cherries on several charts posted on several nursery websites. the 3 sweet cherry scions of 2 z4 hardy cherry cultivars i got from Travis, easily grafted onto the mid branches of my monty and grew well. about 12in. in 1 summer. 1 graft failed and thats likely due to my limited grafting skills.
im hoping to graft half of mine to sweets so i get a good amount of both from 1 tree. 
Stan, I agree, made a mistake about the Balaton. Morello (though sounding Italian) is an
English black sour cherry. We do not have many of those growing here either. Living in the ‘stonefruit’ belt of France the cherries grown here are very large in size and very sweet. They are either very red or very black (all very sweet). Montmorency, for my money is still the best pie cherry ever!
Our Balatons, are bit sour only. They are a sweeter cherry here than Montys. Italians love the Balatons for cooking and preserving them in a thick syrup. Served over vanilla ice cream. A perfect summer dessert!
Griotte, is a nickname for sour cherries in France. It is a trade name, also meaning grit and pebbles. (Pits).
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I purchased and planted a tissue-cultured ‘Bali’(Evans) cherry from St. Lawrence Nursery back around 1996. Planted 20 ft from a Montmorency. They are very different… I do not believe they are the same species, nor do I believe that Evans is a seedling of Montmorency.
While the photos I’ve seen posted by Konrad, and others in zone 4 and colder look fantastic… performance in zone 6 was pitiful. Evans is enough later than Montmorency that plum curculio &/or other insects hit the fruit hard long before ripening. I don’t think I ever got to eat a ‘perfect’ Evans cherry (there weren’t ANY), and after the first couple of years fruiting, I didn’t even bother to look at the thing, other than to say, “What a waste of space.”
Evans/Bali eventually started throwing up suckers up to 20-30 ft away… very distinctive leaf morphology. I dug some and shared with fellow NAFEXers, and I think I have finally eliminated the last of the suckers that persisted after the original tree declined and died.
I would advise against Evans/Bali if you’re in a warmer climate than zone 5… maybe even warmer than zone 4… up there in the real frigid northland, it looks like it’s hard to beat, but it’s a dog down here near the Z6-7 interface.
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Good intel! thank you!
I am growing some Nanking and Cornelian Cherries myself. They are cheap and seem to be decent from what i read. Im not a big cherry guy but i do see the benefits of them both for wildlife and pollinators as a good thing to grow… i will likely only hope for handfuls of them for myself.
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I bought a bundle of row-run Nanking cherry seedlings from Gurney’s or someplace similar, 20 years ago, for a grafting project (dwarfing understock for peach and Japanese hybrid plums - Nanking is actually more closely related to plums than to true cherries).
Still have a few of them stuck out there in a nursery bed/row. They must have been the worst possible fruiting strain of Nanking out there. TINY little fruits, with barely a rim of pulp surrounding the pit. I don’t think even the birds bother with them… but I’m not often over in that area of the orchard to even observe them, when in fruit.
C.mas is a far better choice than my Gurney’s strain of Nanking.
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I think they need two genetically different strains to do well… im no expert but it makes sense.