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.”