Can someone who has tried both yellow and red cornelian cherries help to say if the yellow types have a distinct flavor (or lack the distinct flavor of the reds)?
How far north have people had success with cornelian cherries? Mine are struggling near St. Paul, MN.
Above mroot indicated that: [quote=“mroot, post:10, topic:56259”]
I like both of them. So far Yellow has higher yields, smaller fruit and a bit more of a tropical fruit flavor. Yellow can also be harvested by shaking the tree and having the fruit fall on a sheet or tarp which is typically how cornus mas is harvested. Elegant is a larger and sweeter fruit and normally doesn’t drop when ripe.
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Yellow is the main yellow type in the US and Elegant is a well rated red type so I think that yellow types might have a more tropical flavor (or at least more tropical than Elegant). I suspect that the red pigment has some impact to flavor so it might be similar to a yellow vs red tomato.
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Maybe there are some aromatic compoubds which appear only in some cultivars. Likly it’s not related with fruit color.
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For other yellow fruited options in the US you can get Flava from Broken arrow nursery this spring 2025 and Aliosha: (Syn: Alesza, Alesha, Alyosha) is being cultivated at cricket hill from scion wood provided by WildForager. I’ve pre-ordered Aliosha from them already. it isn’t listed on the website so you have to contact them and see if they are still taking preorders.
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@wildforager Have you ever tried Bolestrashitskii? It is on your list and via online it has some of the largest, sweetest fruits by the numbers reported. However, it doesn’t seem to be available in the US (yet)
Do you have any experience with importing the plants from Europe?
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‘Bolestraszycki’ taste similar to ‘Szafer’ as they are siblings or half-siblings (seeds were collected from same old park tree). They tend to have a little variation in sugar/acid ratio that’s why different sources describe the first or the secound as the sweetest.
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I asked a nursery that sells numerous cultivars about importing new cultivars from Europe and this was the response I received
“Chances are slim we’ll be able to do that. When the Cornus varieties we carry were first imported in the 90’s the USDA was a lot more open to allowing various genera in. They’re now super restrictive and make it a huge pain to get them in, and that combined with the fact that we likely won’t be visiting Ukraine/Crimea anytime soon given the situation there makes it very unlikely we’d be able to bring these in.”
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Bolestraszycki is not on my list. I do grow Bulgarsky and Butylochnyi which is close but not the same.
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If we’re talking about the sweetest fruit, I would like to show you the brix I measured this year. Flava is the sweetest so far at 21%
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21% is impressive! Did any of the other ones that you grow also rate high?
Wow! This is amazing! Is there anything that flava lacks in flavor? Earlier you mentioned it was one of your favorites; is there a significant taste difference between flava and elegant, or aliosha and flava?
The yellow fruited ones have less acid and more sugars. There’s definitely taste difference between the yellows and reds. Yellows might have a more tropical flavor, some say hints of pineapple, I think I can taste notes of sweet pumpkin or squash.
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Is there still a Dirndl Festival in the Pielachtal Valley in Austria? I would love to see pictures!
Thank you!
Did Yugo fruit this year? I see it is missing from the list (or maybe it goes by another name?)
The original Yugo Sweet is a numbered selection, located at the UW Arboretum in Madison, WI. Numbers ending in 804. It produces fruit almost every year. There have been a few years that I’m aware of where the flower buds got damaged from extreme cold (-25*F or more) and fruit set was minimal. That said, I am growing a couple of small grafted trees but they have not fruited for me yet. I’m looking forward to it so I don’t have to drive the 2.5 hrs to see the mother tree.
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