I finally sourced a local place with nanking cherry bushes. The question is whether I should get two for cross pollination, or hoping that the bloom time and compatibility works with the Romeo, Juliet, Carmine Jewel, or even the Evans and/or Montmorency trees.
And the ‘should I get two’ is assuming that the breeder reproduces them from seed, and that this sexual reproduction allows for enough genetic variance for successful pollination. Is this so?
My nanking cherry died long time ago. as I recall it didn’t need another cherry to set fruits.
My understanding is that they are not self fertile but if you have a early bloom plum that this would do it.
good question. my nankings are right next to my carmine jewel. both are flowering. think i read somewhere theyre different genuses and not compatable. the plum may be a option as ive also read nankings are closer related to plum than cherry. unfortunitly my plums are few days out from blooming and nankings are just about done now. my younger white nanking put out about 6 blooms so hopefully its enough to pollinate the bigger bush.
Yeah, I’m hoping I get an answer to the second part of the question, whether seeds from the same bush would have enough genetic variance to count. My understanding is that asexual reproduction (cuttings) won’t cut it. Lame pun intended…
as far as i understood it, nankins are closer to plum. And the tart/sour cherries usualy can’t polinate plums or things similair to plums. So id expect those to not cross polinate.
If you need another nankin for pollination. im not sure on. So ill let others awnser that question 
I planted a dozen seedlings for someone…first bloom, but I see no fruits. Bloom in March here. My sister planted one in 1977 but only a stray fruit and I have never gotten to eat one.
Same genus but different species from sweet or sour cherries. They won’t cross pollinate. You might have better luck with an American plum that flowers early like Bounty or Brookgold.
I had about 10 Nanking bushes and I found the berries had very little flavor and were smaller than blueberries with a seed that was a good part of the berry. They were very productive and I let the birds eat most of them
These will be part of my plant material library. I’m going to stick them in a slope, good sun but not the best place to harvest anything.
Oh, I can actually answer this! I had a single Nanking cherry planted in between a Romeo and Juliet cherry for 3 years, until a real wet spring puddled water around the nanking and killed it.
All 3 plants bloomed like crazy, but only the Romeo and Juliet ever set fruit. I got 3 nanking cherries 1 year, but that was it.
Ok… Anybody knows if seeds from the same mother would have enough genetic difference to cross pollinate?
in most cases they do. However sweet cherries have complex pollination system. So for example there it might not work. I’m not completely sure how sour (tart) cherries work. So not a 100% on this.
since a lot of tart cherries can self polinate. Im 99+% sure seeds from the same mother can pollinate each other.
That’s the crux of the matter; nanking cherries do not self polinate.
oow, it wasn’t clear to me you where specifically talking about nanking. Assumed you asked about romance.
In most species sibling seeds can cross pollinate. Certain things like sweet cherry’s and their multiple alle’s are an exception.
When in doubt google a bit.
i can’t find the specific system that cause self infertility in nanking. So i assume they act like most self infertile plants. And then siblings can cross pollinate just fine.
Google (or my google-fu) is coming short with an answer. I would think so, but I don’t know so, and it would be nice before I pick two plants here instead of one here and wait for one from another source.
The grower had nanking grown from cuttings form several bushes, but no idea which came from where; there was a chance (certainty, really) I would pick two from the same donor. Fortunately he also had a batch of potted ones he got from another orchard. I picked one from each to play it safe.
On a side note, we all talk about Nanking cherries as a single variety when is more like an entire species. Are there any recognized varieties around?
ive only heard of red and white nankings. no named cultivars that ive heard of.
sure there are, many, and big fruited ones too…but they are on the other side of the “iron curtain”, so to speak. I don’t know how many times i’ve watched this video:
Вишня войлочная Натали - YouTube
…and tried to find cultivars like ‘Natalie’ inside the EU borders. So far no luck. There are maybe 12 cultivars in the Russian state registry at least, they are somewhat same size as this one. I think I’ve posted the link a few times somewhere in the forum, but right now can’t find it. And does it matter, since right now it seems the only way would be to find someone to write phyto, and drive there to buy the plants.
These are the species that will pollinate Prunus tomentosa/Nanking cherry:
(no guess work involved)
An inexpensive “dwarf flowering Almond” that you can pick up at any home store for 20 or 25 bucks for a good size shrub that already is flowering will do the job.
Dax