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nettles17

cherry tree in raleigh?

nettles17
18 years ago

I was wondering if cherry trees grow here, and if they do are they hard to keep healthy? Also, which type produces the best cherries? Thanks!

Carolyne

Comments (8)

  • brenda_near_eno
    18 years ago

    Prunus serotina is a native with absolutely stunning bark - but I haven't seen fruit. (Is anyone out there interested in this for the swap?) I know lots of folks grow the ornamental cherries. They are prone to a black fungus, so good light, avoiding bark wounds, and good ventilation is my suggestion.

  • alicia7b
    18 years ago

    I think sour cherries are best for this climate.

    Ornamental cherries can do well here. There's a lot of Yoshino, Kwanzo, and Okame around. My personal favorite is Japanese flowering apricot. Prunus subhirtella, either the weeping or "Autumnalis", does well here too.

  • basil_davis
    18 years ago

    Yes Carolyne cherry grow in n.c..

    When I was a little boy in Winston-Salem my grandad had 2 cheeries trees that I like eating cherries from. There was also a very BIG cherry tree in a yard near where I lived when I was a child that had great cherries.

    I have planted 7 North star cherries trees and 7 Bing Cherries trees. All but one of the north star have died. The one left looks very good. I have 4 Bing cherries still alive. I planted the Bing trees last year and the north star year before last. I had north star cherries the first year. I may be haveing 2 main problems. The ground way too hard and very bad drainage. Another problem was periods of no water. I also had a problem with deer eating the trees. Now have electric fence around the trees.

    I hope to do some work on the drainage problem.
    I also have a drainage problem with some lilacs.

    I bought the north star from wal-mart and the Bing from lowe's. So they must think cherries trees grow here. I think cherry trees need ground with good drainage that I don't have. For some reason lowe's didn't sell cherries trees this year.

    Maybe next Spring I will take pictures of the trees.

  • basil_davis
    18 years ago

    Here a link for one cherry tree for zone 6 thru 8.
    But you need pollinate with another sweet variety or Montmorency. But Montmorency grows in zone 6 thru 7.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Cherry tree

  • hairmetal4ever
    17 years ago

    Cherries are tough because they need winter chill, but aren't super hardy, usually not an issue in the Carolinas, but what IS an issue is summer humidity. They can take heat and wetness but not BOTH, which is a problem.

  • don3727
    15 years ago

    I live in Nashville, TN and planted one North Star Cherry tree back in 1994. I have had an abundance of these wonderful cherries, with this year being the best.

  • jqpublic
    15 years ago

    Prunus serotina grows here, but usually succumbs to infestation. They are not grown for their fruit though, but I thought I'd mention it since someone replied about it.

  • trianglejohn
    15 years ago

    You need to understand that the lines that divide what we call "cherries" and "plums" is a blurry line in the plant world. So the names may get confusing. There are native plums and cherries that grow just fine here but these may not be the kind of fruit you are wishing for. There are also other types of berries that will grow here that have small fruit that sorta tastes like cherries but really aren't. I see mostly sour cherries offered sale in the Raleigh area but I don't know anyone that harvests a sizeable crop off them so I don't know if I would say they do well here - they might survive but you'll just barely get enough berries to make one pie (which is the reason God invented cherries, by the way).

    I grow the little bushes called Bush Cherries which are really a type of bush plum. The fruit looks like small cherries and tastes kinda like them but more like the wild plums that many people call Turkey Plums or Chickasaw Plums (I'm from Oklahoma and we called them Sand Plums). The fruit is small so it can be a pain to pit them and cook with them but the bushes are very cute in the garden and gorgeous when in bloom in the early spring. They do suffer from some sort of disease each spring but they pull out of it by summer and it doesn't seem to harm the fruit.

    I had a friend back in Oklahoma (zone 6) that had a lovely Nanking Cherry tree in her front yard. A small tree which would get covered with cherries every year. Nanking Cherries are another plum being sold as a cherry. The leaves are not like any cherry or plum I have ever seen before. It handled the heat and humidity just fine so it may do well here but the fruit, though tasting like pie cherries, is a bit smaller.