I am in the Fulton County GA. I have planted two sweet cherry trees 4 years ago: Lapins and Stella. I got few fruits from each tree in the last two years. If this year the cherries won't give me better crop, I will remove them to plant some other fruit tree.

If we are looking to add new fruit trees into the collection, sweet cherry should be last in the list, assumming we are in the ATL metro area.

Hope this help

The Stella came up on the Atlanta_Fruits Yahoo group recently, and many have had success with it fruiting.

I finally broke down and planted one, to add to my Montmorency and Nankings. Probably won't fruit this year, might get some fruit next year, hope to motherload on the 3rd.

I have one Stella Cherry tree on a dwarfing rootstock. This will be it's fourth summer and looks healthy but has not created a flower yet. It's right next to the plums which are in full bloom and all the ornamental cherries are too. So it seems surprisingly late blooming.

Good luck with yours satellitehead and alpharetta ... May the cherry gods be with us!!

What conditions are yours planted in? Full sun, Part Sun, Part Shade or Full Shade?

I would have to say Part Sun since some of the morning sun is blocked. There is a Santa Rosa plum tree planted in the same area, but with less sun, and it is flourishing so much that and if it wasn't for the Curcillos last year, I would have had a bumper crop from it. (I'm spraying some organic stuff this year at petal drop.)

Back on topic ... thanks for your interest, but I noticed a few flower bud for the first time this year, so intervention may not be necessary. Do you know if those buds would have formed last year or could they have formed as a result of some aggressive pruning this winter?

Thanks,
Ron

wezl66 (and others),

Here are some beautiful Stella Cherry blossoms (yay! ... first in 4 years):

And with the clear, warm weather and no frost in sight, I may have some fruit to report back on this summer.

Thanks satellitehead, maybe I'll checkout that Atlanta_Fruits yahoo group. Will I get spammed with yahoo ads?

I'm very interested in a stella on a dwarf root stock. Where, may I ask did you find that?
Many of the old time fruit growers I've spoken too (and I admit, that's not too many) shy away from dwarf root stocks. They like semi-dwarf, but not dwarf for organic growing. Some plants I would prefer trying dwarf trees because I want SOME fruit, but not a whole tree (or two if needed for pollination) worth. I'd also really like a line of dwarf fruit trees down the driveway between driveway and the veggie garden.

What beautiful blooms! Becoming more and more convinced that I should go ahead and give the Stella a try.

@logrock....no spamming i've ever seen. in fact, the list is usually pretty dead, emails come and go in flurries, i haven't seen one in 203 weeks.... it's sorta hit or miss.

Searches of that yahoo group always turn up empty ... I'd like to read that discussion, so when exactly was that?

wezl66 : blooms ARE nice but the proof is in the fruit. I have gorgeous apricot bloooms too, but nuthin' .. :-) So I'll bookmark this link and keep you posted on how it develops.

I'm also on the Atlanta fruits list, never gotten a Spam from it, and I don't get ads sent from it. I don't think it's searchable unless you are a member.

Search specifically for (including quotes and underscore): "altanta_fruits"

Use Google. You will find it. The forum blocks members from posting links to Yahoo! groups due to spammers abusing Google and Yahoo Groups to post links to malicious or advertisment sites.

Oops - I misspelled Atlanta above. Should be "Atlanta_Fruits". Quick link to Google search here.

I had no problem finding the group and I did become a member, but a search within the group for any mesage containing "Stella" comes back empty. No biggy, I'll look at it closer, later. And if y'all say that others got decent fruit from a Stella Cherry in our area, I believe you.

The moderator of that forum has gotten some good fruit off of it, and I did see the fruit and quality of the fruit (and abundance!!).
Last year: Rains right when the flowers opened = no bees = no pollination = no fruit.
This year he has been saying he's not seeing honeybees in his yard, and it's cherry flowering time!!! So something to think about!

Yeah, like going out and buying or creating spawning blocks for Mason Bees, who are way more effective pollinators than honeybees, and are actually native to our continent! ;)

He does have mason and carpenter bee blocks but the rain kept the bees down right through flowering season last year. That's the killer right there. This year mason and Carpenter bees can be doing wonderful things. Unless you spray for carpenter bees, which will also kill mason bees...

I never spray. I am fortunate in that my neighbor has a ginormous holly that is putting off the sweetest smell right now and attracts bazillions of pollinators, and being just 40' from my cherries and 20' from my plums....there's plenty nearby! I think I'm going to drill some blocks this year and get some inserts for Mason Bees. I just need to find a good location to mount them.

Mount them on either the (facing your house) left hand side, or back up under the eves of your house Sattelitehead. Those are your two best places on your place.

That's what I was thinking - not sure if you walked around to the stackstone beds on the south side, but that's what I was going for. Thing is - no eves. And I was afraid that the deck (south side), which has an eve, may not emit enough heat.

No, I did not walk around because a neighbor across the street had come out and was watching us (good neighbor!!!). Walking around would have been suspicious. I think the South side would also work, that is where Lostman has his, in his garden. His are mounted low, under his windows which I think will work for Mason Bees. Carpenter bees need high mounts. I've also read recently that in moist climates you should avoid the tubes. I guess you'd need to access your boxes easily every year and use pipe cleaners to clean the holes then?

I think you need something like an awl to clean them, pipe cleaners are too bendy. Need something rigid and stiff.

Funny you mention my neighbors - I'm the head of our neighborhood watch and public safety chair for our shared NPU. I took control of our neighborhood's public safety in 2006, and have really built up a tremendous crime watch in our area; all of my immediate neighbors are well-trained and really look out for each other. I guarantee you if I would have put out on our email list that Someone took plants from my front yard, at least two people would've had your tag number ;) We really have something special in this neighborhood - there's only one neighborhood in southeast Atlanta that persistently has lower crime rates than ours (total and per capita), and that's the next neighborhood over, where our local councilperson lives ;)

I don't quite have as much yardage as you...but if you ever want to check things out over here, let me know. My Mayapples just broke, they're a short sight to see, Foamflowers are in bloom, False Solomon's Seal will probably break in the next week or two, we just re-mulched everything, seeded a lot of stuff, planted out the garden beds, lots going on!

About the Stella Cherries in GA ... :-) I'll have some this year ... if they ripen.

This tree is starting its third season and has about a dozen fruits forming.

It was purchased in a gallon pot from Edible Landscaping (on "Colt" rootstock, but I think they have moved on to "Krymst 5"). However, mine is very happy nestled among the two plums and the strawberry beds (bee heaven).

Ron

This is the last I saw of my cherries:

I think birds took them all!! Apparently that shiny fruit with a red blush was too much to resist. Though not even close to ripe, one day they were gone without a trace. Curiously, the nearby bed full of ripe strawberries was ignored this year.

So I'm sure this is an age old question: How do you keep the birds away without hanging up some guady big eyeball balloon or old CDs or shooting off a cannon? How did people used to do this? Did they just grow a bunch of trees so there was some fruit left for the family? Maybe someone can point me to a link.

Thanks, Ron