Focus on... Cherries

Do you want to tuck into homegrown summer cherries? Lucy Chamberlain explains how new breeds and rootstocks have made it simpler to grow your own juicy fruit

- Lucy Chamberlain

THEY’RE the epitome of a British summer, and life could be a bowl of them if you’re living the dream – so how do you get the very best from cherries?

In the early 20th century you would have needed a huge garden in order to grow cherry trees, but with the introduction of self-fertile cherry ‘Stella’ in 1968 this all changed.

Until this point, cherry pollination had been a bit of a conundrum, with self-incompatibility compounded further by incompatibility between varieties. Thank goodness for Canada! This is where ‘Stella’ and many other self-fertile varieties (such as ‘Sunburst’ and ‘Lapins’) were bred.

The UK, too, has introduced varieties that are better suited to our inclement climate, such as ‘Summer Sun’ (see page 22), so cherry success is more of a guarantee for British gardens.

Just be sure to position your tree in a sheltered, sunny spot, so that bees can access the blooms and cold temperatures (which cause premature fruit drop) are kept to a minimum.

Small is beautiful

Rootstocks, too, were a problem of old. Trees were commonly grafted onto Colt or Prunus avium rootstock, giving huge trees that required ladders to gather the harvests. Nowadays, gardeners can opt for the far more dwarfing Gisela series. This revolutionised commercial growing, allowing nurseries to grow trees under nets and plastic sheets to protect against birds and skin splitting (caused by rain).