Cerasus tomentosa Seeds | Nanking Cherry
LATIN NAME: Cerasus tomentosa
COMMON NAME: Nanking Cherry
Plant Profile
Nanking Cherry is a dense, twiggy deciduous shrub of the rose family from northern China, growing two to three metres tall with grey-green, hairy leaves, the fuzz that names it. In early spring it bursts into pink-tinged white blossom on bare twigs, weeks before the orchard cherries, and by early summer the shrub is hung with small, red, juicy fruits.
It stands cold and drought far beyond the limits of sweet cherries, fruiting reliably in continental climates where winters reach minus forty. In its home range it is the farm-gate cherry of the north; in North American cold-country gardens it has become a standard hedging fruit.
Science & Biotechnology
The species features in studies of cold-climate stone fruits, its extreme hardiness documented in breeding work, and it has been used as a hardiness donor in cherry and plum breeding programmes of China and North America.
Its performance in prairie and steppe plantings has been recorded for over a century, and the shrub’s reliability on dry, cold sites is the trait that keeps seed in demand among northern growers. Studies of its fruit chemistry report anthocyanin levels in the range of the dark cherries, and taste panels rate the fresh fruit above most shrub-fruit crops. Studies of its pollination and fruit set in prairie plantings document heavy crops without cross-pollination partners, a useful trait for the single-shrub garden. Work on its winter hardiness has measured dormancy depth and bud survival at temperatures well below the limits of the orchard cherries, data that underpins its standing in cold-climate fruit lists.
Uses & Benefits
The fruit is eaten fresh, made into jam and juice, and prized for arriving before the summer fruits; the blossom feeds the earliest bees, and the dense twiggy growth makes a fruiting hedge or windbreak that doubles as an ornamental.
Cherries as a group are among the best-studied functional fruits, with trials on anthocyanin-rich juice for exercise recovery and gout, and this shrub cherry shares the family’s fruit chemistry at a garden scale. The fruits also make a tart, dark-red vinegar and a prized jam, both traditional products of the northern Chinese countryside where the shrub is planted around farmyards.
Growing from Seed
The stones need a cold, moist winter to germinate evenly: sow outdoors in autumn or stratify in damp sand in the refrigerator for three months before a spring sowing.
Grow the seedlings in full sun, pot them on yearly, and plant out two or three feet apart for a hedge in any well-drained soil. Fruit comes in the third or fourth year, and a light pruning after harvest keeps the shrub open. The shrub fruits on young wood, so remove the oldest branches every few years and the hedge keeps renewing itself without bare patches. Net the shrub as the fruit colour or the birds will strip it in a morning, a lesson every northern grower learns once. In heavy soil, plant on a slight ridge so the crown drains; the species tolerates cold far better than wet roots.
Our Take
The cherry of the cold north: blossom before the leaves, fuzzy leaves, and red fruit where orchard cherries cannot live. Stratify the stones and plant a hedge.
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