Cerasus cerasoides Seeds | Wild Himalayan Cherry
LATIN NAME: Cerasus cerasoides
COMMON NAME: Wild Himalayan Cherry
Plant Profile
The Wild Himalayan Cherry is a spreading, deciduous tree of the rose family that flowers at the wrong end of the year: in the mild-winter cities of Yunnan and the Himalayan foothills it opens its clusters of pale pink, semi-double-less flowers in December and January, on bare branches, weeks before the Japanese cherries have even thought about it. The bloom runs in waves through the winter, each frost-tolerant flush followed by another, and by February a tree in Kunming can be a continuous cloud of pink while the rest of the garden is dormant.
The small, dark red cherries that follow feed birds through spring, and the tree grows eight to twelve metres with a broad, graceful crown and finely toothed leaves. In its mountain home it grows on slopes and valley sides from a thousand to two thousand metres.
Science & Biotechnology
Its winter flowering is a genuine phenological outlier within the genus, and studies of its bloom timing in Yunnan have tracked how the species responds to the mild, dry winter climate of the Yunnan plateau, with cultivation records from colder regions showing the same flower buds opening early and risking frost damage, which sets the northern limit of its garden use. The species sits in the same section of the genus as the Taiwanese and Himalayan cherries, and it has contributed to the breeding of winter-flowering ornamental cherries. In its native range it is a familiar wayside and temple tree, and its bloom is a local seasonal marker in parts of Yunnan and Nepal.
The cherries are small, thin-fleshed and bird-oriented, not a human crop, but the nectar of the winter flowers is a genuine resource for cold-season bees in its mild-winter range.
Uses & Benefits
In mild-winter gardens it is the earliest flowering tree of the year, a spreading, light-crowned specimen for a lawn or a mixed border that gives winter colour when almost nothing else woody is in bloom. The bare-branch flowering means it pairs well with evergreens that hold the winter frame while it performs.
The cherries feed birds through spring, and the tree’s fine, not-too-dense crown lets underplanting survive beneath it. It is hardy further north than its winter bloom suggests, but where winters are severe the buds are lost to frost and the show fails, which confines it to the milder end of the temperate range.
Growing from Seed
Clean the pulp from the ripe fruit, or use purchased seed, and give it the cherry treatment: a warm, moist period of two to three months followed by cold stratification for the same, either sown outdoors in a frame for a natural cycle or controlled in a refrigerator. Sow into a free-draining compost, covering to the seed’s own depth.
Germination follows in spring. Grow the seedlings in full sun with steady water, pot on annually, and line out for two or three years before planting into their permanent position in autumn. They want deep, moist, well-drained soil and a mild-winter climate; water through dry spells for the first two summers and expect first flowers within five years.
Our Take
The cherry that flowers at Christmas: bare branches in pink through the mild-winter months, birds fed by spring. For Yunnan-like climates, the earliest tree of the year.
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