The following is an experiment, it's a blog I've been writing for years through scattered social media posts, brought together into a magazine or editorial format. It's an idea that's been on my mind for some time, in today's world the large platforms want every idea to be a flash in the pan, surfacing only the latest and what the algorithm prefers, probably someone dancing around or doing the most outrageous thing will find more views than a post about trees. Even if you happen to follow our social media, many posts are only shown for a minute to a few of our followers. The large platforms are walled gardens, and they actually make your experience poor if you want to dive deep, to explore and read, to test it just try and search through old instagram posts. I've been using these tools to photo blog, to keep my own records about significant or interesting things related to the journey starting my little nursery, and learning about grafting, gardening, propagation, permaculture, and nature in general. This is a blog post, maybe a unique one because it's a simple compilation of Instagram posts grouped under one topic so they are easier to browse. They're sorted by seasons, and the captions written are the original posts with some light editing (by me a real person - Doug @ Oak Summit Nursery).
Questions and comments always welcome to doug@oaksummitnursery.ca.
Plum And Cherry Hybrids
212 postsArticle build 2026-01-31 21:06
Spring
59 posts
Sweet cherry leafing out after a winter with a dozen nights at -38, max -40C. leningradskaja grafted onto pin cherry about five ft off the ground. it's short because I cut back 3/4 to save and regraft, didn't exactly expect it to survive. so fun to have some sweet cherry growing, added a dozen more grafts in this location including a couple other varieties
Nanking cherry, Prunus tomentosa (means Prunus with fuzzy leaves) just starting to form the green fruits in May.
Mustang on chokecherry with an interstem. flowering intensely, pretty sure this can pollinate other plums.
Bench grafted plums, done kinda late in the season but maybe the timing will work. second photo is apricots on sandcherry, just finished them so i'm done bench grafting for the year. now just field grafting.. about 30 ea new plum, pear and apple varieties to graft out, just need it to stop raining for the weekend.
Lee red and garrington chokecherry racemes, compared to wild chokecherry. You can see the flowers have a much wider spacing, and the fruit is larger.
Cherry plum flowers. mustang, manor, sapa, sapalta, dura. any differences? maybe subtle ones, these are all sandcherry hybrids with various other plums. hopefully we'll have some fruit this year.
Prunus americana grafts one year old flowering. excellent for pollinating other plums, easy to graft onto chokecherry. i'm getting about 90% take and winter survival on these, the later photos are grafts from 2022 with very heathy union and in full flower.
A few plums flowering with different timing. green elf, toka, mustang. and a single apricot flower on a new graft
Sweet cherry survived -40C and leafing out. it's grafted onto pin cherry I wonder if that improved the hardiness. my bluetooth thermometer logged at least half a dozen nights -38 and a couple -40 last winter, everywhere i've researched says sweet cherry winter kills at max -35C. so fun to see it growing, today I grafted out more .
Plums on the brink of flowering
Western sandcherry, possibly the reclusive hansens bush cherry. they tasted excellent. here they sprouted in the bag and are overdue to pot up, the pink stems are cool. leaves will be green in a couple of days.
Canada wild plum stratified winter 2023 then again in 2024. the first year maybe 40% germinated, this spring the other 60%. this is why I like to keep large seeds in the bag until they start to germinate, sometimes the dormancy is so deep they need two cycles. I should note, every species of plum I grew last year did this, and I have left over bags of all of them sprouting. waiting to see if the same is true for walnuts.
A hybrid plum with some simonii in the parentage (25%) growing well directly on chokecherry coming into year 3. will be grafting more of this one out as a potential interstem, toka thrives on chokecherry (50% Prunus simonii) but it's basically too vigorous. search for the perfect chokecherry compatibility continues, eventually I'll write this trial up as a paper and just post it on my blog
Nanking cherry plugs. they grew kinda good in a plug tray, thinking I'll do more this year and bundle them in 3 packs this fall, shrink wrap before storage for easy packing. deciding what to grow in a plug vs small pots vs bare root seems to just take experimentation
Manchurian apricot
Peaches, germinating in the fridge so ready to pot up. this seed source is identified as prunus davidiana, similar to Siberian peach.
Interstem, bridging brookred plum onto chokecherry with a short section of toka
Sour cherries just a few weeks old, collected from romance series varieties. these hybridized bush cherries are easy to grow from seed and in the upicks where I found seedlings to try they all had large fruit and were productive just like the cultivars.
Manchurian apricots, sprouting in the fridge at 120 days stratifying so time to pot up. they don't need the shells removed, which just fall apart when ready. excited because these have good genetics. from a local zone 3 apricot orchard where a named cultivar was selected. time to plant our own apricot grove. and use for rootstocks.
Nanking cherries, potting up sprouty ones from the fridge. If this was april I would be doing them in the greenhouse, so trying these little plugs to see if they can hold on for a month in them. maybe I could have kept them in the fridge a few more weeks? probably better to plant now, they were ready after 4-5 months of stratification, for sure if you're new to this and the seed start to grow in the bag then it's a good time to plant. #seedstarting
Nanking cherries under lights at 21 days, some getting their 4th set of leaves.
Western sandcherry from some tasty ones I found last summer. about one month old. we're growing these out to plant in the landscape and also for dwarfing apricot rootstocks.
Nanking at 4 weeks. wow they grow fast inside. outdoors the various stresses slow them down, under lights or a very controlled greenhouse environment the plants get some momentum
Two trays of canada wild plum, the first one (and the one full of trees) started early may, and the second one started early april, spotty germination. letting plum seeds have a good long cold stratification period through until may is a better result. the april tray may all germinate eventually, but if they need more cold time in cold strat the seeds may stay dormant and get saved for next year.
Plums just let germinate in a bag of peat moss in the shade, pulling out the sprouty ones to pot up. I had an air prune bed planted oct 2022 and this spring (18 months later) keep finding new seedlings in it, I suspect the bed froze too hard to fully stratify them being above ground and not well insulated, so last winter I went with stratification in a fridge or root cellar and that gives the seeds a longer period above freezing. plum can need longer than most seeds maybe up to 5-6 months or even a warm period followed by cold, or even two cold cycles / winters. So in the bag until they germinate for this spring to monitor.
Double flowering plum, Prunus x blireiana is a cool hybrid with japanese apricot. this is a bush I planted in 2004 at our old farmyard, neglected and never pruned it takes on a spreading low bushy shape.
Plums seeds planted fall of 2022 decided to germinate, surprised to find them hidden in this grassy bed so quickly potted them up.
Does this Id seem right? dwarf russian almond? growing in zn 3, always to excited to find a new Prunus species. found it growing in an old garden bed at my farm, overlooked I thought it was something else until wow the purple flowers set it apart.
Triple worked graft. choke cherry rootstock -> toka interstem -> mustang cherry flowering, second interstem -> apricots just grafted. mustang and last photo is sapalta flowering, unlike other plums these cherry plum hybrids like to flower just one year after grafting.
Juliette cherry, a bush cherry with an interesting parentage. We signed on to propagate these with u of sask over the winter.
Plum flowering on chokecherry. the bag has an americana branch for pollination #plum
Plum on chokecherry 2 years old
Attempting to graft swedish Leningradskaja sweet cherry onto pin cherry. It's zone 4 hardy, maybe even 3/4. I have some slightly sprouted scions so wrapping in foil to keep the sun off. #grafting
Plum grafting in my trial block of chokecherry. a short walk through some of the grafts with interstems that are waking up, with many positive results. this week I'm adding more cultivars, and trying some manchurian apricots, which will be using 2 interstems. choke cherry -> toka -> mustang -> apricot.
Canada wild plum collected in the wild from a seemingly isolated population. maybe non hybridized, a great plum pollinator.
Attempting pin cherry, Prunus pensylvanica from root cuttings.
Been preferring z graft as a variation of the modified cleft on larger stumps. this is Prunus americana on Prunus virginiana.. will take some better photos. If I just wait a couple of weeks these can be bark grafts, which are super fast and fun... I'm out field grafting daily for a few weeks until I run out of scions or things to graft them onto ;)
First signs of spring, red elderberry and chokecherry buds swelling
Red leaved chokecherry after three months cold stratifying starting to germinate
Red leafed choke cherry seedling emerging
Root grafted prunus onto mustang cherry and some Nanking cherry this morning. I woke up and realized that I could probably trim the roots from small stock trees that were just potted up - to use up left over scions in the fridge and rest this method of grafting on prunus. The source plants are just leafing out and won't be harmed by the pruning, they'll get extra watering. Does root grafting late in the spring work? I don't know, I suspect the trees will need this season and next year in a bed to get up size. Some combinations trialing are Manchurian apricot, prunus maackii (Manchurian cherry), cherry plum, double flowering plum (Prunus × blireiana), American plum, and various plum cultivars onto mustang cherry and Nanking (prunus tomentosa) roots. Grafts were like a reverse modified cleft, this seems the most practical for root grafting. whip and tongue is only possible with thick material, otherwise roots just break. Success is one of the possible outcomes! #grafting
First plum blossoms #plum #blossom
Top working chokecherry this week. I have so much of it here, working to develop it as a resource with some in house propagation methods. One of my goal this summer will be to use this method to grow out softwood and trial many prunus species and cultivars for softwood rooting potential. Another one is budwood production for July grafting. #grafting
Toka plum interstem for cherry plum on chokecherry stock. trialing toka and a few others as interstems. #grafting
Chokecherry buds started to swell today in zone 3b southern Manitoba, they're the first trees I've seen start to wake up. this gets things rolling for a grafting project, I have a pile of scion wood to trial on chokecherry for compatibility, and about 50% is going to have an interstem that proved compatible last year. There's 2 goals: 1. to find all compatible prunus on P. Virginiana, and to use them as interstems to make this prolific rootstock work for cultivars plums and other stone fruit around our property and to document the compatibility for others. 2. Developing a system to rapidly grow out cultivar softwood from limited scion material for rooting under mist. own root plums, cherries, apricots
Our air prune beds for American plums and acorns. these were level to the top in the snow last week, it's melting fast
One of my grafted Toka plum trees top worked onto choke cherry, start of July last year. #grafting
Cherry blossoms at #highpark #highparktoronto #highparkcherryblossoms
Bark grafts work well on larger stock and later on in spring when the bark is slipping, it just pos apart in a satisfying way. This is Toka plum on choke cherry, before it was wrapped up. #grafting #fruittree #fruittrees #graftingfruittrees
Patterson pride plum grafted on wild choke cherry three weeks ago. We're running an experiment to see which varieties are most graft compatible and following up on them over time to learn if this can be truely viable for a cold hardy and prolific rootstock. #grafting #graftingtrees #plumgrafting #chokecherry
Saskatoon vs choke cherry. these two trees can be hard to tell apart, but this time of year the saskatoons / service berries have silver tips and the choke cherries have enlarged green buds pulling away from the branch. The saskatoons will flower and fruit earlier (June berries). #permaculture
Grafting plums to wild rootstocks all week. The prunus virginiana are just about to lead out. Selecting only vigorous growing trees with 12-36" of growth last year. #grafting #prunusvirginiana #graftingplumtrees #fieldgrafting #permaculture
Cupid cherry blossoms, this one trained as a small tree although it's more common to prune them as a bush cherry #cupidcherry #cherryblossom
Mount Royal plum just coming into leaf. Slowest plum to wake up this spring, and after our winter I was surprised it pulled through #mountroyalplum #backyardorchard #fruittrees
Grafting plums onto wild choke cherries #grafting #chokecherry #backyardorchard
Evans cherry #evanscherry #cherryblossom #cherryblossoms #blossom #blossoms
Prunus virginiana in flower this week #chokecherry #blossoms
Think I got all the Japanese garden elements going on with this cherry flowering over the new pond. It's a work in progress. #japanesegarden #wildlifepond
Prunus leafing out. started grafting a few days ago, we're just waiting for trees to wake up and show a little green #plumtree
Summer
106 posts
American wild plum, canadian wild plum, sapa cherry plum, pembina plum
Sapa cherry plum. one of the OG chums from 1908 in the same wave as Opata. Sapa means black. sand cherry x japanese plum. flesh is sweet and tastey, reminds me of a really good sand cherry, which if you haven't had is cherry/plum the way a chokecherry is. the skin has some zing to it like a wild plum, but I think the balance is good. I would prefer to eat them over pembina. very similar to sapalta and mustang, probably sapalata improved on the flavour of the skin, and size.
Prunus nigra, the elusive canada wild plum. distinctive double bumps on the leaf margins (the profile is called crenate, the sharp version is called serrate as in serrated), fruit over 1" and oblong shaped, ripens around now through early sept. I'm finding these in old orchards, rootstocks from decades ago, they used mixed seedlings from shelterbelts and nursery stock so the genetics are all mixed together, but sometimes you find a tree that strongly presents as americana or nigra. these in between ones, I'll have seeds for sale this winter but not sure exactly what to call them, hybrid wild plums maybe. but to find the real prunus nigra is a treat, considered the best pollinator plum with more of a tree form, less suckering than americana.
Siberian c peach, possibly a peach that can survive the winter in Manitoba at -40, but can it thrive enough to fruit? I suspect in the right location, and maybe grown as a bush it can. btw wow they grow well as a plug these are nearly 3 ft
Double worked plum. on the rootstock is a short length of Prunus americana, and then on top Yakima plum, a cold hardy european plum. will it survive -40? we'll find out, it's in a semi sheltered location, five ft off the ground, and on a super cold hardy rootstock (chokecherry), all of these factors might improve winter survival. just in case I'll cut scions in november.
Found this potted nadia plum, completely forgot out it, rooted from softwood and it's been in this gallon pot for two winters. happy to see it survived, nadia is a sweet cherry x japanese plum (salicina x avium) hybrid, and I didn't think it would be cold hardy here... wonder if being on its own roots helped. surviving -40 in a neglected pot, barely watered and not particularly winterized or covered means it's tougher than I thought.
Started some orchard rows of plums and a block of apples. 42 plum, 24 apples so far, half are just seedlings I'll graft over. in this space there's full sun, light soil that will need some mulch, and lots of deer. it's right beside the beehives our neighbour keeps, so pollinators should be in good supply. Will need to cage or tube each tree, tomorrow's job.
Red leafed, wild black, new oxheart/oblong, garrington (seedling?), large garrington? seedling. .. of note the wild and garrington fruit have a round seed, the rest have a pointed elongated one. about the pfra's seed orchards, the used garrington, goertz and wild collected seed to grow the chokecherry trees so there's this mix of genetics, though if you have extra large early ripening fruit good chance it's a garrington seedling. what I have grafted named garrington could have been a seedling from the pfra, or it could be the cultivar - after seeing larger fruit on some of these seedling trees it has me wondering. the real deal maxes out just over 1cm on the largest fruit. if anyone else has seen chokecherry with this elongated shape let me know. they seem to get more round as they ripen, though none of the ripest fruit are completely round.
Chokecherry selection with oxheart shaped - oval fruit, super long racemes that trail into each other. it's from the pfra, so maybe a seedling of garrington or goertz but the shape is distinct. I collected seed and some budwood.
Sapalta cherry plum. last 2 photos are comparison sapalta top, mustang bottom. sapalta is sweeter with a slightly bitter skin, like a wild plum, very similar to but better tasting than mustang. larger than mustang, more elongated seed. kind of says a lot for mustang given that it's not well known for its fruit and more of just a rootstock. sapalta is good I would eat them fresh, a deep purple cherry plum that grows as a bush. productive and easy to pick.
Mustang cherry plum, just about ripe I think the color would go a little more burgundy. this is usually just a rootstock, though the idea of growing out the seeds to evaluate for their rootstock potential has me interested.
Branches just hanging to the ground loaded with chokeberries, these are the native prunus virginiana var melanocarpa, the black fruited chokecherry
Bei tang, a hybrid between cherry plum and apricot. happy to see that it roots, it wasn't a guarantee, a good outlook for propagating more. complex prunus hybrids are exciting because there are many possibilities, and with the sandcherry parentage it's just a few years to fruit and get to the next generation. this method of propagation started with dormant scion wood, grafted in may and then cuttings taken in early july have rooted by august. these ones will be stock plants, even if the original grafts don't survive for any reason what I really want with a cherry plum is something bushy growing on its own roots. #propagation
Late ripening chokecherry or a red fruited variety? I flagged some branches to follow up. there's more genetic variation in these than you might expect
Wild plums, these ones are some mix of prunus nigra and americana. the leaves and fruit are in between. the seedlings will be good pollinators and rootstock.
Prunus fruticosa, or mongolian cherry. from seed in 2023, just have the one in a pot.
Chokecherry cultivars. two with red leaves, but quite different ripening times, garrington an early large one, and our wild chokecherry var melanocarpa which ripens later to a deep black and hangs into early winter
Beach plum, prunus maritima. I have a small bed started from seedlings, and they've survived two manitoba winters, the plant is possibly zone 3 even though we're outside of it's native maritime range. so it's cool to have this species growing, and happy to see that it roots like a cherry plum. I guess my plants have been pruned low and were covered by snow last winter, so still need to really test these above the snow to know how it's going to hold up to -40
Picking cherries today at a local upick.
Nanking cherry, collected a good box full on one large thirty year old bush
Black ice plums growing on chokecherry with an american wild plum interstem. one of a few dozen cultivars I'm trying on these interstems this year. vigorously growing chokecherry with a trunk 1" or more, in good sunlight are suitable. I expect the plum to grow a little larger so still waiting to see how balanced the tree is, some of my 2-3 year old grafts may need a stake. I'm seeing americana match the vigour of chokecherry better than toka, which while takes and grows well, the prunus simonii in it is too vigorous and needs some pruning to manage the size. so does americana, trial is ongoing. the deer did some pruning for me this week, good that all of my grafts are up high. #grafting
Evans cherry and other Prunus cerasus hybrids can root from softwood, with some stronger iba and bottom heat to speed it up. the same works for some plums. the trick is what comes next, get them to grow a bit and then harden off for the winter, still working on a protocol to make that reliable. #propagation
Apricot on chokecherry with americana interstem. i did around 4-5 branches at shoulder height, growing good so far. this double working is basically doing two grafts at once, first the american wild plum goes onto the stock tree, and a few inches up that graft, another scion is grafted on. it only take a couple minutes for each one, we'll see how it grows.
Western sandcherry from seed this spring, collected from a neighbour's hansen bush cherries. they were excellent tasting, no idea yet if other sandcherries are as good. so this population will be kept separate from the ones I've been growing for apricot rootstocks, and will be used for breeding hybrids. so many hybrids, I want to cross all the prunus. what do you get when you hybridize fruit with different colors and sizes, I feel driven to find out. sandcherry is an excellent starting point because its progeny will likely fruit early, and root from softwood. eg all the cherry plums, and black nanking.
Western sandcherry grafted to *chokecherry*, showing some red indicating stress, early dormancy, no real growth so at least this graft unlikely to pull through. compared to prunus americana grafts which have dark green leaves and a couple ft of growth. I still want sandcherries up high, so will try again next spring with an interstem.
Potting up a plum tree on a mustang rootstock. it just worked out for our growing space and late spring grafting that this year all the grafted plums are in pots. what's interesting is the fibrous root system of a cherry plum hybrid stock seems to grow well in a small pot, you can see the healthy white root hairs, no circling roots, not too densely filled, in my experience just the right time to pot up. if I tried this this apple the thicker roots would be all tangled. I'm new enough to nursery work that several methods are getting experimented with for just about everything, but one thing I've consistently found is methods that work for large growers aren't the only way that works, and small craft scale growers may benefit from these slightly more intensive and time consuming methods, you almost just have to try it and judge the results to know.
Sapalta cherry plums, 4 weeks under mist with some bottom heat, medium strength rooting hormone. it's a hybrid with the western sandcherry, which is why it roots from cuttings so easily. more people should grow cherry plums, imagine a bush with one inch plums
Often when you see new leaves the softwood cuttings have rooted. at 3 weeks into the season some of the earliest cuttings are ready, a small tug on them also indicates rooting. these are cherry plums, the succulent leaves desiccated but the cuttings are still in good shape, and after these are potted up, hardened off and move outside they should hopefully grow a bit this fall and be included in our fall plant sale.
Purple/red leafed chokecherry, fun to graft these around and see the color change in june. the new leaves are green and change to purple after about a month
One of our sweet cherry grafts onto pin cherry, well it made a flower. notable, first Prunus avium flower at our nursery, maybe the first one I've seen. for sure the first sweet cherry blossom on a pin cherry tree #cherryblossom
Short interstems of toka on this combo brookred and brookgold plum grafted onto chokecherry.
The elusive canada wild plum, prunus nigra
Plums from our daughter's backyard, not sure about cultivar. anyone know? freestone, tasty, fully zone 3 hardy. I grew seedlings this summer from it.
White nanking cherries to grow next year, big thanks to @nature_is_fucking_dope_ for the trade. Prunus tomentosa has a fun potential for breeding to produce new hybrids, and how many cherries are white? for eg black nanking is a nanking x sandcherry hybrid. trying to build a collection for propagation and future breeding work, seedlings of Ian are a great addition, will take a few years to grow them out in a trial row and see how many have white fruit.
Checking on plums, this tree was fully ripe by aug 20 last year, red and starting to drop. this year plums in southern manitoba seem to be a full 2 weeks later, I suspect because last summer was unusually hot and dry, and this year was unusually wet.. it's surprising, last year I was picking plums from aug 10-20 all over the place, this year none are ripe yet
Two chokecherry cultivars, first one is lee red, second is probably Schubert. they graft easily onto wild chokecherry and add some color. Lee Red has larger leaves on my grafts, not sure if that's common, it does seem to grow vigorously. #chokecherry #grafting
D'artagnan cherry from u of sask getting potted up. cuttings from june 19 are at the right stage to pot and harden off, cherries take a while. next up trying some things to get them to resume growth and put on root mass before winter. #propagation
More photos of baker's gold apricot. my review is they're good, similar to ones i've had from the grocery store, larger. clingstone, not tart, mild flavour, hey it's the first apricot I've had in a long while and a month earlier than any plums around, a real treat. planning to graft some of these for next year, my sand cherry seedlings are sizing up.
Baker's gold apricots ripe this week .. one of a few zone 3 hardy apricot cultivars, and it's a local Manitoba selection
Subculturing some american wild plum. first time trying this, will update if they grow and I was able to keep everything sterile. #tissuecultureplants
Romance series hybrid cherries from the u of sask fruit breeding program. 75% prunus cerasus (same species as evans) and 25% prunus fruticosa, a small hardy cherry bush.
A local apricot introduction, Baker's Gold apricot.
Juliette cherries, finally got to try some. most of the u of sask sour cherries look similar to me but do have different flavours, and I'm sure sugar content, tartness and ripening times. I'm propagating juliette and d'artagnan this year, so I have plenty of cuttings but not so many cherries yet.
Prunus nigra, the elusive canada wild plum. seeds were an adventure to find last fall. potting these up to the next size. #wildplum
Evans cherries
Caging some canada wild plum along a forest path. these are actually a few years old, and wildlife seems to find and eat them down to the ground reliably, constantly setting them back - so finally added caging.
Nanking cherry, prunus tomentosa.. where tomentose is for fuzzy leaves.
Nanking cherry coming up soon, these ripen here in a couple of weeks.
Nanking cherry going into pots, watch me try this with one hand. I've had these just bundled into large pots waiting to plant, and the root systems are small enough that I think they'll be good to grow out this year in a 3.5" pot.
Beach plum, prunus maritima. native to the east coast, supposed to survive zone 3 winters. these ones made it through last winter under the snow. it's a prunus species that i've never seen in cultivation or offered at garden centers in our area, and exactly kind of plant I want to propagate. maybe eventually make some crosses with. it seems to want to grow like a cherry plum as a bush.
Cherry plum cultivar new oka, well rooted after a month. I started some plants last year from scions, so from graft to rooted cuttings, into a bed for the year to make more cuttings the next spring.. I have maybe a dozen here going into pots. more next year,. it takes time to let the stock plants recover from a heavy pruning. I also collect some new oka from the prairie genebank at u of sask last month from some old bushes. going to try keeping these in either 2.5 or 3.5" pots this summer and if they're large enough I'll have them available this winter.
Nanking cherry left, cupid sour cherry center, compared to grocery store sweet cherry right.
Black nanking is a nanking x western sandcherry hybrid (prunus tomentosa x besseyi) . both of it's parents root quickly from softwood, and it's the same. here is a cutting about 30 days in #propagation
Little cherry plum dropped it's leaves but bounced back. probably from too much mist. I try and calibrate it for the day depending on temperature and cloud cover, we've been getting way more rain than usual and on those days the timed mist can be dialed back. some setups use an electronic leaf for this, I prefer just to check on the plants a couple times daily during the season while they root. #propagation
Evans cherries in progress
IBA + NAA left, IBA talc right on cherry plum. I think left will quickly become a better root system
Spring american wild plum grafts onto chokecherry. maybe six weeks old. I trim back most of the epicormic growth but not all of it, actually letting it reduce vigour improves hardening off for the first winter. #grafting
Double flowering plum, an old bush that's fruiting for the first time that I've noticed. Will collect the seed, some weird hybrid might result. I have a nanking and evans nearby, and all three could have better pollination, need to figure out what to plant or graft, for the nanking another seedling is easy, for the others I'm not sure.
Own root plums are putting on way more growth than expected, this set is the earliest june cuttings. many plants have an ideal window of maturity / time for softwood, takes some experimentation to find out. A protocol is the details like timing, materials and methods to propagate plants, and specific protocols for many of them are a bit hard to find and usually lacking in details because that's a propagator's hard earned IP I guess, so I just figure them out. #ownroot #ownrooted #propagation #softwoodpropagation
Grafting wild canadian plum
Prunus maackii, manchurian cherry rooted softwood from spring grafts. One of my goals this year was to use this two step process, and i've had some luck with a few prunus species. #propagation
Prunus americana I think, along a trail at the Frank Skinner arboretum in Manitoba. Seems to grow fine in the shady understory.
An old plum tree - I'm hoping to identify the cultivar. It's clingstone, ripe today (mid august) in southern manitoba, skin slightly bitter but overall very tasty. Zone 3 -40F hardy.
Prunus nigra, wild canadian plums
Finished budding plums and apricots for the year I think. Maybe I'll do more, not sure how late it can go. In warmer places I hear July is the right time, but here early august seems like the right timing to have mature budwood. #grafting
Own root hydrid plums, "toka" cultivar developed 100 years ago in south dakota. The bright green flish of growth after rooting is a very good sign that the new trees are healthy. I wonder how many of them have been grown on their own roots like this. #plumtree #propagation #ownrooted
Own root plum trees well rooted in their pots, hardened off and going into nursery beds. Toka is the best cultivar I've trialed so far for this method, but steadily finding more through experimentation. Some prunus is very hard to root, like americana just gives up and drops it's leaves, maybe it needs the environment more tuned like a different mist schedule, or some pre-treatment. If anyone has been able to root american or canadian plum (P. americana, P. nigra) by layering or cuttings let me know. #propagation #plumtree #treenursery #growingtrees #fruittrees #fruittreenursery
Green elf plum rooted cutting. It's an old cherry plum bred in Saskatchewan. It's a cross between manchurian plum and sand cherry.. P. ussuriensis x P. besseyi .. kind of awesome parentage for a tasty green plum, I would like to cross it with some of the other chums which are besseyi x salicina.. one day #propagation #softwoodpropagation #plumtree #cherryplum
Help wanted to ID this plum rootstock, cuttings from root suckers. It's zone 3 hardy, few options right? Americana, sand cherry, mustang are the 3 I know of. Looks the most like americana, suckers like it.. but it roots super easily which seems different. Myrobalan isn't hardy here to -40, but maybe it is? Suggestions welcome, plant from a garden center no idea what nursery, tree is 4 yrs old with no winter kill.
Same plant different rooting hormone. nanking cherry at 5 weeks. right is off the shelf iba talc, left is an in house formula i'm testing made from pure hormones in an aqueous stock solution. left is a stronger result the rooting is up the stem and the roots are thicker, more dense. #propagation #rootingplants
Kuban comet asian plum softwood rooted. Took about a month, firm softwood cuttings 4000ppm iba talc some bottom heat. Own root plum trees are the goal, just takes some trialing to sort out the recipe. These and most other plum cultivars I root this summer will spend the winter well insulated in the new root cellar that's under construction at the back of the greenhouse - a must since they have a poor ability to harden off in time right after rooting. Chums do fine left in the ground, but many other prunus seem to need extra care just the first winter, plum trees especially - it's like they get confused when you do this to them. #propagation
Compartmentalization in an evans cherry cutting from a tray that was too wet, it was under a misting nozzle that drips. I'm showing the process of trimming and redipping in some iba talc - and the results. Also a bundle of cuttings from a tray at the right moisture level, all healthy an starting to root at 4 weeks. #propagation #softwood #cherrytree
Nanking cherry, prunus tomentosa #nankingcherry
Kappa cherry plums. working on multiplying these hundred year old cultivars like sapa, opata, dura, manor, and some newer ones like sapalta and new oka. prunus names are funny, I'm also grow nadia, green elf and p. cerasifera which are all very different species from the old hansen chums but... also called cherry plums. #propagation #treenursery #cherryplum
Western sand cherry, prunus besseyi
Pin cherries are ripe. prunus pensylvanica
1951 Bulletin from south dakota, some of the best information is in these old documents. For example, I'm propagating chums.. and they'll all in this chart from 70 years ago, sapa, sapalta, kappa, dura, manor.
Organized taking softwood cuttings. bagged cuttings are fine in the fridge for a day, prep the leaves and print some labels before heading to the greenhouse. Chums are a good example where good labels are essential, the cultivars all have identical foliage. #propagation
Black nanking cherry rooted at 16 days. P. tomentosa x besseyi #propagation
Plum grafts from one month ago are starting to take off #grafting
Red leafed chokecherry grafted onto wild chokecherry. #grafting
Toka plum on chokecherry grafted last spring.
Block of black chokecherry, prunus virginiana var melanocarpa grafted over to an assortment of other prunus to trial compatibility, grow out budwood for august budding onto rootstocks, and to produce softwood for rooting. So far this season take was high across every prunus species, and at 6-8 weeks every graft that leafed out continues to grow. Trialing various pruning and interstem interventions to keep as many growing until dormancy as I can, which can them be a reserve of dormant scion wood for next spring. Eventually I'll have an orchard of mature prunus for a more permanent resource, but chokecherry being common and plentiful here is working well so far. #propagation
Stratified prunus americana seeds before planting today. They've been in damp sand in refrigeration for six months. I could have planted a couple of weeks ago, just needed to make a screened in bed for squirrel protection.
More success rooting hybrid Japanese / American plum variety Toka. cuttings at 4-5 weeks had callous dipped again in 0.4% IBA and restuck in groups, what I'm starting to consider renovating a tray, added bottom heat for the first time this season. Rooting response has been good, the bottom heat is enough that the medium feels warm. Wondering if any cuttings that take more than 4 weeks = should use stronger hormone and bottom heat. Slowest rooting cuttings I have under mist currently are a few types of prunus, cottoneaster and lilacs. Everything else rooted and has been moved out. This time of year also has an effect, in July species that would root heavily in two weeks are now taking four. Next year I'll try these Toka cuttings in June and see how they root with 0.8% iba and bottom heat. I think this process can work with Malus, I had some success last year with baccata and those are all going into a stoolbed this fall. It's fun to consider that these fruit trees aren't propagated by softwood simply because it's either been decided it's not worth the difficulty, or if you have overcome that aspect there isn't a strong commercial application - a commercial orchard will always use rootstocks. But for the hobbyist, it opens up new possibility for an own root variety of a cultivar which could potentially live longer, grow larger and be more hardy. At minimum if winter kills the top it's going to regrow true to type. #propagation
Toka plum rooted cutting. who needs rootstocks? #propagation
All of the evans cherry trees in my orchard had about one cherry on them this year. To be fair, between the deer and taking softwood cuttings they had quite a trim, but cherries grow on last year's wood which the deer doesn't like and I don't use in the greenhouse. For a self pollinated tree with a reputation for large yields, still waiting for a big harvest from them. The lone cherry was good ;) #evanscherry
Chip budding plums. We've had by far the best result with Toka plum this year in our experimental grading trials onto wild rootstock, some of our grafts done in may have grown 4' with secondary scaffolds. We're now chip budding other cultivars onto Toka to use it as in interstem. #grafting
We had a wind storm this morning that broke off this grafted plum branch (shown upside down), there was a couple feet of flush growth above it. at 8 weeks there's more girdling than expected. Maybe I wrapped it too tight. One thing to pay close attention to is the strength of the graft union, if the tissues are less than compatible it won't be strong. In this case I think it's a girdled branch. I'll be removing the budding tape on all of our early May grafts this week and inspecting them. #grafting
Summer update for our plum on wild choke cherry grafts. Nearly every prunus variety we tried has grown, the most vigorous growth on this set of trees on a sunny hill. Success with this type of grafting in the first year seems to depend on the age and location of the root stock, as well as the amount of undergrowth and management of new suckering growth. I held off trying this for years because of anecdotal reports that it wouldn't work. My approach here is to question assumptions, research old studies where it was tried and do it for myself, there are quite a few variables, including genetic compatibility variation with specific individuals within a species. Choke cherry is prolific across forested areas in Canada, but there are no wood lots, parks, hiking trails or backyards full of them made into food forests by grafting them over.
An Evans cherry I planted in 2004, so about 20 years old #evanscherrytree #evanscherries
Planting out a bed of mustang cherry rootstocks. These should be large enough to bud in July. Our reserves of scion wood for many cultivars have been grafted out around the orchard, one reason to have an orchard next to the nursery - a ready supply of scion wood. This is one immediate benefit of our wild rootstock experiment, even if there is delayed graft compatibility in a few years for some cultivars, this summer we're successfully growing scion wood. #rootstock #cherryplum #mustangcherry #growingtrees #treenursery
Plum frameworked onto choke cherry at five weeks. #grafting #plumgrafting #intergeneric
Plum grafts on wild choke cherry. Our grafts were all done in the first three weeks of May and many are showing signs of growth, so a successful union so far. The take rate seems to correlate with age of the root stock and competing vegetation on it more than shade, type of graft or plum cultivar. In the fall we'll post a spreadsheet with some data, this is a multi year project to determine compatibility in cold hardy Prunus cultivars on the most prolific and hardy wild Prunus rootstock (Prunus virginiana) in our climate zone 3, southern Manitoba. #grafting #chokecherry
Double flowering plum, Prunus triloba #plumblossom
Nanking cherry grafted on wild chokecherry. (Prunus tomentosa on Prunus virginiana). Will it take? I'm hopeful for this combination. Also it's fun when scions blossom, feels like a small success. #grafting #nankingcherry #cherryblossom #cherryblossoms
Our plum blossoms all seem to have pulled through -2.9C this morning. Good thing the tomatoes are still inside under grow lights. #blossom #blossoms #plum #plumblossom
Small choke cherry tree grafted over to plums at three weeks. keeping the under growth continually rubbed off to ensure all of the growth is focused on the grafts seems key. For larger trees Instead of defoliating I've been topping all the other branches to try and give the grafts apical dominance. #grafting
Nanking cherries (Prunus tomentosa) ripen here in mid July, and the seeds from this tree filled a bed of seedlings we're growing this year. We also had good results with softwood cuttings, they root quickly and heavily, and we have grafts of them growing on our wild choke cherries. Quickly becoming my favourite prunus to propagate. On my wish list is some of the cool Russian cultivars. I wonder if it's possible to import a bundle of scion wood with the right phyto and paperwork. #nankingcherry
Grafted plums are taking off. This one is Nanking cherry on the left and Toka plum on the right. These are putting on better growth than our orchard plum trees on their third leaf, the Prunus virginiana frame tree is well adapted to our sandy soil and puts on vigorous growth. How long will these grafts survive? Of the dozen various Prunus cultivars and species we grafted out this year will some of them have good compatibility? #grafting #plumtrees #chokecherry
Mustang cherries for budding this fall. While around the orchard I like to experiment with rootstocks, the plum trees we'll want to sell will be grafted on these. It's a complex Prunus hybrid developed by a local nursery that has good compatibility with many prunus species and is fully cold hardy to zone 3. Our next choice after these would be P. americana or P. nigra I think, and I want to try those but it's surprisingly difficult to get seeds. Feeling like a proper nursery when wholesale trees arrive on a palette.. #mustangcherry #rootstock
Progress on one of our multi grafted prunus virginiana. This size of tree seems to produce the most vigorous growth. #grafting #graftingplants #plumtree
Hard frost last night, below zero from midnight to sunrise.. this thermometer hangs about shoulder height in the middle of the orchard. all of our plums are in bloom, so wanted plums this summer.
Nanking cherry harvest .. Super tasty fruit from a tree I planted in 2004. Picked the tree over the weekend, so I guess these are ripe the same time as saskatoons. collected some more softwood cuttings. #nankingcherry
Nanking cherries at three weeks rooted from softwood cuttings in our mist propagation. #nankingcherry #propagation
Toka plum grafted to wild choke cherry #prunus #grafting
Fall
26 posts
A new unnamed plum that has somewhat graftable to chokecherry, maybe fruit next year. the last couple photos are mustang on chokecherry with a toka interstem. experimental plum grafts in this test area are helping sort out chokecherry graft compatibility across all of the zone 3 hardy plums.
Sweet cherry grafts onto pin cherry, in zone 3. will they survive and fruit? no idea, possibly first time anyone has tried this specific combination of swedish varieties (hardy to at least -30C) on top of some wild pin cherry in a zone that reaches -42C most winters. 5 ft off the ground help with deer grazing, and can help with air temperature, but surely this is an exposed location at the end of our lane, fully above the snow, but sheltered by some tall trees. #sweetcherry #zonepushing
Black nanking have a nice red color in the fall, this is from the western sandcherry genetics, the other parent is nanking (prunus tomentosa) which have fuzzy leaves that stay more green.
The elusive Canada wild plum, note the leaf margins, smooth bumps are called crenate. it's hard to find isolated stands that aren't hybridized, these are from remote areas with no other plums for miles and are true to type. excellent native plum, my favorite tree, everyone should plant them in your landscape. I have a limited number available, grown from seed this year. #wildplum #canadawildplum #nativeplants
Siberian c peach, the most cold hardy peach species, we've planted it in a few places around the nursery to see if we can get fruit here in Manitoba / zone 3, maybe on a good year in a sheltered location. this one has tasty fruit. I have them in plugs and small pots ready to ship.
Manchurian apricot seedlings, sourced from Manitoba super cold hardy -45. just went live on our fall sale
Seedling plum tree I've named sokol, after the location. on a good year it's covered in 1-1.25" fruit, this year we had a spring frost and a light crop, and I just collected some from the ground, mostly just seeds by now. we have some seedling plums going up for sale this week, both american and canadian wild plum, seedlings from pembina, this plum 'Sokol', and a selection of grafted plums. also more stone fruit like siberian peach, apricot, nanking.
Canada wild plum seeds available. hard to find, usually I can just get enough to grow in the nursery. these are sourced from an old row of plums probably planted for rootstocks, I selected the trees that appear to be pure prunus nigra based on the leaves and fruit, there's probably a little hybridization but these were only these plums in the area. I've also restocked american wild plum, which are a little smaller, ripen sooner and have serrate leaf margins. shipping by letter mail. #canadaplum #native #wildplum
Nice fall color on these pembina plum seedlings. they'll likely grow a plum similar to pembina, deep red/purple with yellow flesh, good chance they'll be smaller, but I'm not sure how they were pollinated we got the seeds from an orchard. good for variety, or for grafting onto.
Cherry plums. a few kinds, half a dozen for sure. the leaves are starting to turn color, possibly they'll drop before we ship out depending on the weather. fall sale starts on the 22nd in canada. btw holding up these large plugs no problem, first year trying them. most of them are holding together very well. still deciding if I can just bag them, use shrink wrap or if they should go in a pot.
45 Plums ok this side of the new orchard, open sandy spot with bo irrigation so just heaped up the woodchips. taller one is a siberian peach. i think we you start an orchard and everything is small it either looks like nothing, or if you've been growing trees for a while you can easily imagine how it will look when they're all 8ft tall and spreading out
Seedling plums. sort of prunus americana but a little larger, darker, the skin is a little better, they ripened a bit later. is it a wild plum? sort of I think, it's like a gradient, these might be 75% american wild plum, it's a guess. starting to find more of these trees to collect from, I think the right category is just seedling plum. thinking I should just mix them together?
Prunus americana, wild plum. I've been growing a couple of selections that are graft compatible with prunus virginiana. it takes some years to grow out more scion wood but the process has exponential returns. I have so many prunus cultivars and species that I want to grow, so turning the forest of established chokecherry into a canvas with interstems is such a rewarding project. of note, the other wild plum prunus nigra doesn't seem compatible at all with chokecherry directly, but it might be with an interstem.
Video is triple worked prunus, two interstems between a chokecherry rootstock and apricot on top. this worked well. the other photos are z graft unions from this spring, plums onto chokecherry. it makes a strong union that heals quickly, it's in between modified cleft and whip & tongue #grafting
Sweet cherry growing on pin cherry. leningradskaja may survive the winter here, but if it doesn't I've collected scions early and can try again next year. in this way by serial grafting scion wood can be produced.. and in this case even without prunus avium rootstocks #grafting #sweetcherry
Mustang cherry bush, tripled in size this year. I started this as a stoolbed but decided to let it go, maybe we'll get fruit next year. It's prunus americana x cherry plum, and if crossed with nearby americana or toka the seedlings could make interesting material for new rootstocks or interstems.
Graft union with kyrgyz plum, prunus domestica, on top of a toka hybrid plum interstem. grew about 4 ft this summer, a way to collect scion wood. PD new growth has a soft almost fuzzy bloom and purple bark. this plum will likely die back to the union unless we get a very mild winter, but it's ok I can regraft it. the idea is to have some less cold hardy prunus growing to ship to warmer provinces, but also for future breeding. #grafting
Couple of Toka plum from this experimental tree. wow the fruity bubblegum flavour is distinct. grafted onto chokecherry rootstock, the top is heavy and outgrowing the base so needs some steaking. So far the graft union is sound, and I'm seeing vigor settle down this year. Would have had a full crop with a pollinator nearby, adding americana grafts around for that. I have four of these 3 year old grafts and it's working, though I think Toka will end up being best suited as an interstem.
Western sandcherry, prunus besseyi. fully ripe, medium sweet with a mild cherry flavour, reminds me of very ripe garrington chokecherry. I can taste the similarity to sapa cherry plum. they're good, I want more of them. these ones will be for seed next spring. #sandcherry
Collecting plums for seed from this 'wild plum' tree, it has a good crop this year. Prunus americana is so interesting because it's always freely hybridizing snd mixing up its genetics with other prunus. here this tree is pollinated by other plums in town, and it's seedlings will likely have lots of genetic variation but the wild phenotype is usually prevalent
Sapa cherry plum
Photo 1+2 are prunus americana from different sources, 3 is canada plum, last one is a cherry plum. all collected locally so the trees are fully hardy to zone 3 -40 winters. #plums I've been offering just the first one on our seed shop, considering adding the others. canada plum is the most rare so if I do offer the seeds they'll be limited, mostly I want to grow those seedlings and even graft them. The fruit was collected from remote wild stands with almost no chance of being hybridized. I bet the cherry plum seedlings would also make good rootstocks.
Lifting more trees today, in order: Nanking cherry, ussurian pear. Most these we'll grow for a second year, some I think are big enough to offer on our site this winter. #bareroot #bareroottrees #treenursery
First ripe Toka plum of the season. I've grafted quite a few out the past couple years but only have a handful of fruiting branches so far. Does have a cool bubble gum flavour. #plum
Can you identify these plums? They're from a 30 yr old tree in a small town southern Mb, zone 3. Tree is big 20x15', plums are very sweet, fully ripe with some red and yellow color, a bit variable size, and just ripened this week. #plums
More success rooting domestic plum cultivars at 6 weeks under mist, last two weeks on bottom heat. Pitsin #10 and Skiba are varieties hardy to zone 3. These will harden off and get transplanted into beds, and I'll lift them and heel in for the winter. there's a good chance these will get some frost damage this month, will see how well they harden off or if they start up some new growth, not out of the woods yet. We have 5 cold hardy varieties of domestic plums on their own roots growing with this method, all started from dormant scion wood this May. #propagation #plumtree #mistpropagation #softwoodpropagation #ownrootsfruittree #ownroots #coldhardyplants #backyardnursery
Winter
21 posts
Cherry plums are a hybrid plum that grow as a bush, some of them introduced 100 years ago, and a few of the newer ones are canadian introductions. grow a variety of them for good pollination, these are easy to grow bushes that fruit early in the second or third year, and cold hardy to -40 .. we have a collection including most some hard to find ones.
Reading 75 year a old bulletin with the best and most up to date info about cherry plum pollinators. https://sherwoods-forests.com/Downloads/UMinnAgExpStation-Stone_Fruit-Pollenation.pdf
Nice to get the winter garden started, here are nanking cherry on day 4 .. first true leaves coming out. this is an exciting batch in a breeding effort to select some new white fruited ones. since this is seed from white nanking cherry fruit, any of the self pollinated fruits have some chance of producing white fruited offspring. maybe some will be pink?
Check on your seeds when cold stratifying, if you start them early you get some good germination in the fridge. white nanking and sour cherry seeds at 4 months are ready to grow, and will get potted up under some lights until spring. #seedstarting
Checking on sweet cherry grafted onto pin cherry, has anyone else tried this? I'll be amazed if the grafts survive, we've had quite a few nights below -35.. but a quick scratch test looks alive, though I guess cold damage might not appear until spring? the premise I'm testing is this european cultivar was reported to survive zone 4 winters and flower, and here I have it on a super cold hardy rootstock which could possibly provide some cold hardiness. The most likely outcome is that I'll regraft it lower where the snow will cover the branches, but just maybe these will pull through. #cherry #cherrygrafting #grafting
Plum seeds germinating last may. I found some in a bed that were planted two years before, the rest I let germinate in bags of damp peat moss in our root cellar before potting up. The seeds can have a long dormancy so you need to cold stratify a few months or more, then they wake up when the temperature increases. Some germinated in april, others through may and even into july so I started to check the bags once a week and pot them. Left over seed went back in the root cellar and we'll see how many come up this year. I would say that 80% of them germinated, so this winter I've gone with a longer stratification starting with one month warm. I'm talking about prunus americana, nigra, and several seedling plums I must have collected fruit from half a dozen plum trees, each its own seedlot, and also seed from the year before. I did the same stratification for our walnuts and butternuts, though they are recalcitrant meaning the seeds should be fresh and not dried, but similarly have a deep dormancy and can germinate in year two. #plumseeds #seedstarting #stratification
Plum scion wood bundles that were cut early, just checking in on the moisture. looks good. Most people cut scions in spring, but there are good reasons to do some earlier. You can cut dormant scion wood any time after the leaves drop, and it can be easier in late november here before the snow gets deep. Another reason is growing borderline or out of zone varieties, early scions before the coldest months won't have any winter die back, like a backup in case it needs to get regrafted. For long term storage, nov - april I wax the ends and throw a handful of damp peat moss in the bag to buffer moisture and condensation. then store them in a fridge. or fridges. #scionwood
Apricot trees can get big. this one found at a local orchard, species unknown could be prunus sibirica, the new growth and buds look like apricot to me. fully hardy in zone 3/ -40C owner said it hasn't fruited and shades the garden. how rare is it?
Some cherries we picked last july, first ones romance series, last ones nanking, and evans. #sourcherries #sourcherry
Siberian peach, or chinese wild peach. Prunus davidiana, similar to Siberian C with a fruit that's a bit smaller but sweet + delicious, with a thicker fuzzier skin. zone 3/4, one of the most cold hardy peaches. growing these this summer to try as a rootstock, and to grow out in different forms both on its own roots and grafted. might get to have peaches in zone 3 with some winter cover.
Gets me excited about fruit breeding. this hybrid tree is a cross between nanking (top fruit) and japanese plum, and produced a tree that grows like a nanking, fruits like a nanking with many fruit along the branches, but much larger, and hardy to zone 2. I want to try this cross. paper thankfully available without a paywall.
Canada wild plum, or p. nigra cross. upright tree form, double bumps on the leaf margins, thin point in the leaf. seeds will be hybridized since it was in an orchard next to american plums, but still a good find, stratifying these in the root cellar. really wasn't sure until reviewing the photos, good to photo document a find. #wildplum #prunusnigra
Sanoba and Mana, a couple of cool hybrid sandcherries lost to time from this 1930s SD bulletin. Both are hybrids with Dropmore, named after a Manitoba nursery that's now the Frank Skinner arboretum. I'm planning another trip there in the summer.
Canada wild plum, prunus nigra. seed collected from a remote area in northern manitoba. these are kinda awesome trees, they don't sucker like american plum, and they're an even better pollinator, the best pollinator for hybrid plums. if you have a plum tree, you should also plant one. I have a limited number grown in pots this year, and I'm reserving most to plant and graft around our property. something cool about a native species, planting feels like restoring the ecosystem and just increasing biodiversity. planning on planting many of these, and ribes americanum along our trails and forest margins where they can get good sun exposure #canadaplum #wildplum #ribesnigrum
Seed starting with a selection of prunus. #seedstarting #plumtree
This is something I feel driven to do, breeding new hybrid fruits, it's mad science gardening. badass to find a good quality chum x apricot! last page is from a local arboretum, an early attempt at the black nanking. https://conservancy.umn.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/9c684c14-7509-4b78-a803-0bf01a64aa28/content
Western sandcherry, prunus besseyi. hansen bush cherries. such a cool plant, the fruit is super tasty (unlike the related eastern sandcherry prunus pumila), it's one of the parents of most cherry plums and the black nanking, and it's a super cold hardy rootstock. I'll be grafting apricots and other prunus onto it in the spring, and generally growing many of them for no other reason than to plant around our nursery, they should do well in our sandy soil #sandcherry
Someone else noticed you can graft toka (prunus simonii hybrid) to chokecherry... in 1887 in this update from the michigan horticultural society. google books search https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Annual_Report_of_the_Secretary_of_the_St/wHU5AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=prunus+virginiana+grafted&pg=PA100&printsec=frontcover
Happy to announce that we've been added to the list of licensed propagators for the Boreal series haskaps bred at U of Sask in Saskatchewan, Canada. The varieties we'll be propagating include Aurora, Borral Blizzard, Boreal Beast, Boreal Beauty, and also the cherries Juliette and d'Artagnan. Photos courtesy of the U of Sask Fruit Program. #haskap
Fog condensing into ice crystals on these toka plum branches
Toka plum on wild chokecherry grafts. This one hybrid variety had the best compatibility and put on 3-4ft of growth last year. I've left them to overwinter with budding tape in place to add a little insulation from sun scald, hoping these make it through the winter. later this spring I'll be trialing Toka and a few others as an interstem on many more prunus varieties with the goal of finding compatible combinations for zone 3 hardy prunus to graft onto the prolific choke cherry around most of Canada. #grafting