Nanking cherry or chokecherry
Nanking has juicy red cherries on a broad shrub. Garrington is a taller chokecherry with large black fruit. Both ripen in July at our nursery.
18+ seeds · $8.95 CAD
View seeds →75+ seeds · $8.95 CAD
View seeds →Nanking Cherry (Prunus tomentosa) is a cold hardy fruiting shrub native to China, Mongolia, and Korea and introduced to North America in the 1800s. Its small bright red cherries have juicy flesh with sweet tart, slightly astringent flavour and are good fresh or in jam and jelly.
Garrington is a selected strain of Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana) known for vigorous growth and large black fruit that ripens early, in July at Oak Summit Nursery. Its fruit is larger than that of typical wild chokecherries, which ripen here in August.
These are seeds. Photos show the parent plants; seedlings will vary.
Growing details
| Detail | Nanking Cherry | Garrington Chokecherry |
|---|---|---|
| Fruit colour | Bright red | Black |
| Ripening | July | July |
| Mature size | 6 to 12 ft | About 15 ft |
| Cold hardiness zone | 2 | 2 |
| Stratification | 3 months cold | 3 to 4 months cold |
A closer look
Nanking Cherry
Nanking Cherry (Prunus tomentosa) is a cold hardy fruiting shrub native to China, Mongolia, and Korea and introduced to North America in the 1800s. Its small bright red cherries have juicy flesh with sweet tart, slightly astringent flavour and are good fresh or in jam and jelly.
Nanking Cherry is mostly self sterile. A single bush can sometimes produce fruit, but two or more bushes usually give much better fruit set through cross pollination. In Manitoba, the fruit ripens in July.
Garrington Chokecherry
Garrington is a selected strain of Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana) known for vigorous growth and large black fruit that ripens early, in July at Oak Summit Nursery. Its fruit is larger than that of typical wild chokecherries, which ripen here in August.
It originated near Garrington, Alberta, and was adopted by the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration as a seed parent for prairie shelterbelt plantings. Because it was maintained through seed, today's plants represent a strain descended from those original plantings rather than a clone of one named plant. Open pollinated seedlings will vary in fruit and growth traits.