Nanking Cherry #2

For homeowners in the cold winter zones from 2 - 6, Nanking Cherry (Prunus tomentosa) is a wonderful, easy-care bush to add to the landscape. You'll love the fruit's tangy, sweet-tart taste for fresh eating or baking into pies.

The spring flowers are spectacular! Rosy pink buds cover the shrub in early spring, and open to showy white flowers. This reliable early bloomer is so welcome after the long winter.

The flowers are both fragrant and frost tolerant, which makes this plant a true harbinger of spring. Of course, the white blooms are also a welcome nectar source for butterflies and pollinators.

Nanking Cherry has a long history of proving delicious red fruit in harsh climates. The berries seem to glow against the attractive, textured foliage. Each cherry is a brilliant, translucent red jewel.

Use it as a long hedge along a fence or a single specimen. Or, create an orchard in a backyard homestead. This is the earliest Cherry to flower, and it produces an abundance of tasty cherries.

Nanking Cherry is not reliably self-fertile. To achieve fruit set, plant two or more shrubs close by each other to ensure proper cross-pollination for the best fruit production.

Plan to start harvest as they ripen in early to mid-summer, depending on your location. Or, just leave them for your local bird population. It's a win-win either way!

How to Use Nanking Cherry in the Landscape

Use it for massing in a hedge or planted on a slope. Include it in your mixed borders as a lovely backdrop for smaller plants. Or, plant two or three shrubs together for a fabulous fruiting specimen to create a marvelous focal point in a lawn planting.

The soft features make it the perfect accent along a driveway or running along a fence. Add it to windbreaks for color, fragrance, fruit and to add charm and personality.

Nanking Cherry has tremendous value for screening and hedging. Plant them 6 - 8 feet apart to create a free-form, natural hedge. Measure from the center of the first shrub to the center of the next.

If desired, the Nanking Cherry can be pruned into a single trunk tree, or a multi-trunk specimen for a focal point in the landscape.

For a special treat in mid-winter, cut several branches and bring them indoors. You can force them to bloom in sunny spot. Just arrange the branches in a tall vase and change the water daily. You'll thrill to seeing the buds open indoors.

Easily create a wildlife habitat with several Nanking Cherry bushes added to anchor a Butterfly Garden. The birds, butterflies and pollinators will thank you!

#ProPlantTips for Care

This plant is very well-known in the Asian Far East, where it's found in most home gardens and on commercial plantations throughout Russia. A heavy usage means there are a lot of common names. You might hear Downy Cherry, Mountain or Mongolian Cherry, Hedge Cherry, Chinese Bush Cherry or Manchu Cherry.

Whatever you call it, it's a hard-working landscape plant with a lot of ornamental features. This tough plant is really useful in areas where hardy plants are required, but few are available. Nanking Cherry is the earliest-blooming Cherry and one of the best producers for extreme temperature areas.

Brought to the United States in 1882, the plant's cold hardiness, early-blooming along with its natural dwarfing, were all considered exciting traits.

The yummy fruit is too soft for most commercial purposes, and is not often available any other way than growing your own. Eat them fresh, or prepare into pie filling, make jams or jelly or freeze them.

The Nanking Cherry adapts to a variety of soil conditions and pH levels. Give it a full sun location and well-drained soil for best results. Be careful to water it regularly while the plant is young.

Nanking can handle periodic drought, once it's established in your native soil. This is a great choice for semi-arid climates with cold winters and hot summers.

Prune Nanking Cherry to thin out dead and diseased branches after fruiting is done. Open the center of the plant to sunshine and air circulation each year.