Sweet delicious early summer treats, Cherry trees are wonderfully versatile, ornamental, double-duty landscaping trees that make food sustainability and healthy snacking easy!
Easy to grow flowering and fruiting garden gems, there is a very large selection of Cherry trees available to you! All selections just need just a few key steps to ensure your tree grows happy, healthy, and productive for years to come!
Cherry trees are deciduous and the best time to plant bareroot plants is in the spring when they are available. Container plants can be planted almost any time of the year if you can give them proper watering and care.
Fall planting allows a tree or shrub to not fight the summer heat, has more moisture availability and cooler temperatures to work on getting their roots established without the temperature triggers to push out above-ground growth. With no demands from leaves and new stems, fruit, or flowers, a tree's energy goes entirely into root development all fall, winter, and spring.
Spring is also a very successful time for planting. Also with cooler temperatures and more moisture availability, most growing zones allow several months of ideal weather and temperatures for root development before the summer heat kicks in.
However, if you are able to support your tree with daily watering (sometimes twice a day in the extreme heat), then any time during the growing season can be planting time! We do offer most of our Cherry varieties actively growing in containers which can be very successfully transplanted all throughout the growing season with careful attention to the watering detail.
A healthy layer of arborist mulch, Nature Hills Root Booster, in-ground irrigation, and attention are always helpful ways to boost your tree's ability to get established.
All fruiting trees and shrubs need full sun to have the strength and energy to produce drifts of springtime flowers. So situate your new tree in a location where it will benefit from 6 hours of direct sunlight per day, favoring the drying powers of the morning sun best!
The location should also keep low-lying cold air in the spring away from the tree with good air circulation.
If planting cherry trees in a lawn, the grass should be removed from the planting area in a four-foot diameter circle, to prevent the grass from competing with the young tree for nutrients and water. You’ll also want a mulched buffer zone between your tree and the lawn to prevent lawn fertilizer (nitrogen-rich) from interrupting flowering. Too much lawn fertilizer and a tree will simply grow lots of leafy growth but have very few flowers and therefore fruit.
Cherry trees also need very well-drained soil with high organic matter to help with good moisture-holding ability and easy access to nutrients. Yearly applications of compost and a spring dose of fertilizer geared for fruiting trees are recommended.
A 3-4 inch thick layer of arborist bark chips helps enrich the soil while also holding in moisture more consistently, keeping the roots insulated from heat and chill, while also slowly breaking down to further enrich the soil.
Water regularly when trees are young and getting their roots settled into their new home. After trees are established, they do best with supplemental moisture throughout the summer to support the forming of juicy fruit.
Planting Cherry Trees in a home garden will allow for delicious fruit that everybody can enjoy and does not differ much from planting other types of trees, but there are some special things to consider when planting these fruit trees.
Cherry trees are very easy to grow and have minimal maintenance. An early spring application of fertilizer is recommended, and a refreshed layer of compost/mulch each winter, plus a once-a-year pruning when dormant is all they really need.
Check with your local County Extension Office for any issues that may be prevalent in your area and also find the best varieties of Cherry trees that thrive best in your immediate area. Many Cherry tree cultivars are highly pest and disease resistant, eliminating much of the need to spray.
In just a few easy steps, you can easily install a new Cherry Tree in your landscape!
Most Sour Cherry varieties are self-pollinating, and some of the newest Sweet Cherry varieties are too, but typically most Sweet Cherry varieties will need a pollinating partner. Some varieties of Cherry Trees are typically not self-pollinating or will produce a far larger crop with a pollinator partner, meaning that having only one tree in the garden will generally not produce much fruit. Planting two or more compatible species with similar bloom times is a good idea to increase pollination and yield drastically. All Cherry trees on the Nature Hills website have suitable pollination partners listed. Find the one rated for your hardiness zone and you’ll have large harvests each and every year! Try to choose a variety of trees that ripen at different times during the summer to extend your enjoyment as well!
No room for two or more trees? Try high-density planting techniques that let you keep your trees pruned smaller, plant them in linear orchards close to one another to create a flowering and fruiting hedgerow, or try the two-trees-in-one-hole trick.
There are also many dwarf and semi-dwarf Cherry trees that tuck into nearly any sized yard or garden, or even into a large patio container!
For the best fruit and healthiest tree, the right start goes a long way! Give your new Cherry tree all the tools it needs to start producing all the fruit your family needs for healthy snacks, desserts, preserves, and landscape beauty for years to come!
Contact Nature Hills today to begin your own orchard, large or small, today to have your new Cherry tree delivered to your doorstep!
Happy Planting!