Stella Cherry Tree
Self Pollinating Sweet Cherry Tree
The Stella Cherry Tree is a compact self-fruitful tree which produces an abundance of heart shaped, shiny, black red fruit with red flesh. Its tight upright character makes it an idea choice for the Home Garden.
Red-pink blooms emerge in April to be followed in early July by clusters of shiny, red black fruit on a compact tree covered in bright green foliage. You can use the Stella as a single specimen or create a home orchard with 2 or more.
The Stella produces cherries that are especially sweet, plump and firm. They resist the cracking that you see with some cherry varieties and produce well, so you’ll have lots of cherries to eat and share.
Stella cherries are excellent when eaten fresh, baked into pies, made into jellies and preserves, and various other dishes. They also store and freeze well.
Your Stella Cherry tree is self-fruitful, but is an excellent pollinator to other cherry trees as well.
They are precocious which means they bear fruit at a young age so you won’t have long to wait for your first harvest. Even your wildlife will thank you for adding one to their habitat…although you may have to fight the birds from time-to-time for your harvest. Stella’s compact habit makes it easy to maintain the trees height for making bird netting a breeze.
* Black Red heart shaped Sweet Fruit
* Fruit Resists Splitting
* Upright Compact habit
* Self-Fruitful
One of the First Self-fruitful Sweet Cherry Trees
The Stella Cherry was the first readily available self-fruitful variety of sweet cherry offered and was introduced by the world famous Agricultural Research Station in Summerland, British Columbia. Though not an immediate hit with the commercial market, Stella is the forerunner to some of the most important cherry varieties on the market today.
Beginning in 1956, Dr Charles Lapins of the Summerland Research Station crossed the Lambert Cherry, a popular commercial sweet cherry of the time, with a known self-fruitful selection, John Innes 2420, possibly a seedling of Emperor Francis x Napoleon, from the John Innes institute in Norwich, England.
Stella was then selected from the seedlings of this cross in 1964. Once the evaluation was completed, Stella Cherry's introduction occurred in 1973.
Though not a complete commercial success, Stella Cherry took the home garden market by storm. In the 1970's as home lots sizes grew smaller - the notion giving space to two cherry trees to act as pollinating partner became a challenge to accommodate. For home gardeners, the idea of a self-fruitful cherry tree was welcomed with open arms.
In 1980's, the Stella Cherry became one of the top selling varieties to the home garden market. The added benefit of its ability to pollinate other popular varieties only increased its popularity. Since this time the Summerland Research Station has released many of the most popular, best tasting and most productive varieties of self-fruitful cherries now available to the home garden market.
PLANT HIGHLIGHTS
| Brand | Nature Hills Nursery |
|---|---|
| Botanical Name | Prunus avium 'Stella' |
| Mature Height | Semi Dwarf: 15 - 18 feet |
| Mature Spread | 15 - 18 feet |
| Soil Type | Widely Adaptable |
| Moisture | Well Drained - Average Moistness |
| Sun Exposure | Full Sun |
| Growth Rate | Medium |
| Flower Color | White |
| Fruiting Time | 3 - 5 years |