I purchased a Bing Cherry three years ago at a Lowes in Deleware. I brought it home to Maine and planted it and it did great for the first season. At the beginning of the second season it looked like all the buds were dead. I called my local County extension agent and described the problem to him and he suggested that it had winter-killed. We had a very warm January and then it nose-dived agin to sub-zero temps. (welcome to winter in Maine). I figured that I had lost it and was going to pull it out when I had some time later in the spring. I came home two weeks later from being on the road and prepared to remove the tree when I noticed way down low at ground level there were three new leaf buds. I left it alone just for kicks and low and behold I now own a thriving seven foot tall Bing Cherry Tree !! HOWEVER---I also own a tree that sports no blossoms and/or fruit. I now realize that I will need a pollinator tree; but why didn't I get any blossoms this year? Any help would be appreciated. I really want a producer here. Thanks
Or you own a thriving 7' rootstock cherry. Probably the 'Bing' froze and left the rootstock to live on without it. Ask Extension what kinds of orchard cherries they think are possible for your area. Sweet cherries are not the easiests orchard fruits to succeed with and they do not grow well everywhere.
My zone is a 4-5 The tree is doing great but I have had no blossoms this year. i had a couple last year.
Hey Paul, I live right down the road from you in Lincolnville, and unless you're way up inland (like around Hidden Gardens somewhere) I'd say you're safely in zone 5. The last few years, we've never actually dropped below -10F at my place, which would put me at the colder end of zone 6. But we've still got short, coolish summers so we're quite different than the zone 5/6 areas of, say, Pennsylvania. I don't know what that means in terms of cherry varieties that will thrive here. Some kind of wild cherry (P. pensylvanica, fire cherry, I think) has colonized the perimeter of my year-old house site. I'm pretty much just letting it go to see what will happen.
Paul If you want to try one with high probability of success then try "Evan Cherry". Its sweetness or tartness is between the tart hardy varieies (like North Star) and the sweet varieties. It is counted as a tart cherry but it gets some sweetness when fully ripe dark red. Lawrence`nursery in NY sells it under the name "Bali". http://www.sln.potsdam.ny.us/pcherry.html It has not failed fruiting in zone 5 in my backyard yet. In western Canada it is sold under its original name "Evan".
Thanks for the comments guys. Especially to my neighbor down the coast. I talked to my extension agent on Monday and he says that a Bing will survive here and made an interesting suggestion. Since I have a thriving rootstock why not try to graft onto it next spring with two or three varieties of cherrys that will winter here. I've lost nothing with this tree so far. The problem was; he thought is that he didn't know where I could find some grafting material. any thought?? I'll be back again next weekend to check. )(I'm a trucker out on the road Sunday nite until Frid night) Thanks again