Hi
When we moved into this house 3 years ago there was a I think Nanking cherry in the front. I tried to revive it by pruning because it had a beautful form but the next year it was mostly dead so we cut it down. It immediately got new growth and now looks more shrubby. It grows about 2' per year, although I think the neighbor was cutting it down because she did not like it. It has bloomed the last 2 years and I saw fruit this year before the new growth buried it. I am trying to decide if I want to prune it into a tree or leave it as a shrub. My research said that they can be revitalized by doing this type of pruning every so often. Hope this helps

I had Nankings in my old yard and loved them. They did mysteriously die every so often, I would find a lot of dead branches one year and the next spring that plant would be finished. Never figured out if there were insects or blight, or it just gave up, or what. Birds planted seedlings all over my yard so I always just let a few more grow when one disappeared. It's good to have plenty for pollination too.

I had some unpruned in my hedges that got 7-8' tall, and some that I kept nicely trimmed to about 3' shrubs, but it made no difference which ones lived and which didn't.

We've had two Nankings for 25 years and though they've had branches die out here and there, the trees have survived. They're about 7 feet tall and would easily be that wide if i didn't prune them - they'd cover the sidewalk otherwise. I hope they don't die out completely - they'd be murder to take out, esp. since there are gardens all around them!

My short experience is similar to some of you. They seem to do best if you plan to prune aggressively about every 2 years. This way you should be replacing the older stems with new ones. I try to get my plants down to 6 to 8 good healthy stems and they seem to really do well then and certainly seem to produce more fruit. I think this is probably one of the most underused fruit shrubs on the prairies. We often harvest 6 to 8 4 liter pails for jam and jelly. And my wife even bakes them in pie and we get to spit at the table. Ha! If you watch there is great variability in the seedlings and some are definitely better than others. We have several plants which are quite late compared to the main group and they also seem to produce larger berries.
Good growing.

Clayton near Saskatoon

Clayton, i was just wondering how those cuttings/seeds (can't remember what i sent) are doing?

Hi Marcia
That little experiment did not produce any seedlings. I was so disappointed. I am sure I did something wrong as we have many seedlings popping up all around the plants we have. Non of the sites I collected in Nanking or Evans survived if they did sprout so I would like to try it again but at this point I have just too many things started already so will not do it.
I am particularly sorry when people have supplied my with seed!

Clayton

To grow Nanking or Evans cherries seeds might require cold stratification. Simplest is to sow them in the fall. Otherwise 2 - 3 months in slightly moist peat moss in a tight plastic bag in the fridge will encourage them to sprout. That's how apples are done.

That makes sense, Clayton. The seeds that fall from the trees have several months of cold in the ground. Maybe winter sowing would be the answer for you. I won't be able to send any seeds this year as there's no fruit this year - i guess the weather was just too cold in May and June.

I did do the cold treatment so that was not the problem. I used a sand peat mix and I think it maybe dried out because I had too much sand.
Anyway not to worry there are always new projects to try!
I am very engrossed in Edible Blue honeysuckle and now have about 260 seedlings and others.

So much to try so little time!

Clayton