There are actually two other varieties of sweet cherry with lower reported chill hours (Minnie Royal 200-300hours and Royal Lee 200-300hrs).

I am about 30 miles north of Tampa and do plan on testing these two cv's in my area this year.

Jamaican Cherries are delicious. Lisa turned me on to those... they taste like coconut.

Tropicalfreak

jb_fla thank you I will check out those two varieties.

Tropicalfreak: Is the Jamaican cherry similar to the Barbados cherry? I had heard about the Barbados but not the Jamaican. Cool!

I have a hedge of the Surinam (?) cherry, both red and black... and they are delish... but the birds and bugs get them first.....sally

Hmm, I will have to look into these. We are planning on planting fruit trees on our property and would love to do some cherries.

IMO barbados cherries are not great. Surinam cherries, particuarly the black ones are good, but probably an aquired taste. Other 'tropical cherries' that are quite good are Grumichama, Pitomba and Cherry of the Rio Grande (COTRG).

Of all of these I like Grums the most, pitomba's taste more apricot-ish. But COTRG are very good and can handle all the cold zone 9 gets (mine got 18deg this year with no damage).

I'm somewhat of a cherry expert. The only original species of cherry that I am aware of that have a low chill requirement (less than 200 chill hours) are the Spanish heirloom variety Cristobalina, the flowering Asian cherry Prunus campanulata and various hybrid thereof, and the Capulin cherry, which is native to the mountains of Mexico.

The Capulin cherry is very closely related to North American Black cherry species, however the fruit is very different. Capulin is as sweet as sweet cherry but many people find it to have a resinous taste that puts them off. There is so much more I have to say about this topic, but unfortunately I do not have the time or space here.

Cherry trees may have disease problems in Florida's humid wet climate. It can be a struggle to try to grow cherries in the South, let alone Florida!

I miss my Surinam cherries. I guess 9a is too cold for them, although I'm tempted to plant one along my "fruit wall" and see what happens. All it can do is die, right? Not like I haven't killed enough plants already.