I am in zone 2a and my nankings produce lots of fruit, so the cold is not your problem. I am not sure about potting it up as I think the roots are too aggressive. I am pretty sure it would not live indoors, being a plant that needs a dormant period, the winter conditions in your home would not be good for it.

@ubro I think mine aren't producing because there's not another Nanking around my area. I'm ok with that, just don't want it to die. I don't want to place it indoors, just in a pot outside.

@wayne Right now it's maybe 3' wide, 5' tall. Not huge but I'm a small lady with not a lot of arm strength. I'll probably just hire someone to do it.

My Nankings are pruned to one main stem about 5' high and then they branch out from that, like a small tree. It may be easier to maintain in a pot if it is not a 3' to 5' wide bush. They sucker from the bottom a lot but I just keep them mowed and clipped off during the summer. I did this pruning because my dog insisted on eating all the berries and in the process kept breaking the branches off of the bush creating lots of damage. With the tree form, the branches producing berries are too high for her to reach and she leaves it alone.

@ubro I'll probably just wait until I have all my landscaping plans in place so I can skip potting and just have it directly moved to its new location. I have noticed some random suckers nearby the tree, I wonder if I should just pot a few of those and ditch the main tree. Hmm...

I have this young tree out front that I'd like to get rid of too and just get a bunch of fruit trees (that actually bore fruit consistently), but I'd feel guilty just going on a rampage killing all these trees...

Good idea to dig up the smaller trees, they grow quickly. I have been grafting apples and plum trees for a few years now, focusing on heritage apple varieties, there are an amazing number of them that survive in cold zones but have been left behind by growers because they do not produce well commercially.

Are the trees you want to get rid of fruit trees? If they are apples or plums, topworking them with another variety that you like is an option as opposed to removing them all together.

I don't think it's a fruit tree, it's just one of those trees the home developer put in to look pretty. I'd love to replace it with a crabapple tree or another cherry tree. Is topworking like grafting?

Yes topworking is the process of placing new varieties on well established trees. I do this because in my cold zone 2 many varieties offered in nurseries are not grafted onto rootstock suitable for this zone and so they die, yet if grafted onto trees that do survive they do fine. I have been doing experiments with heirloom apples and I have had a few sucesses, and of course some failures. But the excitement is in the suprises that come with this.

I didn't realize that was what grafting was for, I thought it was just to create Frankenstein trees lol. I'll have to look into it, sounds fun :D

We live in North Idaho and can get pretty cold. I just purchased 2 Nanking Cherries, and am not sure where I want to plant them. I am thinking for this coming winter, I will put them in larger pots for now and over winter them in a fairly protected place. Does anyone have any tips for me, will this work? I do have a greenhouse, but am wondering if they don't need to be outside? Appreciate any comments or help! Thanks! BDN

I dug up a Nanking cherry that was years old. It was about as difficult as digging up an established black currant bush (which is to say, probably easier than you'd think, as in it's very possible, but not the easiest thing to dig up). We thought about transplanting it and had it in a bucket of water outside for a good while. It survived a lot longer in that bucket than one might have thought.