The Romance bush cherries from Canada that you mentioned are licensed to be sold at only selected nurseries, namely HoneyberryUSA (the furst to offer the series), Henry Field and Gurney.

Crimson Passion is known to be non productive. Carmine Jewel is supposed to be the most productive. Juliet is supposed to be one of the sweetest sour cherries in the group. Among the series, Romeo, Juliet, Crimson Passion, Carmine Jewel and Cupid. Only Cupid is on for sale in the US.

They sell bare root trees so the shipping dates are in the spring. Right now it's too hot in most places to plant bare root trees. Place order in the fall, like Oct/Nov until Feb for spring planting. The sooner you place order, the better to guarantee that they are not sold out.

It appears some nurseries in the Northwest (Washington State) carries this bush cherry series in pots. If you live there, you are lucky. Otherwise, like the rest of us, order them from Honeberry, Gurney or Henry Field. Among all three, Honeyberry has the best reputation.

Well, I hope they do great in Charlotte, NC too! Too hot here to grow sweet cherries. I'm zone 7b (or some consider Charlotte zone 8a). I hope I can grow them successfully here.

I think eastmeetwest kind of summed it up pretty well.

Unless your heart is set on Crimson Passion I believe I'd go with a different variety. They seem to be getting a reputation as a very shy bearing plant. I can't think of anyone off the top of my head who has had CP preform very well. They seemingly grow pretty well as far as that goes, but that's about it, blossoms are scarce. I have a couple that are over 8' tall and have never had a flower. This year they have something else going on, some winter-kill and what I think is a vascular disorder. I'm going to let them hang around another year or so to see if they snap out of it. If not I'll remove them.

On the other hand, I have a couple young Juliet bushes planted only last April that actually put on a few blossoms this year. They went un-pollinated but at least showed me they are capable.

If it's production you're looking for I can vouch for Carmine Jewel. I have five bushes and they really load up with fruit by about years 4-5.

I am unsure as to how these preform in warmer climes, but I think it's hit or miss depending on weather one year to the next.

Have you tried leaving them on for several more weeks...these look picked too early and very sour. My Juliet and Cupid bush are still small but the Evans I leave on another 2 to 4 weeks.

This is actually last season pics! I will wait till they are a bit darker this year. I love the flavour!!!

Jeffrey Ottawa, very nice! I'm envious (as I'm sure most CP owners I'm aware of are) and I still hold out high hopes of my CP's making some fruit.

I was taken in by the size and flavor advertised, as well as the pits being large enough that they can be pitted with "old fashion crank pitters".

And I do know they are capable of fruiting in our area (I'm just north of Omaha) as a guy in Omaha has posted pictures of his fruiting. It's just that as far as I can tell, many more folks have lamented the poor performance of the CP's than those who have had great success like you're having. (Again, color me jealous!)

But the University Of Saskatchewan even classifies them as "low vigor, smaller yields" in their publications, and I can live with that - if they'd only do something other than foliage for me I'd be tickled pink...

So when Liz K posted what varieties she was thinking about, I just thought it would be good for her to know that if she's only going to plant a couple varieties she may want to consider some of the others that haven't seemingly received such negative press.

Hopefully if Liz K plants some CP's she'll have some awesome yields like you're having!

Jeffrey....how is production this year on C.P. Someone just told me their C.P.has only fruited ones in 12 years...from a little plant, how old is yours, mine is still small.

Looks like Jeffrey hasn't got much to show this year on C.P. ?

I've been saying this before....nothing beats the Evans, reliable, produces tons every year for me...picture from last year.

What I find...if you see flowers on Evans you'll always get fruit set on normal situations... not on University Of Saskatchewan cherries.

Of my sour cherries, Montmorency produces the best. Supposedly can grow in Zone 8.

My CP is about 5 plus feet tall and it was a 4 footer when i bought it. It was slow to get started and did not fruit the first year even though it had lots of blooms. Second year i got about 8 cherries, produced great after that.

I also want to share with everyone that i toss a few pits along my fence when i pick and eat my cherries fresh. I have been pleasantly surprised and have fou d about four little twigs growing from the pits! I hope they prduce nice cherries.

Is that all...3 cherries on the CP?

Hahaha. No! Just showing how big they are!

Konrad, how big are the pits on your Evans? So far I've proven to be a glutton for punishment - cherries on both my Early Richmond tree as well as my Carmine Jewel bushes are tiny, too small for the old fashion crank pitters. I've tried some of the newer ones without much success. I'm down to hand pitting each cherry. I'm starting to not like that part all that much!!!

Still too small for these multi pitter I think... tried some but I pit all single for pies to make sure none is left in...but I do the same on sweet cherries lol. can't trust these gadgets! I can take some measurement if you wish.

Thanks Konrad, but there's no need for you to measure. I just thought if they were big enough to reliably go through a pitter they'd be worth a try here.

As it is we took 54.5 gallons off the ER & CJ combined and I hand pitted 14 gallons for pies and jam.

I'd almost rather do that when the fruit is less than perfect - gives me a chance to inspect it better than just running them through a pitter. But there are times when you just know the cherries are blemish & insect free, no sign of brown rot or anything, and the function of hand pitting just becomes robotic. It's for those times that I'd love to have a pitter that would reliably pit the small pit cherries - I could just toss 'em in there and let it do it's magic. But every pitter I've tried just mutilates the cherries and then you still have to fish around in the pitted ones in search of pits that got through.

Oh well, it only comes around once a year so I can stand it!

I just received my order of Crimson Passion, Romeo and Juliet. Thanks everyone for the help and suggestions. I hope they do well for me.