Cherry Trees

[lupinfarm]

I wanted a magnolia for our front garden as we're going very traditional knot garden with traditional victorian flowers mixed in with a largely vegetable garden in the front (the knot walls are made out of field limestone found on our farm).

HOWEVER Magnolia is awfully unpretty after it's done flowering and it's very very very messy. Compromise? A cherry tree.

I live in Canadian Zone 5B and I have Sandy Loam soil, and I want a Cherry tree that will be a good producer of nice dark cherries.

Ideas of varieties? I also need to be able to get these varieties in Canada.

 

[vfem]

Try this magnolia, the seed pods are a gorgeous red and a lot let messy to your yard then a traditional magnolia would be.

http://www.parkseed.com/webapp/wcs/...questType=NewRequest&go.x=7&go.y=12&go=submit

 

[me&thegals]

How about Stella, Bing, Black Tartarian, black gold or lapins? They are all sweet cherry trees with dark fruit, available in Jung's or Henry Fields. We have the Lapin planted here in WI, zone 4, but it has only yielded 1 cherry so far. Not sure what the deal is here, as we have a really hard time getting trees to fruit, so it really might just be our location and not the variety.

 

[patandchickens]

The only magnolia you'd have much chance of doing well for you would be a star magnolia or, what's the bigger pinker one, Leonard Messel I think? The other kinds you see growing nearer the lake -- in Oshawa etc -- will do very poorly further from the lake and in a windier location. you wouldn't want to grow a magnolia amongst a garden that you'd be digging up/replanting/cultivating frequently, though, as they have quite shallow fragile roots with a poor sense of humor about disturbance.

Cherry is a significant gamble too, if you want a TREE and want SWEET cherries. Expect to lose your crop many years from late frosts. Some of the tart (pie) cherries are a bit hardier, or bush types like nanking/manchu. Let me think about sources, I have to go feed kids lunch now

Golden Bough right near you in Marlbank (http://www.goldenboughtrees.ca/fruit.shtml) offers some ornamental flowering trees that would be hardy for you, you might take a look at what they've got and see how it grabs you. I've been very, very pleased with everything I've ever gotten from them.

HTH,

Pat

 

[patandchickens]

OK, lunch over now Was thinking about fruit-tree and ornamental shade tree sources available in Ontario, and I would have to say that you are probably better off buying from a nursery than going mail-order. Partly because as far as I know Canada does not have any real counterparts of US sources like Jung's or Wayside or suchlike; and partly because anything you get mailorder will be pretty small and not going to be a TREE for the next decade plus.

The best source I know of in the GTA is Humber Nurseries (www.humbernurseries.com), so if you are ever in the area it would be worth an extra 'field trip' (they're probably about 15 min from the city center, right at the top of the 427). Do not count on their employees for sage advice, but if you know what you want, if they don't have it nobody will. Most of their plants are largeish and fairly well-grown and well-cared-for, and not unreasonable prices. There may well be good tree sources elsewhere that I don't know about, possibly Peterborough or Kingston, you might try asking around and googling.

The other reason for buying from a brick and mortar establishement instead of mail-order is that you can SEE what you're getting, which for a lawn specimen can be important in terms of getting one with the branching structure etc that you have been envisioning.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[lupinfarm]

OK, lunch over now Was thinking about fruit-tree and ornamental shade tree sources available in Ontario, and I would have to say that you are probably better off buying from a nursery than going mail-order. Partly because as far as I know Canada does not have any real counterparts of US sources like Jung's or Wayside or suchlike; and partly because anything you get mailorder will be pretty small and not going to be a TREE for the next decade plus.

The best source I know of in the GTA is Humber Nurseries (www.humbernurseries.com), so if you are ever in the area it would be worth an extra 'field trip' (they're probably about 15 min from the city center, right at the top of the 427). Do not count on their employees for sage advice, but if you know what you want, if they don't have it nobody will. Most of their plants are largeish and fairly well-grown and well-cared-for, and not unreasonable prices. There may well be good tree sources elsewhere that I don't know about, possibly Peterborough or Kingston, you might try asking around and googling.

The other reason for buying from a brick and mortar establishement instead of mail-order is that you can SEE what you're getting, which for a lawn specimen can be important in terms of getting one with the branching structure etc that you have been envisioning.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

Ohh for sure, we weren't thinking mail order because the chances that bugs would come in on them is pretty high. Dad has an appartment at Main&Danforth so we can make trips to the GTA no problemo.

 

[patandchickens]

OK, lunch over now Was thinking about fruit-tree and ornamental shade tree sources available in Ontario, and I would have to say that you are probably better off buying from a nursery than going mail-order. Partly because as far as I know Canada does not have any real counterparts of US sources like Jung's or Wayside or suchlike; and partly because anything you get mailorder will be pretty small and not going to be a TREE for the next decade plus.

The best source I know of in the GTA is Humber Nurseries (www.humbernurseries.com), so if you are ever in the area it would be worth an extra 'field trip' (they're probably about 15 min from the city center, right at the top of the 427). Do not count on their employees for sage advice, but if you know what you want, if they don't have it nobody will. Most of their plants are largeish and fairly well-grown and well-cared-for, and not unreasonable prices. There may well be good tree sources elsewhere that I don't know about, possibly Peterborough or Kingston, you might try asking around and googling.

The other reason for buying from a brick and mortar establishement instead of mail-order is that you can SEE what you're getting, which for a lawn specimen can be important in terms of getting one with the branching structure etc that you have been envisioning.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

Ohh for sure, we weren't thinking mail order because the chances that bugs would come in on them is pretty high. Dad has an appartment at Main&Danforth so we can make trips to the GTA no problemo.

OK, so try Humber.

For what it's worth, you are far, far less likely to get bugs on mailordered trees (especially bareroot) than on ones bought potted or balled-and-burlapped. (Ditto for weeds). Although, I do not honestly see what the big deal is, either way, since the world is full of bugs anyhow You should of course examine any new plant and get rid of anything you find there, but, really, it is no big deal at ALL compared to what colonizes your plants once theyr'e in the ground


Pat

 

[lupinfarm]

We ended up with two lapins cherries which are doing great and have blossoms on them now...