Western sand cherry

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Survives zone 3 through 6

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Reportedly hardy to about -50°C dormant — as tough as the toughest plums in this catalog. Rates among the better-flavoured sand cherries, sweetish fresh and making a tasty, slightly astringent jelly. ⚠ Kernels/pits and shoots cyanogenic — eat seeds only if sweet-tasting, never bitter.

Hardiness

Zone 3–6

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Aug

Mature size

About 2 m tall by 1.5 m wide, larger than the eastern P. pumila

Light

Full sun

Soil pH

5.5–7.5 (mildly acid to mildly alkaline)

Environment

Continental, semi-arid to temperate

Native range

Central North America — Saskatchewan to Ontario, south to Colorado, Kansas and Ohio.

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

2–3 yrs

Growth speed

Medium

Spacing

150 cm (59 in) apart — about 2.3 m² (24 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Alternate, narrow and grey-green, 3–6 cm, on low spreading stems — the silvery cast is the quickest way to tell Bessey's sand cherry from the type.

Root system

Shallow and fibrous, suckering modestly from the crown; grown on its own roots rather than grafted, so what you plant is what you get. Sits happily on sandy ground and resents waterlogging.

Fruit description

Black, subglobose, 8–18 mm, sweetish

Propagation

Seed (2–3 months cold stratification), half-ripe or softwood cuttings, division of suckers, or layering.

Pollination

Insect-pollinated.

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.