Photo: Dalgial — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Survives zone 3 through 7
Harvest calendar
Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.
Grown as an ornamental for its double pink spring blossom; the small red fruits are edible but thin-fleshed and mild, and are rarely eaten since the popular double-flowered cultivars are sterile and don't fruit at all. ⚠ Kernels/pits cyanogenic.
- Hardiness
- Zone 3–7
- Habit
- Shrub
- Edible part
- Fruit
- Ripens
- Summer–autumn
- Mature size
- Shrub 2–3 m; containerable
- Light
- Full sun
- Soil pH
- 6.0–7.0 (near-neutral)
- Environment
- Temperate
- Native range
- Native to eastern and northern China.
- Status
- Ornamental
- Years to fruit
- 2–4 yrs
- Growth speed
- Moderate — roughly 30–45 cm/year
- Spacing
- 350 cm (138 in) apart — about 12 m² (132 sq ft) per plant
- Leaf shape
- Alternate, simple, elliptic leaves 5–10 cm long with doubly serrated margins, medium green turning yellow-gold in autumn.
- 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
- Small, round, fleshy red fruit about 1.3 cm across with thin flesh around a single hard stone, attractive to songbirds.
- Propagation
- Propagated by softwood cuttings taken in late spring or early summer (with rooting hormone), by hardwood cuttings, or from suckers; species seed can be sown outdoors in autumn, but ornamental double-flowered forms must be propagated vegetatively.
- Pollination
- Hermaphrodite, insect-pollinated flowers, but the popular double-flowered ornamental cultivars are sterile and set no fruit at all regardless of a second plant
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.
Growing guide
Growing tips. Often short-lived and prone to borers, scale insects, spider mites, black knot, powdery mildew, leaf spot, and verticillium wilt. Prune right after flowering, cutting back to within 4–5 buds of the previous year's wood, since flower buds form on the prior season's growth.
Companion planting. Susceptible to black knot, a fungal disease that can spread to and from nearby wild Prunus such as chokecherry and black cherry — avoid siting it near neglected wild stands.
Grow journal
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