Cherry – Stella – Self-Fertile

Plant family: Rosaceae

Plant origin: The cherry tree is native to many regions including Europe, Western Asia, Turkey and northern West Africa.

Fruit description: Stella is a large, sweet, dark red cherry variety. Each fruit is about 25mm in diameter, containing a single 5mm seed.

Flowers: Cherry trees have very pretty white or pink blossoms occurring early Spring on the bare branches as the new leaves appear.

Growing conditions: Stella cherry is a small deciduous tree, growing to about 3 metres. The leaves turn reddish pink before falling in autumn. Cherries like deep, fertile, well drained soil. Chill is necessary for good fruiting. Prune the tree to a vase or espalier shape to ensure an open centre, which makes it easy to harvest the fruit. Cherries are very frost tolerant.

Uses: Eat cherries fresh or stewed. Cherries make excellent pies, jams, jellies, sauce or puree for use in desserts. They can also be used in chutney and other preserves.

Medicinal uses: You can use the stems of the fruit to prepare a cough suppressant medicine, a diuretic or an astringent medicine. Like other red berries, cherries contain antioxidants and anti-inflammatory substances. Cherries also contain melatonins, which are important for the immune system and for regulating the human daily body clock.

Pollination requirements: Self-Pollinating.

Harvest time Cherries usually ripen in Summer. Harvest when the fruit is ripe as it will not ripen after picking. Harvest in dry weather and pick with the stalk on each cherry

Plant relatives

Special features:

Grown by method: Grafted Pot size: 25 litre

Plant growing Height and Width for pots or in the ground planting: Grows to 2.5 metres high by 2 metres wide if Planted in a Pot. Grows 3 metres high by 3 metres wide if Planted in the Ground.

Shipping plant pot or planter bag size: 25 litre