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Silver Creek Nursery Ltd.

Sweetheart Sweet Cherry

Sweetheart Sweet Cherry

History: Sweetheart was developed at the Pacific Agri-Food Research Centre in Summerland, BC as a cross between Van and Newstar. The cross was made in 1975, the variety selected for further testing in 1982, and then finally released in 1994. It is the parent of several other sweet cherry varieties and was awarded the Outstanding Cultivar Award by the American Society for Horticultural Science in the 2010s.

Why We Grow It: These cherries boast the longest harvest period of any sweet cherry, and stores well too. The bright red, heart-shaped fruit are sweet and crack-resistant. 

Canadian Hardiness Zone: 5

Soil Preference: Sandy loam, loam, clay loam. Prefers average to moist conditions with well-drained soils, avoid planting anywhere that floods for more than two weeks in the spring. 

Growth Habits and Disease Resistance: Spreading growth habit, precocious, produces very heavy and reliable crops. Very susceptible to mildew.

Sun/Shade: Full sun (approx. 8-10 hours of sun daily)

Pollination: Self-pollinating, this variety will produce fruit without a cherry tree of a different variety but will produce more and better fruit if one is present. Sweet and Sour cherries cannot be relied upon to pollinate each other. Sweetheart is an excellent pollinator for other sweet cherries that bloom around the same time.  

Flowering Time: Early

Bloom Colour: White

Ripens: Late July

Storage: Sweet cherries normally keep 1-2 weeks in the fridge but Sweetheart stores exceptionally well

Recommended Use: Fresh eating, canning, drying

Size including roots:

  • 50-80 cm, 1 year whip
  • 100cm +, 1 year whip/branched (same pricing for trees branched or not over 100cm)

Fruit Specs

Recommended Use:

Fruit Size: Large

Storage: Keeps about 1-2 weeks in the fridge

Harvest:

Growing Specs

Canadian Hardiness Zone: 5

Soil Preference:

Flowering Time:

Bloom Colour:

Pollination Requirements:

Sun/Shade Requirements:

<p><span style="background-color:rgb(246,246,247);color:rgb(32,34,35);">Full sun (approx. 8-10 hours of sun daily)</span></p>

General Growth Habits:

Shipping vs. Pick Up

CLICK HERE to see how shipping compares to pick up.

Shipping: Every year we ship thousands of trees across Canada (except BC due to CFIA regulations). We carefully bag roots in damp sawdust, then box them and send them out via courrier. CLICK HERE to see our shipping policy.

Pick-up: We also have thousands of trees picked up from our nursery each year. The pick-up options is free, though you must wait until you have been emailed a confirmation that your order is ready to pick up, which will have further information such as hours, locations, etc. We really appreciate if you can make an appointment to pick up, then we can be as organized as possible during our busy season.

Size at Purchase

Our grafted fruit trees are graded into three categories, and the size includes the rootstock:

  • 50-80cm whip: may have some minor branching, this grade is like a "b-grade" size tree in industry standards; we include in this price category trees that are over 1m but have some scarring or mild crookedness.
  • 1m+ whip: may have some minor branching, aka feathering. This is like a typical one-year whip in industry standards. 
  • 1m+ branched: these trees must be over a meter and have 3 or more branches 30cm or longer, as well as a central leader. They are essentially a two-year tree in industry standards. 
  • For stone fruits only - 1m+ whip/branched: We have combined these grades based on the way these trees grow and are grafted. Plums, apricots, cherries, and peaches naturally tend to grow more vigorously compared to apples and are more likely to form larger trees with more branches. However, we only chip bud them so they are a one-year old tree by industry standards. Apples and pears are partially bench grafted, and using the knip-boom method the grading becomes more complicated, hence the reason they are split into different grades.
grafted tree grades at silver creek nursery
Please keep in mind, bareroot trees appear small if you are unfamiliar with them. Size can vary year to year due to weather conditions and every single variety has a unique amount of vigor (some varieties naturally are smaller and some bigger, much like humans -and when you propagate hundreds of varieties, there certainly is variation). While we remain competitive in our plant size, it's also worth noting we don't use synthetic chemicals to push vegetative growth, therefore you may find conventional nursery stock larger in some instances comparatively. 
Why plant small? It's best to transplant a tree when it's young so it can establish its roots before it has a lot of vegetative growth. This is much less stressful on it and bareroot trees tend to catch up and even surpass larger potted trees planted at the same time, after a few years.

Orders that are cancelled last minute due to size (being "to small"), will still incur the applicable cancellation fees if the trees are true to our grading standards as per the agreement of sale when the order was placed.

Rootstock
Size
Regular price $62.00 CAD
Regular price Sale price $62.00 CAD
Sale Sold out
Shipping calculated at checkout.
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