Compact Stella Sweet Cherry Bareroot

Why We Grow It: Compact Stella sweet cherry trees bear very dark red heart-shaped fruit that is of high quality for fresh eating, and equally well-suited for canning, drying, or freezing. This compact version of the popular Stella sweet cherry is great for anyone with limited space. The typical mature height is 8-10 feet (2.5-3.0m), though they can reach up to 12 feet in optimal growing conditions.

Recommended Use: Fresh eating, cooking, preserving

Fruit Size: Large

Storage: Keeps about 1-2 weeks in the fridge

Harvest: July - Late

Cider or Perry Class (if applicable):

Canadian Hardiness Zone: 5

Soil Preferance: Sandy loam, loam, clay loam with good fertility. Sweet cherries don't like their feet wet, so be sure to plant in well-drained soils, avoid planting anywhere that floods for more than two weeks in the spring.

Flowering Time: Early

Bloom Colour: White

Pollination Requirements: 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.

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

General Growth Habit: Less vigorous than Stella with a compact growth habit, reaching 8-10ft at maturity on average

Overall Grower Ease Rating:

This rating is a combination of our experience growing in our test orchards and current available information on the cultivar.

Compact Stella was developed at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York where dormant Stella scions underwent X-ray irradiation in 1964. This caused a mutation to occur, creating a cherry tree that was smaller in stature when fully grown than regular Stella cherry trees. In 1973 this smaller version of Stella was given the name Compact Stella.

Shipping: Every year we ship thousands of plants across Canada. We carefully bag roots in damp sawdust, then box them, and send them out via courier. 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.

When Will My Order Be Ready?

Bareroot apple and pear trees are available for both fall and spring planting! If you also order plants that are only available for spring, we will default to having your entire order ready for spring.

Fall: Fall orders are generally ready to be picked up or shipped out around mid-November. We only accept a small number of fall orders each year so if there is no fall option at checkout, your order will be available in the spring.

Spring: Spring orders are generally ready to be picked up or shipped out anywhere from late March to late May! We will be in touch in the spring once your order is ready to go. Orders placed in the spring might not be ready for 1-2 weeks as this is a very busy time of year for us.

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

50-80cm grade: Smaller trees that may have some minor branching, this grade is like a "b-grade" size tree according to industry standards. This size may include trees that are over 1m but have some scarring or mild crookedness.
1m+ grade: Trees that are over 1m tall, some may have no branches and others may have light feathering or a few established branches

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 vigour (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 some conventional nursery stock larger in comparison.

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 after a few years bareroot trees tend to catch up and even surpass larger potted trees planted at the same time.

Orders that are cancelled last minute due to size (being "too 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.

$71.00