Silver Creek Nursery Ltd.

D'Artagnan Dwarf Sour Cherry Bush Bareroot

History: D'Artagnan was developed by the University of Saskatchewan and shares the same parents as several varieties in the Romance series. It was bred for and selected due to its suckering habit which makes it suitable to form a cold-hardy fruit-bearing hedge. D'Artagnan is the fourth variety released in the Musketeer series and was named for the fourth musketeer in The Three Musketeers. It was released in 2021 as part of the university's 100 Years of Horticulture Celebrations. 

Why We Grow It: D'Artagnan produces dark red cherries similar in flavour to Juliet. Like Juliet, it can be eaten fresh or used for cooking and baking. Its main feature, however, is its tendency to sucker heavily which makes it suitable for forming hedges. If individual d'Artagnan bushes are planted 1m apart, they will eventually fill in to form an edible hedge. For those in colder climate areas especially, this can be a unique addition to an edible landscape!

Check our our blog post with some tasty sour cherry recipes!

$26.00

Size:

Out of stock

Fruit Traits:

Recommended Use: Fresh eating, cooking, juicing, baking

Fruit Size: Small

Storage: Keeps about a week in the fridge

Harvest: August - Early

Plant Traits:

Canadian Hardiness Zone: 2

Soil Preferance: 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.

Flowering Time:

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: Shrub reaches 2m tall, suckers heavily which makes it suitable for growing as a hedge, requires minimal pruning. Generally few issues with pests or diseases.

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 plants 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?

Most of our bareroot plants and tubers are only available for spring planting! Only bareroot apples and pears are available for fall planting.

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.

Dwarf sour cherries are divided into the following grades:

- 1 year plant - 15-40cm
- 2 year plant - 30-70cm

There is some overlap in size since we are also taking the age of the plants into account. Some older plants may not have put on quite as much vegetative growth but will have larger root systems.

All of these heights exclude the roots since seedlings and some berries will often have a lot of root growth but relatively little vegetative growth (ex. our Shagbark Hickories seedlings are often 5-15cm above the soil but will have roots that reach 20cm+ in length).

Not all of our berries and seedlings will be available in all of these grades since growth rate can vary significantly across species and even varieties. 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 when a plant is young so it can establish its roots before it has a lot of vegetative growth. This is much less stressful on it and bareroot plants tend to catch up and even surpass larger potted ones planted at the same time, after a few years.

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

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