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
Fruit Specs
Recommended Use:
Fruit Size:
Storage:
Harvest:
Growing Specs
Growing Specs
Canadian Hardiness Zone: 5
Soil Preference:
Flowering Time:
Bloom Colour:
Pollination Requirements:
Sun/Shade Requirements:
General Growth Habits:
Shipping vs. Pick Up
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
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.
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.
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