🌱✗ Tested and false“A cherry tree must be trained against a warm, south-facing wall to fruit well”
True for sweet cherries, not for the crop as a whole. Acid cherries such as Morello can be fan-trained against a north-facing wall and tolerate partial shade — a genuinely different site requirement, not a lesser version of the same rule.
Our read It's easy to write off a shady wall as unusable for any fruit tree. For an acid cherry specifically, it's a real option, not a compromise.
What to do: Reserve a south- or south-west-facing wall for a sweet variety, and use a north-facing or partially shaded spot for an acid variety like Morello rather than leaving it empty.
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- RHSSweet cherries like a sunny spot, such as against a south- or south-west-facing wall, while acid cherries will tolerate some shade, so are suitable for a north-facing wall
“You always need two different cherry varieties for pollination”
Acid cherries are self-fertile as a rule, and several sweet varieties are too — Stella and Lapins among them. Other sweet varieties genuinely do need a pollination partner: RHS names Kordia and Summer Sun explicitly 'not self-fertile'.
Our read The pollination-partner reputation is earned by some cherries and not others, so it's worth checking the specific variety rather than assuming a second tree is always required.
What to do: Choose a self-fertile variety such as Morello, Stella or Lapins for a single-tree garden, and check any other variety's own listing for its pollination requirement before assuming a partner isn't needed.
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- RHS'Kordia' AGM... Not self-fertile... 'Stella' AGM... Self-fertile
“Prune cherry trees in winter while dormant, the same as apples and pears”
The same reversed rule that applies to plums and damsons applies to cherries: never prune while dormant. Pruning happens annually straight after harvest, usually late July or August, with young trees pruned in spring instead. A dormant-season cut risks silver leaf disease and bacterial canker.
Our read The whole Prunus family, cherries included alongside plums and damsons, shares this reversal from apples and pears. Worth remembering as one rule rather than three separate ones to keep track of.
What to do: Prune straight after harvest in summer, or in spring for a young tree still being shaped, never over winter regardless of habit built from other fruit trees.
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- RHSPrune cherry trees annually, as soon as harvesting is finished – usually in late July or August
- Gardener's WorldThe golden rule for all types of cherry is never prune in winter, as this puts the tree at risk of developing silver leaf disease or canker
“Any sweet cherry variety copes fine with a typically wet Scottish summer, the way it would in a drier region”
Stella, the most widely grown self-fertile sweet cherry, has fruit that is prone to splitting in wet weather. Avoid overwatering any cherry in summer for the same reason. The RHS gives no equivalent warning for acid cherries such as Morello.
Our read A crop's reputation for needing warmth usually gets read as a heat requirement. Here the more specific risk is wet weather at the wrong moment, which a Scottish summer supplies more reliably than heat.
What to do: Avoid overwatering an established tree in summer, and weigh Stella's splitting risk against an acid variety like Morello if a particularly wet growing season is the more likely problem in your garden.
In Scotland: Scotland's summers run wetter and cooler than the south of England on average, so a splitting risk tied to rain matters more here than a heat requirement would.
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- RHSself-fertile, but the fruit is prone to splitting in wet weather
