Mayday Cherry vs Nanking Cherry - TreeTime.ca

Mayday Cherry vs Nanking Cherry

Prunus tomentosa

Prunus padus

COMING SOON

(new stock expected: fall of 2025)

NOT AVAILABLE THIS SEASON - MIGHT RETURN

Nanking Cherry
Mayday Cherry

Nanking Cherry is a small deciduous shrub known for its attractive white blossoms and edible fruit. Its dark red berries are excellent for pies, jellies, and even fresh eating.

Nanking Cherry is highly regarded as a shade tolerant fruit. We often see it planted as a hedge on the north side of a house where few other plants will survive, let alone thrive.

Expect fruit mid to late July. The fruit can vary in sweetness and size considerably. We often hear that people prefer it to sour cherries. Perhaps this is because Nanking Cherry is more closely related to plums. In fact, it is sometimes used as a dwarfing rootstock for plums.

Mayday Cherry is a small deciduous tree known for its early blooming and fragrant white flowers.

A favourite specimen tree on prairie homesteads, Mayday Cherry produces small black berries that are inedible to people but highly desirable to birds.

Nanking Cherry Quick Facts

Mayday Cherry Quick Facts

Zone: 2a
Zone: 3a
Height: 2.4 m (8 ft)
Height: 9 m (30 ft)
Spread: 2.1 m (7 ft)
Spread: 8 m (25 ft)
Light: full sun
Light: full sun
Moisture: normal
Moisture: normal
Growth rate: medium
Growth rate: medium
Life span: short
Life span: short
Suckering: low
Suckering: low


Toxicity: seeds and leaves are toxic if ingested
Flowers: white, early spring
Flowers: early blooming, white
Fruit: scarlet sweet but slightly tart cherries, 8-12 mm diameter
Fruit: small black berries
Berries: scarlet sweet but slightly tart cherries, 8-12 mm diameter
Berries: small black berries
Seeds: located within the berries
Hybrid: no
Hybrid: no
Catkins: no
Catkins: no


Other Names: ando cherry, chinese bush cherry, chinese dwarf cherry, downy cherry, hansens bush cherry, korean cherry, manchu cherry, mountain cherry, shanghai cherry
Other Names: common bird cherry, european bird cherry