Nanking Cherry vs Highbush Cranberry - TreeTime.ca

Nanking Cherry vs Highbush Cranberry

Prunus tomentosa

Viburnum trilobum

COMING SOON

(new stock expected: fall of 2025)

NOT AVAILABLE THIS SEASON - MIGHT RETURN

(new stock expected: fall of 2026)

Nanking Cherry
Highbush Cranberry

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.

Highbush Cranberry produces attractive white flowers in late June and bears edible fruit that matures to a bright red colour in the late summer.

This shrub, native to much of Canada, is fast growing, and its fruit can be eaten raw or cooked into a sauce.

Nanking Cherry Quick Facts

Highbush Cranberry Quick Facts

Zone: 2a
Zone: 2a
Height: 2.4 m (8 ft)
Height: 4 m (13 ft)
Spread: 2.1 m (7 ft)
Spread: 2.7 m (9 ft)
Light: full sun
Light: partial shade, full sun
Moisture: normal
Moisture: normal
Growth rate: medium
Growth rate: medium
Life span: short
Life span: medium
Suckering: low
Suckering: none


Flowers: white, early spring
Flowers: white clusters
Fruit: scarlet sweet but slightly tart cherries, 8-12 mm diameter
Berries: scarlet sweet but slightly tart cherries, 8-12 mm diameter
Berries: edible red berries
Hybrid: no
Hybrid: no
Catkins: no
Catkins: no


In row spacing: 0.6 m (2.0 ft)
Between row spacing: 5 m (16 ft)
Native to: AB, BC, SK, MB, ON, QC, NS, NB, NL, PE
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: american cranberrybush, american cranberrybush viburnum, high bush cranberry, kalyna