Nanking Cherry vs Thunderchild Flowering Crab - TreeTime.ca

Nanking Cherry vs Thunderchild Flowering Crab

Prunus tomentosa

Malus x adstringens Thunderchild

COMING SOON

(new stock expected: fall of 2025)

COMING SOON

(new stock expected: fall of 2025)

Nanking Cherry
Thunderchild Flowering Crab

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.

Thunderchild Flowering Crab is a hybrid crab apple known for its attractive and fragrant dark pink blossoms and deep purple mature leaves.

Tree farmers will find this hybrid appealing as a pollinator for other apples, while home growers will enjoy the red pome's ability to attract flocks of Cedar Waxwings in the early spring.

This species is reportedly resistant to fireblight.

Nanking Cherry Quick Facts

Thunderchild Flowering Crab Quick Facts

Zone: 2a
Zone: 3a
Height: 2.4 m (8 ft)
Height: 5 m (15 ft)
Spread: 2.1 m (7 ft)
Spread: 4 m (12 ft)
Light: full sun
Light: full sun
Moisture: normal
Moisture: normal
Growth rate: medium
Growth rate: medium
Life span: short
Life span: medium
Suckering: low
Suckering: none


Foliage: dark purple leaves
Fall colour: dark red
Flowers: white, early spring
Flowers: dark pink blossoms
Fruit: scarlet sweet but slightly tart cherries, 8-12 mm diameter
Fruit: small red pomes that hang through the winter
Berries: scarlet sweet but slightly tart cherries, 8-12 mm diameter
Berries: small red pomes that hang through the winter
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