Nanking Cherry vs Witch Hazel - TreeTime.ca

Nanking Cherry vs Witch Hazel

Prunus tomentosa

Hamamelis virginiana

COMING SOON

(new stock expected: fall of 2025)

NOT AVAILABLE THIS SEASON - MIGHT RETURN

Nanking Cherry
Witch Hazel

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.

Witch Hazel is a deciduous shrub, or small tree, with a short trunk, bearing numerous spreading, crooked branches.

The seeds grow in a long, wooden pod with two to four seeds per pod. Upon ripening, the pods burst, firing the seeds up to 30km an hour.

The leaf and bark extract of Witch Hazel has been used as a remedy to common ailments such as inflammation, bruises and much more for many centuries.

Nanking Cherry Quick Facts

Witch Hazel Quick Facts

Zone: 2a
Zone: 3a
Height: 2.4 m (8 ft)
Height: 6 m (20 ft)
Spread: 2.1 m (7 ft)
Spread: 3 m (10 ft)
Light: full sun
Light: any
Moisture: normal
Moisture: wet
Growth rate: medium
Growth rate: slow
Life span: short
Life span: long
Suckering: low
Suckering: medium


Flowers: white, early spring
Fruit: scarlet sweet but slightly tart cherries, 8-12 mm diameter
Berries: scarlet sweet but slightly tart cherries, 8-12 mm diameter
Seeds: seeds ejected to a distance of up to 30 ft
Hybrid: no
Hybrid: no
Catkins: no
Catkins: no


Native to: ON, QC, NS, NB, PE
Other Names: ando cherry, chinese bush cherry, chinese dwarf cherry, downy cherry, hansens bush cherry, korean cherry, manchu cherry, mountain cherry, shanghai cherry