Nanking Cherry vs Meadowsweet - TreeTime.ca

Nanking Cherry vs Meadowsweet

Prunus tomentosa

Filipendula ulmaria

COMING SOON

(new stock expected: fall of 2025)

CUSTOM GROW

Nanking Cherry
Meadowsweet

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.

Meadowsweet gets its name from its sweet fragrance from the creamy white flowers. It is a large upright herbaceous perennial shrub. They bloom in early summer, and with the right conditions may remain throughout the season.

Take care of where you’re planting Meadowsweet as it is known to spread.

Nanking Cherry Quick Facts

Meadowsweet Quick Facts

Zone: 2a
Zone: 3a
Height: 2.4 m (8 ft)
Height: 1.2 m (4 ft)
Spread: 2.1 m (7 ft)
Spread: 0.3 m (1.0 ft)
Light: full sun
Light: partial shade, full sun
Moisture: normal
Moisture: normal, wet
Growth rate: medium
Growth rate: fast
Life span: short
Life span: short
Suckering: low
Suckering: low


Flowers: white, early spring
Flowers: white
Fruit: scarlet sweet but slightly tart cherries, 8-12 mm diameter
Berries: scarlet sweet but slightly tart cherries, 8-12 mm diameter
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: bride wort, mead wort