Nanking Cherry vs Capilano Apricot

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.

Capilano Apricot is a cold-hardy variety known for its sweet, juicy, full-flavored fruit. It produces white to pink blooms in early spring, before the leaves emerge, followed by golden-yellow, freestone apricots. They ripen from mid-July to early August and are well-suited for fresh eating, baking, wine, canning, and preserves.

The Capilano Apricot originated from three trees planted in Edmonton’s Capilano neighbourhood during the 1960s. As they began producing fruit, local fruit enthusiasts took notice and propagated the trees, with the southernmost becoming particularly popular. Though the original trees no longer exist, the Capilano Apricot remains a widely sought-after cold-hardy variety.

Capilano Apricot is generally considered self-pollinating, but planting with another variety for cross-pollination can increase yields.

Note: The early bloom time makes the flowers vulnerable to spring frosts, which can reduce or eliminate the fruit crop

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