I ordered 3 of them a few weeks ago. They sure are tiny, but it does sound like they grow fast. I potted mine up for now (not a good spot available yet). I want the whole Romance series...only looks like 3 are available in the states.

I got a small one from Henry Fields' last year, and it has grown wonderfully :) Mine was potted last year, grew fine, planted late winter in the ground, and it's really taking off this spring! Mine was probably 5-6" when I got it.

(I don't know how they fruit in hot climates, but they do seem to grow well here so far. CJ is an experiment for me so much farther south than they come from.)

It will be very interesting to see how these cherries perform "down south" because that's a big unknown so far. Lots of data from the breeding program for CJ and the Romance series but that's in zone 2, and even most of the early releases of these cherries I think ended up in cold zones. BTW, in my zone 3 backyard, the leaf-buds on these cherries have big green tips now and I can see the flower buds trying to push out, but they still haven't leafed out yet.

don-

My Evans sour cherry is in full bloom right now... but we are well behind normal around here on for bloom.

Sweet cherries around here are very borderline. Most years they bloom, this year was too much. The problem is wet spring/early summers causing rot. I'd like to see how these do with wet conditions.

It's 12.99 on the website?

The CJ lived in my wet conditions at my cottage on the St Clair river. But barely alive. I moved them this spring to the city. I lost a cupid there. Seems CJ is the most hardest of them. I would like to get the Romance series too, and all will be available here in the USA. I'm moving in a few years, so I will wait till after the move.
I now have two CJ in pots. They are liking the conditions here better!

Drew,
My 2yr 4'Cj and Cp dug and transplanted easily to my new place. I tried to dig they came up with a well developed root ball tiny roots holding all the soil. Shaggy enough to plop into a pot for transport. They aren't missing a beat. I also hit them with kelp, a tiny bit of ash and some mild and balanced seedling fertilizer.
Now I have 36 2-3" CJ's in 10"x10" square pots! This is how I keep my sanity?

CYH,
Saturday only sale. Keep an eye on Gurneys, but this is the best price I've seen, but I've seen bigger. At this point I don't care if they're small.

I checked last night at 11ish and it showed $12.99 for me too.

I wonder if it's a regional thing, because it was the same deal last time they were supposed to be on sale (I want to say $9 or something) I could never see anything other than $12.99. I bought a couple anyway at that price, but it is funny I'm never seeing the low sale prices either.

Ah, should have waited a tad to post. I see it was a Sat only deal. I checked after business hrs then.

Gurney's has been getting a kings ransom for them recently! When I bought my initial CJ's from them they were sold in pairs.

I bought a couple of the $12.99 ones from Mich Bulb and they were real small, but healthy. I took them to a Nephews place and planted them but he says they are thriving.

I have another pal I want to get a couple for, but I'll probably get them from HoneyBerryUSA. If I'm going to keep missing the real cheap little ones at Mich Bulb, I can buy a 12-20" plant for $5 more.

My 2yr 4' CJ/CP are from HBUSA and for what you pay, their product is very nice. So are their honey berries, where as the ones from Mi Bulb are tiny, tiny, like a fresh rooted cutting. The 2yr Lutowska sour cherry I got from them is also blooming. Short bush. My friend is a brewer and I think we're gonna plan on some wine or cherry stout down the road.

Yeah, I really, really like HoneyBerryUSA. They're VERY good at communicating and just good folks. In fact last night after noticing the CJ's at Mich Bulb were back up to $12.99, I sent Bernis at HoneyBerry an email. This morning at 6 a.m. she sent a reply.

I'd told her the day the CP's arrived I planted them and it got below freezing for a couple nights, that I covered them and put a nite-light in there. I'd also noted that one of my CJ's planted in '11 was 6'8" and how amazing it is to me that from a mere twig they can have such a stout trunk and size up in that short time span.

Part of her reply was: "The cherries in the greenhouse (high tunnel with open sides) here at the U of M sure seemed to benefit from the extra heat - reaching 9-10 feet from their âÂÂ11 planting, but they were sturdy liners about 18â tall or so which helps a bit as well".

Anyway, next time my wife complains about me buying more CJ's or whatever, I'm going to show her this thread - specifically the post of your having 36!!!!!

This post was edited by iowajer on Sun, May 18, 14 at 11:04

High tunnels sound like a hit and a great way to get them out early, control for diseases associated with water and keep swd and cherry fly out. Looks like a worthwhile investment, and i would prune for light penetration and be in a 100% light exposure area preferably in loam or sand, but doable i n clay with the right grading/trenching done beforehand

I got one from them about 2 weeks ago, about 7" tall and looks healthy, they have a free shipping code on any order you can find on retailmenot.com if its not expired yet, if that's all youre buying its actually a better deal than the $6 because normal shipping starts at $9 or 10

I bought 2 Carmine Jewel Cherries last year. They barely made it through Summer. I was surprised to see both trees made it through our horrible Winter in the pots. So now they are very bushy but fairly pathetic in terms of height. No flowers yet either. I guess we will see how Year 3 goes. I will say they HATE being wet. I water every other time I water all the rest of my fruit trees (also in pots). I test and make sure they are almost dry a finger length down before watering and that seems to be helping.

CJ are one of the best fruits on my property! If you have room for one bush only grow this one! I planted a row of these which have survived extreme wind, heat, drought, cold etc.. Love them! As mentioned above cherries of all kinds don't like to sit in water or be overly wet so avoid that ! I like to grow my cherries on mounds or in areas of good drainage because standing water for any length of time harms or kills them.

Awesome to hear about the CJ! By random chance I ordered this from Gurneys on one of their 50% off sales and got it in early spring. It was only like 6" so I potted it. I shocked it by putting it in the greenhouse and the leaves burnt a little. It's now outside and is doing quite well. I wonder how long I should grow it in the pot? In the pot I used the exact soil from the location where it is intended to be planted (once I cut down the Italian Stone pine that unfortunately got killed 95% this winter.. brown needles never recover on this tree and will leave the ugliest-looking thing as they fall off).