Close up of leaves

looks more like a Sheperdia to me.

Definitely NOT Nanking cherry. Doesn't even strike me as anything Prunus.
That said, why would you want Nanking cherry in a zone 9a setting. IMO they're for places so cold nothing else is winter-hardy enough. I'm not even certain they'd ever get enough chill in 9a to bloom - and in my experience, you'd be pretty disappointed in the tiny little pit-filled fruits, if they did.

Thanks trianglejohn. It does resemble sheperdia. From what I just looked up though I don't think it is(maybe though). There isn't any silvery hairs on the underneath of the leaves. It also doesn't have the brown scabby things on it.

Lucky p I wasn't looking for them lol. I stopped at a house in my neighborhood that a man sells all kinds of plants and trees and he said that's what they were. I thought they would look good between the blueberry plants. He said they liked acidic soil same as blueberries. Guess I'll be taking them back tomorrow.

He might be mistaken, ....ask if he has pictures of the fruit,..could be allot better then Nanking.

They are not nanking cherries (prunus tomentosa) they are western sand cherry (prunus besseyi)

Yeah..that's more like it!

Thank you ClarkinKS! I believe you are right! Matches up to the pics I looked up. They aren't supposed to grow here but heck I'm going to give it a shot and see.

Thanks Konrad far north. I will ask him and I will let him know they aren't nan kings ;)

Not sure how they perform in your much warmer climate,..it's
a hardy cherry shrub for the north and much disease resistant.
Sometimes used for dwarfing rootstock, [also Nanking] for plums,..got several growing.

{{gwi:108303}}

Your welcome rebeccalynne15. Konrad they produce extremely well here in Kansas as well though as you know are not intended for fresh eating but rather meant to be used in jams , jellies, wine etc. I grow 50 + sand cherries and around 30 nanking currently and they are both good.

Clark what do they taste like?

Good to know Clark....how about zone 9?
>>what do they taste like?Hard to say,...If you know what chokecherries are like but less astringent.

Rebeccalynne15 my black western sand cherries taste awful fresh and wonderful once they are processed into jelly. There are improved varieties some of which are delicious fresh. Here is my standard black variety(on the left) beside my unique red variety (on the right) that I grew from seed which is delicious fresh. Hansen cherries are a common improved variety of western sand cherry but their taste is similar to the wild ones. I'm told there was once a wide variety of western sand cherries grown that have since became lost to the years.

This post was edited by ClarkinKS on Mon, Sep 15, 14 at 20:52

This is what my unique red variety looks like on the bush. You can see genetically its prunus besseyi. Unfortunately the red variety is sterile so to get more of them I would need to graft them onto black bushes or root them using layering. The black prunus besseyi varieties grow easily from seed.

Here is another close up of the foliage and the cherries of my reds. The bush in the original picture is definitely prunus besseyi. The individual variety may be hansens or wild western sand cherries i'm not sure.

This post was edited by ClarkinKS on Tue, Sep 16, 14 at 7:13