Fruit Bush for an Edible Garden: Nanking Cherry

By Steven Biggs

Grow Nanking Cherry

The Nanking cherry bush has a spectacular bloom early in the spring.

“Dad, someone’s taking a picture of your garden,” shouts one of the kids. It’s early May, so I know which plant will be in the photo.

The Nanking cherry, a.k.a. Prunus tomentosa. Even though our front garden is a party of spring flowering bulbs, when the Nanking cherry is blooming, it steals the show.

The Nanking cherry bush is like a stop sign. Pedestrians going past our house change gears from a brisk walk to a full stop and then take photos.

Spring isn’t the only time it looks great: it looks great again as the fruit colours up. And unlike cherry trees, where you have to look upwards, this cherry bush is at eye level.

Perfect Fruit for a Home Garden

Nanking cherry is ideal for a home food garden because it’s compact, ornamental, and easy to care for. By comparison, many fruit trees require a fair bit of pruning and pest and disease management. And they take more space.

The small, bright-red cherries are juicy. I’d place the taste somewhere between sweet and sour cherries.

Where to get Nanking Cherry

Nanking cherry flower buds

When I teach about edible landscapes, most students haven’t heard of Nanking cherry because it’s not too common in the horticultural trade. It’s a pity because this is such a fantastic home garden fruit bush.

Look for a nursery specializing in fruit and cold-hardy plants. Or, better yet, find somebody who is already growing it, because many of the seeds that drop around the bush will grow.

(I once mentioned this to my class and was asked by students if that meant I had extras to share. I did. And I took in a tray of small cherry bushes the following class.)

By Seed

While many fruit trees and bushes are propagated commercially by cuttings or grafting, Nanking cherry is commonly seed grown. You can grow them from seed at home:

Look for small Nanking cherry plants growing from seed near a mature, fruit-bearing bush.

• When saving seeds to grow, don’t let them dry out too much

• In the fall, place seeds in damp potting soil

• Store potted seeds in a cold location until spring (a fridge or animal-free shed or garage is fine)

• In spring, watch them grow!

When you grow from seed, the seedlings will all be genetically distinct, so expect some variability between plants. Seed-grown plants often flower in less than five years.

Cuttings

If you have a Nanking cherry plant that you really like, you can also propagate it from cuttings. Root softwood cuttings in early summer, as fruit ripens, or root cuttings from dormant hardwood in the spring. High humidity and rooting hormone increase the percentage of cuttings that root.

Enjoy playing with colour, texture, and shapes?

Don’t want a cookie-cutter veggie garden?

If you've thought of growing more of your own food, but you don’t know what to do next, Edible Garden Makeover gives you the ideas, knowledge, and inspiration to grow food in a way that fits your yard and your style.

Layering

Another way to propagate Nanking cherry is by layering. This is the practice where a low-lying branch is covered with soil until it grows roots and can be detached from the main plant. I find it’s often enough to simply to pin a low-lying branch to the soil by covering it with a brick.

Nanking Cherry Varieties

Red-fruited, white-flowered varieties of Nanking cherry are the most common in the horticultural trade.

There are not a lot of improved varieties available commercially. At the time of writing this, I’ve just ordered one called ‘Pink Candles.’

Along with the common seed-grown, white-flowered, red-fruited Nanking cherry varieties, look for:

• White-fruited varieties

• Pink-flowered varieties (like ‘Pink Candles, above)

Cold-Climate Cherry

If you’re gardening in a cold zone, Nanking cherry withstands cold winters and hot summers. My grandfather grew Nanking cherry in Calgary, a mercurial climate if ever there was one. His cherry bushes soldiered on through snow in summer and balmy winter chinook winds.

(Incidentally, he also made wine from Nanking cherry, although I was too young at the time to partake!)

Cold hardiness is never an exact science as there are many variables. But this is a very cold hardy plant, surviving winter temperatures as low as -40°C (-40°F).

Pick a Location for your Nanking Cherry

• Sunlight: Full sun is best. As with many crops, if you only have partial sun, it’s worth a try. You’ll still likely get something.

• Soil: Well-drained soil, enriched with compost.

• Snow load: Winter snow coverage is, if anything, helpful, as it insulates the bush. I have one next to my driveway, and it’s covered every year with heaps of snow.

Find Out What Types of Fruit are a Great Fit for Cold-Climate Gardens!!

Covering more than 20 fruits, the focus is easy-to-grow fruit suited to northern gardens. Fruits include cherry-family crops, currants, cane fruit such as raspberry and blackberry, elderberry, serviceberry and saskatoon, haskap, plum family, medlar, melon, husk cherries...and more! Find out more here..

Prune Nanking Cherry

One of the things that makes fruit bushes far more suited to home gardens is that the burden of pruning is less. You can prune annually if you want – and you’ll be rewarded with a nicer form and more yield. But if you’re busy and don’t get around to it, that’s fine too.

• Timing: Prune in late winter.

• Size: Remember, as the gardener, you decide the final height of your Nanking cherry bush. Depending on the growing conditions, it will get to 1.5 – 3 metres high (5 – 10 feet). Bushes can get fairly wide if space permits.

I keep mine pruned to about 1.5 metres (5’) high. That’s because I don’t want it to block the sight line between my garden and the sidewalk. And another important consideration is not to let the bush get any higher than you can pick!

In general, pruning that encourages young branches encourages more fruit. Keeping the canopy open with pruning helps to minimize the chance of any diseases because there is good air circulation. Pruning tips:

• Remove some of the older branches

• Trim out dead branches

• Cut out crossing branches

• Prune to shorten the bush

Nanking Cherry Pests and Diseases

Nanking cherry is in the same family as cherries and plums, which are affected by a number of pests and diseases. But I’ve never found the need for pest or disease control.

The one challenge I occasionally encounter is branch dieback where leaves on a branch dry up, and the branch eventually dies. Some sources attribute this to fungal diseases. For dieback, prune affected branches back to the main stem.

Harvesting Nanking Cherries

We eat lots of our Nanking cherries right in the garden! But they are versatile in the kitchen too.

Nanking cherries are an early summer fruit. Around here, that means that I’m picking them around the same time as strawberry season is finishing up.

Unlike sweet and sour cherries, where the stem is left attached to the fruit when picked, the stubby little stems on Nanking cherry stay on the bush. As a result, the fruit don’t last as long as other cherries.

Nanking Cherry in the Kitchen

The kids and I sometimes stand around a bush and guzzle cherries and then see who can spit the seeds the farthest. And that’s an important point I should make: like all cherries, there’s a pit!

Use Nanking cherries for whatever recipes call for sour cherries. I also freeze some for winter use. Because of the size, they are a bit fiddlier to pit than larger cherries.

Here are ways we enjoy using Nanking Cherry:

• Nanking cherry juice

• Nanking cherry compote

• Nanking cherry bump (not for the kids!)

And…one other food related idea: I consider cherry wood the finest wood for smoking meat. So when I prune my Nanking cherry, I keep the branches to use for smoking.

Nanking Cherry FAQ

Do I need more than one Nanking cherry bush?

Many sources report the need for two bushes for cross pollination. I started out with one bush – the only one in the neighbourhood – and had good fruit set. There are reports of some self-fertile varieties.

When should I move my Nanking cherry bush?

The best time to move it is in the spring, while it’s still dormant.

Can I grow my Nanking cherry bush in shade?

It will grow best in full sun, but can grow respectably well in part sun/shade. Just know that you probably won’t get as much fruit as you would if it were growing in a full-sun location. As home gardeners we don’t always have perfect conditions.

Can I grow my Nanking cherry in a wet location?

Well drained soil is best. If the water table is high, consider growing in a raised bed.

What about animal pests eating the Nanking cherries?

The birds will like them just as much as you do. But unlike large tree fruit, such as apples and peaches, there’s much more to share when we grow small-fruited crops such as cherries.

Should I cover my Nanking cherry if there’s a frost?

The flowers are early in the season, when the risk of frost is still high. Most years I still get good fruit set here in Toronto. I’ve had reduced fruit set caused by a freeze once in a dozen years.

Find This Helpful?

If we’ve helped in your edible-gardening journey, we’re always glad of support. You can high-five us below! Any amount welcome!

High Five Me!

More on Growing Cherries

Find out about 5 Types of Cherry Bush to Grow in Edible Landscapes and Food Forests

Hear Dr. Ieuan Evans talk about the Evan’s Cherry

More on Growing Fruit

These Courses Can Help you Grow Your Own Fruit

Harvest from Your Hedge! Get These Edible Hedge Ideas

By Steven Biggs

Edible Hedge to Food-Forest Hedge

Find out how to grow an edible hedge.

Need more space in your garden? I’m always looking for ways to squeeze more food plants into my edible landscape. My “foodscape.”

I recently dotted my rows of currant and gooseberry bushes with plum trees. At the base of the rows are strawberry plants and mint. My edible hedge of currant and gooseberry bushes is becoming a “food forest hedge.”

The currants tolerate shade—so as the plum trees get bigger and shade them, the two can co-exist. The strawberry plants need some sun, and along the south-facing edge they get it. And the rapacious mint (which I never normally plant in the ground because it’s so aggressive) fills in shadier nooks.

If your challenge is space—if you have a list of fruit trees and bushes you want to grow, but can’t see how they’ll fit into your yard—an edible hedge might be the answer.

Keep reading because this article will give you ideas for creating an edible hedge suited to your space.

My Edible Hedge Inspiration was a Hedgerow

Wild plums growing in a hedgerow at my friend’s farm got me excited about the idea of an edible hedge and food-forest hedges.

When I was walking the edge of a field at my friend Anton’s farm one day, I came to a spot where the hedgerow was painted red by a heavy crop of fruit. Wild plums. I stood there grazing plums—and when I was full I went back to the farmhouse to get Anton.

We picked a bushel of plums and barely scratched the surface. They made excellent plum pie and plum jam.

I remember thinking that if fruit grows so prolifically on its own, the manicured approach of an orchard might not always be the best approach for a busy home gardener.

That experience also made me think of when I lived in the UK, in a rural area where small fields were separated by hedgerows. From those wild hedgerows I picked plums, blackberries, and raspberries.

(And come to think of it, my neighbour gave me a pheasant that he hunted from the hedgerows too! I made roast pheasant with a mulberry-Cointreau sauce.)

What is an Edible Hedge?

Cooking wild plums from the hedgerow.

Whenever I see a perfectly clipped cedar hedge boxing in a yard, I wonder what it would look like to instead have a perimeter of edible plants. An edible hedge.

An edible hedge is just a row of food-producing trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants:

• It can be a row of a single type of plant, like my former currant hedge – or it can be a mixed and layered planting, sometimes called a “food-forest hedge”

• It can be manicured – or it can look more natural, like that plum-laden hedgerow

The plants in your edible hedge can have different edible parts:

• Fruit (e.g. plum, blueberry, elderberry)

• Nuts (e.g. hazelnut)

• Flowers (e.g. rose, elderberry, redbud)

• Leaves (e.g. grape leaves)

What is a Food-Forest Hedge?

Pin this post!

With a food-forest hedge, we take the idea of an edible hedge and weave in ideas used in permaculture, giving a dense, mulit-layered planting.

Whichever approach you prefer, with a diverse planting you can get a staggered harvest. In a home garden we’re focusing on a hedge for year-long grazing. We’re not trying to replicate the way a commercial grower maximizes yield over a short period.

One other thing: The more diverse the mix of plants in your edible hedge, the better your “garden insurance.” If one plant flounders, another takes over.

Using Edible Hedges in an Edible Landscape

There are different ways you can weave an edible hedge into an edible landscape.

• Backbone. Use the hedge as the backbone of your garden, the feature that leads you into your space. I’ve often seen deep yards with long perennial beds that serve this goal…why not an edible hedge?

• Backdrop. Your edible hedge is at the perimeter of your space. It defines the space, gives you privacy—and gives you food.

• Windbreak. In open areas where wind is a challenge, use your edible hedge as a windbreak.

• Garden room. Use your edible hedge to separate part of your yard and create a separate garden room.

Enjoy playing with colour, texture, and shapes?

Don’t want a cookie-cutter veggie garden?

If you've thought of growing more of your own food, but you don’t know what to do next, Edible Garden Makeover gives you the ideas, knowledge, and inspiration to grow food in a way that fits your yard and your style.

Remember the Rules…and Maybe Break Them

If what I’ve said so far sounds like blasphemy to you—if you’re picturing a tangled mess—here’s a bit more to think about:

1. Small-space gardens don’t have to follow the rules that orchardist follow or that textbooks prescribe. You can plant multiple fruit trees in one hole! Check out these ideas from Dave Wilson Nursery.

2. Permaculture orchardist Stefan Sobkowiak joined me on The Food Garden Life Show to talk about his orchard system of “trios” that mixes up different fruit tree species with nitrogen-fixing trees. You can tailor the same sort of “polyculture” to your yard. Tune in here to hear about his system.

3. Gardening is a great cure for perfectionism.

Edible Hedge Plants Ideas

Here are plant ideas for your edible hedge, edible food-forest, or hedgerow.

Barberry bush in the winter. The berries are edible.

Barberry

I love barberry for the red berries that last right into the winter. Beautiful—and edible. (Try dried barberry with rice.)

Blackberry and Raspberry

Raspberry canes sucker a lot, so be prepared for them to spread. My thornless blackberries are well behaved and don’t sucker. (But they do “tip layer.” Here’s more on tip layering.)

Some raspberry varieties fruit only in summer. Some also fruit in the fall. Take your pick.

Blueberry

Grow Lemons Where You Think You Can't

Not something I grow here because my soil isn’t ideal, but a staple for edible hedges where it grows well.

Bush Cherries

There are a few different members of the cherry family that have a bush-like growth habit and can be a good fit for an edible hedge, edible landscape, food forest, or hedgerow.

• Nanking Cherry

• Dwarf Sour Cherry

• Evan’s Cherry

There are also a couple of native cherries that grow as small trees or bushes—and you can prune them so that they have a bush form.

Pin cherry, a native cherry that works well in an edible hedge.

• Chokecherry

• Pin Cherry

Find out more about different cherries for your edible hedge.

Take a deep-dive into Nanking cherry.

Cherry Plum

The cherry plum (Prunus cerasifera) isn’t too common in the landscape trade—and that’s a pity. It’s extremely cold tolerant, had attractive spring bloom, edible fruit, and nice fall colour.

Chokeberry

The chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) is a native North American shrub that is often overlooked. It’s also simply called “aronia” sometimes. The fruit has pucker power, but mixed with other fruit in smoothies, or made into a syrup, it’s great.

Hear more about aronia in this chat with agronomist Laurie Brown.

Crabapple

Dolgo crabapples.

There’s crabapple…and then there’s crabapple! Some are small and horrid, so sour and astringent that you’ll regret tasting them.

But there are others that are so tasty you’ll go back for more. My favourite crabapple is ‘Dolgo,’ a variety known for its excellent culinary properties. (We make it into a beautiful red sauce—and into crabapple ice cream.)

Currants

I have a lot of good things to say about currants (Ribes sp.) for home gardeners in cold climates. They’re great for edible landscapes, edible hedges, food forests, and more! In a nutshell, they tolerate shade and poor soil, and still fruit well even when not pruned to perfection.

Find out how to grow a great crop of currants.

Hazel

Growing Figs in Cold Climates: 150 of Your Questions Answered

The American hazelnut (Corylus americana) is a fast-growing shrub that’s very cold hardy. If it weren’t for the army of squirrels that marches on my garden as soon as anything emerges, I’d have lots of hazel.

Like currants, it does fine in poor soil.

(And one more idea for you: If you’ve ever thought of coppicing as a way to produce your own garden poles and stakes, hazel is a good candidate.)

Hardy Kiwi

Here’s an easy-to-grow, hardy fruit vine that can be a nice addition to an edible hedge.

Hear about hardy kiwi as we chat with agronomist Laurie Brown.

Rose

Rose petals are edible, and rose hips (the fruit) are good for teas, jellies, and liqueurs.

Whatever you do, don’t put a hybrid tea rose or a fussy floribunda rose in your edible hedge. Get a disease-resistant shrub rose.

Elderberry

Flowers on elderberry are edible too!

Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) has both edible fruit and flowers. We make elderflower champagne and elderberry syrup.

Elderberry tolerates partial shade and moist conditions. My first elderberry patch was from a wild plant I dug at a friend’s farm. But there are also improved varieties for larger fruit size and increaded yield.

Hear our chat about elderberry with agronomist Laurie Brown.

Grape

Probably not for those who want a more manicured look…but a grape vine can wend its way through a hedge until if finds space and light.

Remember, along with the fruit, young grape leaves are great for making dolmades (stuffed grape leaves.)

Looking for grape variety ideas but not sure where to start? Hear about “Canada’s Grape.”

Haskap

Haskap (Lonicera caerulea) is a very cold-hardy bush with fruit that looks like elongated blueberries.

They’re a great fit in a mixed planting such as an edible hedge because they’re the first fruit of the summer, usually ready at the same time as strawberries.

Hear our chat with Haskap breeder Bob Bors.

Highbush Cranberry

Highbush cranberry fruit.

Highbush cranberry (Viburnum trilobum) is a native North American plant that’s very cold-tolerant. It looks very nice too. There are flowers mid-summer, bright red berries for winter appeal, and you don’t harvest until after there’s been frost.

Like elderberry, it’s a good candidate for areas with more soil moisture.

(Highbush cranberry is not related to commercially produced cranberries.)

Hear foraging expert Robin Henderson talk about foraging highbush cranberry.

Plum

You have lots of choice when it comes to plums. There are wild plums, European plums, Japanese plums—and plum relatives such as damsons.

I planted damsons because I can’t find the fruit for sale anywhere…and I remember the damson-jam tarts my Nana made for me when I was a kid.

Quince

There’s the quince tree (Cydonia oblonga), and also the unrelated Japanese quince bush (Chaenomeles sp.). Both give fruit that’s too hard and acrid to eat when picked—but which can be cooked into marvellous delights.

Find out more about how to grow quince.

Sea Buckthorn

Sea buckthorn adds nice contrast to an edible hedge.

Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) is a super tough, wind, heat, and drought-resistant plant that grows in poor soil.

The silvery leaves and orange berries make it a beautiful addition to an edible hedge (although I can’t say I’m in love with the taste…)

Hear agronomist Laurie Brown talk about sea buckthorn.

Serviceberry

With serviceberry, we’re talking about a family of related fruiting bushes and small trees. Also called Juneberry in the USA. Saskatoon berry is a member of this clan that’s grown commercially, and has many improved varieties.

Find out how to grow the Saskatoon berry (a.k.a. Juneberry).

You Don’t Have to Rule Out Tree Fruits

If you’re not worried about a manicured hedge clipped to a low height, remember that you can add in fruit trees too.

And you don’t even have to grow them as trees…as Dr. Ieuan Evans tells us, many of what we think of as tree fruits can grow as bushes too. Find out more about growing fruit trees as bushes.

Remember You Can Add Herbaceous Plants

Permaculture design encourages multiple layers, something you can incorporate into an edible hedge.

Read about perennial edible plants for edible landscapes.

Looking for More Ideas?

Looking for more food-hedge ideas? Hedgerows might give you inspiration.

How About an Alcoholic Hedge?

Hops as a hedgerow plant.

UK garden designer Matt Rees-Warren talks about hedgerows with food plants such as blackberry, sloe berry, hops, raspberry, and hazelnuts.

Wondering about sloe berries? They’re in the same family as plums—and are often used to make sloe gin. That’s why Rees-Warren says sometimes these hedgerows are called, “alcoholic hedges.”

Hear about alcoholic hedges.

Edible Hedges in Permaculture

Permaculture farmer Tim Southwell in Montana grows what he calls a “food hedge” (or “fedge”) on his permaculture farm. It provides privacy, blocks wind, attracts birds, and keeps livestock where they are supposed to be.

Find out more about Tim’s food hedge.

Edible Hedges Have Much in Common with Forest Gardens

Dani Baker is a forest-garden expert. A forest garden, like a food-forest hedge, is set up with layers of edible plants, designed to be a self-sustaining system once established.

Many of her ideas can be applied to an edible hedge. Hear about how to grow a home-scale forest garden.

Edible Hedge Hints and Tips

• Pick plants for your garden hardiness zone.

• Think of sunlight…but don’t be a perfectionist, because a hedge isn’t a perfect setting for a crop.

• Mulch so that weeds don’t get the upper hand.

FAQ

How do I prune an edible hedge?

If you a growing an edible hedge with a number of different plants in it, forget having a manicured, uniform hedge.

Prune each of the different plants within the hedge to optimize fruit production. For example, elderberry fruits best on second-year branches—so when you get to your elderberry bushes, prune away many of the old branches to encourage new growth.

I said above to forget the notion of a manicured hedge, but that doesn’t mean you can’t pick a maximum height. You might want to cap the height so you can harvest without a ladder. (That’s what I do with my pawpaw trees, keeping them short enough to pick from the ground.)

But what about birds?

Depending on where you are, you might find that some of your edible crops are very attractive to birds. I know that my haskaps are ripe when I see robins darting into the bush!

My approach to birds is to pick fruit that they favour in good time. The longer it’s on the bush, the more they get. This doesn’t mean picking the fruit before it’s ripe—but not waiting long once it’s ripe. I don’t get as much as I would if I netted the bushes…but netting takes time.

What about plant spacing for edible hedges?

Spacing recommendations are often for commercial production. A hedge is different; we’re creating a dense, layered mix of plants. Don’t be afraid to play around with spacing.

What if my garden is shady?

 If your garden is shady, you can’t grow everything I mentioned above. But you DO have options. Find out more about plants for shade.

More on Edible Landscaping

Need Help?

Get professional advice from horticulturist Steven Biggs.

Virtual Consultation (1/2 hour)

Meet in Your Garden (1 hour, in Toronto)

Edible Gardening Course