Native Wild Cherry, Large Trees

Prunus avium: Bareroot Wild Cherry Trees in Standard Sizes

Wild Cherry trees are large native plants with white blossom in spring and edible fruit. It has profuse white flowers in early spring, appearing at the same time as the young green and bronze leaves. The Autumn colour is orange and red.

Prunus avium is a tall, wide spreading tree with a suckering habit that can reach a height of about 20-25 metres.

Browse our other varieties of wild and ornamental cherry blossom trees, edible cherry trees, or all our fruit trees.

Delivery season: Wild cherry trees are delivered bareroot during late autumn and winter, approximately November-March inclusive.
Choosing a size: Small trees are cheaper, easier to handle and more forgiving of less than ideal aftercare, so they are best for a big planting project. If instant impact is your priority, or if you are only buying a few plants for use in a place where it is convenient to water them well in their first year, then you may as well use bigger ones. All our bareroot trees are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots aren't measured).

Features:

• Height: 20-25m
• Soil: Any decently drained. Likes chalk
• Use: Specimen, avenue, nectar for bees
• Colour: White flowers in April
• Great wildlife value
• Bareroot delivery only: November-March

Growing Wild Cherry Trees

Suitable for any decently drained soil, in the wild they thrive most on alkaline, sandy sites in full sun. It is highly tolerant of pollution.

Always prune cherry and plum trees in late summer if possible.

Did You Know?

Modern sweet cherries were bred from this tree's ancestors. Avium typically means birds in Latin, but it also refers to wild places; the Bird Cherry is Prunus padus.

It is a short-lived tree that typically goes into decline by the time it is 70 years old.

Common names include gean (in Scotland), crab cherry, hagberry and mazzard, and merry tree.

Standard trees are measured by their girth in centimetres 1 metre above ground level: their trunk's waist measurement. Unlike sapling trees and hedge plants, standards aren't measured by their height, which will vary quite a bit both between and within species.
So, a 6/8cm standard tree has a trunk with a circumference of 6-8cm and an 8/10 standard has a trunk 8-10cm around. This measurement makes no difference to the tree's final height.
On average, standard trees are 2-3.5 metres tall when they arrive, but we cannot tell you precisely how tall your trees will be before we deliver them.

Notes on planting Wild Cherry trees:
Wild Cherry trees will grow on any soil that isn't waterlogged in winter, preferring slightly moist sites: they won't grow well on very dry soil (bird cherry will do well on dry sites). They tolerate chalk in general, but don't do well on shallow chalk. They are hardy and even quite shade tolerant, but they will flower poorly if they get less than half a day of full sun.

Prepare your site before planting:
It is good to dig over the site where you plant a tree several months in advance. Kill the weeds first: for tough weeds like nettles, brambles and ground elder, you will usually need a weed-killer to get rid of them. When you dig the soil over, remove stones and other rubbish and mix in well rotted compost or manure down to the depth of about 2 spades.

Watch our video on how to plant a tree for full instructions.
Remember to water establishing trees during dry weather for at least a year after planting.

Tree Planting accessories:
Prepare your site for planting by killing the weeds and grass with Neudorff WeedFree Plus.
You can buy a tree planting pack with a wooden stake & rubber tie to support the tree and a mulch mat with pegs to protect the soil around the base of your tree from weeds and drying out.
We suggest that you use mycorrhizal "friendly fungi" on the roots of all newly planted large trees: if your soil quality is poor, we strongly recommend it.
You can also improve your soil with bonemeal organic fertiliser and Growmore.