'Morello' Sour Cherry Trees

'Morello' Sour Cherry Trees

Morello is the best sour cooking cherry for the UK, perfect for pies, jams or making alcohol.
Smaller than their sweet cousins, they're ripe for cooking when they turn dark red.
If you leave them on the branch until they're almost black, you can try eating them fresh - they're very acidic and not to everyone's taste!

The trees flower very late & tend to avoid late spring frosts.
They're recommended for Scotland and the North, as long as they get a half-decent dose of sun. They'll fruit well on shadier north facing walls in the South.

Browse our range of cherry trees, or all our fruit trees.

Delivery season: Bareroot plants are delivered in late Autumn to Spring, about November-March inclusive. Pot grown plants, year round.

Features

• Self fertile.
• Pollination Group F.
• Resistant to canker.
• Avoid late spring frosts.
• Later fruit are less sour & can be eaten fresh.
• Freeze well.
• Crop in August.
• Recommended for the North and Scotland

Pollination Partners:
Morello is reliably self fertile, makes fruit all by itself, and it's a good pollinator for Kordia.

Rootstocks:
Our Morello cherry trees are all grown on "Colt" rootstocks.
Maximum height 4 metres.

Growing Morello Cherries:

Rich, well drained soil is ideal: dig in plenty of good manure and compost before planting.
The more sun your trees get, the better your crops will be, but Morello is good for growing as a fan against a North-facing wall.
Cherry trees are targets for birds, so netting them is a good idea.

Prune cherries in summer.
They fruit best on one-year-old wood, so yearly pruning to remove fruited wood and encourage new growth will give you the best crops.

History & Trivia

An old Kentish breed.
Before WW2, there were several sour cherry varieties in orchards, but today this is the only commercial variety, thanks to its disease resistance and good performance in poorer soil.

Cherry Tree Delivery Shapes:

Most of our fruit trees are delivered in up to 3 shapes (maiden, bush, and half standard), and you can buy selected varieties as potted mini patio trees: scroll up to see what's in stock.

Maiden: Unbranched tree, the most basic starting size, which you can train into the other forms (apart from mini patio trees).
Bush: Freestanding tree with a short trunk about 60cm tall. It'll grow to about 3m. Ideal for small gardens.
Half-Standard: A freestanding form with a trunk about 120cm tall. It'll grow into a full sized, "normal" cherry tree, about 4m. Ideal for orchards, easy to mow underneath.

Guide to Fruit Tree Sizing.