Wild Cherry Plants

The Wild Cherry tree, Prunus avium, is a large, vigorous native tree with white flowers. It will grow on any soil with decent drainage.
Wild Cherry is not ideal for a clipped hedge, but it can be planted as a screening tree and pruned so that it branches low down.
It can be grown as a screening tree up to about 25 metres high.
The plants on this page are young saplings. You can also buy larger Wild Cherry trees here.
Browse all of our other varieties of wild and ornamental Cherry Blossom trees for sale.

Browse our full range of cherry trees or see the full variety of fruit trees for sale.

Wild Cherry saplings are only delivered bareroot, during winter (Nov-March).

Choosing a size:
When you are ordering a large quantity of Wild Cherry for a big planting project, we suggest that you buy the smaller, 60/80cms tall plants. They are cheaper than large plants, easier to handle and more likely to cope well with poor conditions.
Use the larger 150/175cms tall plants if you want a full grown tree quickly.
All of our young trees and shrubs are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots aren't measured).

General description of Prunus avium plants:
Wild cherry trees are vigorous and wide spreading. Mature trees have a suckering tendency and, over time, a single tree can create a cloned thicket of itself over a large area. It looks lovely in spring, with simple, scented white flowers frothing out from the brown and green new leaves. The cherries are edible and a bit sweet, but the flavour isn't great unless you cook them with some sugar; best to leave them for the birds.
You can plant wild cherry as a clipped hedge, but we think that either Bird Cherry or Cherry Plum are better suited for this.

History & uses of Prunus avium:
Wild cherries are the ancestors of modern eating cherries. They may be true natives, but it is also possible that they were introduced to Europe and Britain by stone age humans. The timber is pretty strong and polishes very nicely when it is used for decorative work. It also burns well, even when it is fresh, and the smoke carries some of the flower's scent. Some local names for this tree include gean, crab cherry, hagberry and mazzard.

Notes on planting Wild Cherry:
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 area where you intend to plant several months in advance. Destroy the weeds first: nettles, brambles and ground elder are tough and a glyphosate based weed-killer is the best way to remove them. Then dig the soil over; remove rocks, roots and other rubbish. Mix in well rotted compost or manure down to the depth of about 2 spades.
If you have a heavy clay soil, it might be too difficult to dig over for most of the year. Heavy clay is fertile soil, so you don't really need to improve it; killing the weeds is still necessary.

Remember to water establishing plants during dry weather for at least a year after planting.

Planting accessories:
Prepare your site for planting by killing the weeds and grass with Roundup weed killer.
If you are planting in an area with rabbit and/or deer, you will need to use a protective plastic spiral for each plant, supported by a bamboo cane.
If your soil quality is poor, we recommend using mycorrhizal "friendly fungi" on the roots of new trees and shrubs.
You can also improve your soil with bonemeal organic fertiliser and Growmore.

Read our full terms and conditions here.

Delivery: The basic delivery charge for orders of bareroot plants is £6.50 + vat, which increases to £12.55 + vat if you add any pot-grown plants, standard trees or fruit trees to the order.
Because couriers sometimes experience delays, we schedule delivery by week, not by day. Therefore, please plan your planting day for the weekend at the end of the delivery week or for the week following delivery, at the earliest.
We will email you the day before your plants are due to arrive.

*Surcharges to the Highlands and Islands still apply.

Payment: We do not charge your card until we begin to prepare your order for packing.

Guarantee: If any plants die within a year, we will replace them. We only ask that you follow our planting & growing instructions and sent us clear photographs of the dead plants in situ, so we can help to make sure that the replacement plants succeed. You only pay for the delivery of the replacements.

Please note that our guarantee is void if there is a hosepipe ban in your area: your newly planted hedging must be watered in dry weather while it is establishing. The best way to water is very thoroughly every few days: at least once a week if there is no heavy rain.

Our nursery has been supplying container grown and bareroot hedging plants to gardeners, farmers and town planners since 1949. Our website started in 2003, so we do understand the concerns that you may have about buying hedging plants online. If any of your plants are damaged when they arrive or if you are otherwise not satisfied with your order after you inspect it, please repackage it and contact us. We will give you a refund or send replacements and send a courier to come and collect the unwanted plants.

Misc	Wildlife Value
Colour	White/Cream
Type	Native, Screening
Also Good	Autumn Colour

	NUMBER OF PLANTS
SIZES	1-9	10-49	50-249	250-999	1000+
60/80 cm Bareroot	Plenty of Stock£2.12	Plenty of Stock£0.96	Plenty of Stock£0.88	Plenty of Stock£0.74	Plenty of Stock£0.45
150/175 cm	Plenty of Stock£5.65	Plenty of Stock£3.88	Plenty of Stock£3.25	Plenty of Stock£2.81	Plenty of Stock£2.06

Wild Cherry Plants

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Wild Cherry Plants