CHERRIES

"LIFE IS JUST A BOWL OF CHERRIES."
Have you ever used this expression?
I haven't. 
But, I have heard others use it from time to time when asked, "How's it going?"
It is an old-fashioned expression meaning...
EVERYTHING IS GOING WELL.

Although not a bowl, here is a photo I once took of a basket of our cherries. 
And, if I remember correctly, everything was going well at the time!

Yes! Cherries do grow in Sitka.

Look and ask around. 

You will find that there are quite a few varieties of cherry trees growing in Sitka.

You will typically see cherry trees in bloom throughout the month of May. 

Cherry trees have lots of tight, fluffy bundles of blossoms.

Throughout the month of June, many of the blossoms transform into green cherries.

By the end of June and well into July, the green cherries grow in size and ripen into striking shades of red. You will be harvesting lots and lots of sweet, juicy, large, red cherries...

     ...if you can keep the birds from eating them first. Especially crows and ravens. Once they have discovered your cherry trees, they never forget. They even show up early each year and hang out waiting for the slightest bit of red to show!

We had some issues with birds wanting to snack on our apples in the past. So, we took advantage of the same solution for our cherry trees. We took our largest piece of floating row cover. We draped it over the top and sides of the cherry trees. We gathered the ends and tied it all down near the ground. It worked quite well. I don't have a photo of the draped cherry tree. The photo below is the draped apple tree. Same idea. The sun and rain can pass through the fabric. The birds cannot.

Another issue with growing cherries in our rainy climate is cracking or splitting. When it rains a lot as the cherries are ripening, the moisture is absorbed by the cherry itself... and it cracks!

The cracked cherry is still edible. We pick them and either eat them right away or add them to a container in the freezer for future use. 

We have grown three different varieties of cherries in our gardens. All of them have produced plenty of  sweet cherries!

The first two cherry trees were planted at the same time nearly three decades ago: 

STELLA

Stella is a self-fertile cherry tree. This means it does not require a second variety of cherry tree for cross-pollination. It will produce cherries all by itself.

EARLY BURLAT

Early Burlat is not self-fertile. It does require a second variety of cherry tree for cross-pollination. Stella met this need just fine!

After about fifteen years, the above two cherry trees were not producing well. I suspect that our heavy rains gradually took a toll on their health in a variety of ways. We reluctantly removed these trees. Into the wood pile they went.

Fortunately, we planted another cherry tree when the above two were about 10 years old:

LAPINS

Lapins cherry trees pollinate themselves. So, no need for a second cherry tree. We chose a Lapin growing on dwarf rootstock. This keeps the height down to 10 or 15 feet. Otherwise the tree would grow to 40 feet. We did not want our cherry tree to block our neighbors' view of the ocean where we needed to plant it.

Lapins cherries are considered crack-resistant (not crack-proof). This helps because, as mentioned above, our heavy, frequent rains tend to cause  a number of cherries to crack open just as they are ripening.

There are quite a few cherry tree varieties that do just fine growing here in Sitka. For sure, the three mentioned above are well worth planting.

Meanwhile, I hope your life is just a bowl of cherries!