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Orange Pippin Trees USA logoSpecialist fruit trees for your orchard or back-yard

StardustTM cherry trees

Prunus avium 'Stardust'

Stardust
Stardust is listed in the RHS Plants for Pollinators
  • Picking season: Early
  • Self-fertility: Self-fertile
  • Fruit color: Orange / Red

Stardust is a new white-fleshed cherry which is also self-fertile. White-fleshed or "blush" cherries are rarely available in the shops because they bruise more easily than the dark-fleshed varieties.

Stardust cherries are a medium to large size, orange-flushed, with a firm creamy-white flesh and an excellent flavor.

Stardust is a mid / late-season variety so the cherries are usually ripe in July - arriving about a week after Bing, Regina, and Skeena. They tend to ripen over the course of several days, rather than all at once. This is an ideal quality for the gardener, because it means ripe cherries are available to be eaten fresh from the tree over an extended period.

Stardust sweet cherry trees for sale

  • Semi-standard 1-year bare-root tree $38.95
    Mature height: 10ft-16ft after 10 years
    Semi-vigorous rootstock
    Out of stock
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How to grow

Stardust flowers a bit later that most cherries, and is a good pollinator of other late-flowering cherries.

It has some resistance to fruit-cracking, although as with all sweet cherries, heavy rainfall at harvest time can induce splitting.

Advice on fruit tree pollination.

History

Stardust was developed at the famous Summerland research station in British Columbia, and released in 2002. It is distantly related to Stella, which was the first self-fertile cherry.

Cherry enthusiasts often prefer white-fleshed cherries for their rich flavour, but almost all cherries released in the last century have been dark-fleshed varieties. The traditional white-fleshed cherry varieties are not self-fertile, and often have complicated pollination requirements, making them unsuitable for gardens and small orchards where space is limited. Stardust is however a self-fertile white cherry, that can be planted without the need for another pollenizer tree.

Stardust characteristics

  • Gardening skillAverage
  • Self-fertilitySelf-fertile
  • Pollination group4
  • Pollinating othersGood
  • Picking seasonEarly
  • UsesEating fresh
  • Keeping (of fruit)1-3 days
  • Summer maximum temperaturesWarm (25-30C / 76-85F)
  • Country of originCanada
  • Period of origin1950 - 1999
  • Fruit colorOrange / Red

Similar varieties

  • WhiteGold
    A white-fleshed sweet cherry, self-fertile, and ripening in the mid-season, and productive - an ideal cherry tree for the backyard orchard.