Cheeky Cherry
South East, UK
Prunus (Cherry) Stella
Planted by Peter and Sonia Bedingfield and Twinned with Benmak's Elgon Teak
Paul used to climb the ancient cherry in our front garden waiting for his sisters when they were due back from University. Our 1870 maps of Dormansland show the village once was full of cherry orchards, one of which became the plot for our house. They are a bit of an emblem for our village here - the kneelers in the church are embroidered with them, they are a symbol on our road signs, several house names refer to them. So a cherry tree it had to be, where once an orchard of them stood. The variety we've planted is a compact modern one named 'Stella'. This resulted from a breeding program at the John Innes Institute in Norwich. One of the three seedlings produced was crossed with the Lambert variety at the Summerland Research Station in British Columbia in 1956 by K. O. Lapins. The Brookhaven National Labs in New York developed a semi-dwarf variety which grows to about 10-15 feet, half the size of the parent. Stella blossoms and fruits early. It produces moderate to heavy crops of large, heart-shaped, dark red fruit with overall excellent quality. It is self-fertile and a useful pollinator for most other sweet cherries. Paul would approve - decorative in spring, productive in late summer (if we can get to the crop before the starlings, that is).
We are Paul's proud mum and dad. We moved into our house on the High Street before Paul was born. No matter where his many adventures took him, he often called 'home', cheering us with his cheeky grin.
