Morello

Morello is a traditional English cooking cherry - if you want to make cherry pies, cherry crumbles, or jams and preserves, this is the best cherry variety to choose - when cooked it has a strong rich cherry flavour.

Morello cherries can be eaten fresh when very ripe (at which point they have a sharp-sweet flavour), but Morello belongs to the acid-cherry or sour-cherry (Prunus cerasus) species rather than the sweet-cherry species (Prunus avium), and is grown primarily for use in the kitchen. The fruits are smaller than modern dessert cherries, looking more like small seedless grapes.

Morello cherries (like most sour cherries) contain melatonin, a natural anti-oxidant substance which is also involved in regulating sleeping and wakefullness.

Morello is also an excellent pollinator of most other cherry varieties.

 

Growing and Training

While sweet cherries really need a sunny aspect, acid-cherries are far less demanding. Morello can be grown on a north-facing wall if necessary, and is hardy and reliable. It is self-fertile, and the blossom is relatively late, so the risk of frost-damage is slight.

Acid cherries arguably produce better-looking trees than sweet cherries too. If you need to prune, do so in spring to reduce the risk of bacterial canker, and note that Morello fruits mainly on new shoots which grew the previous summer. However as with all cherries and plums, it is best to avoid pruning if you can.

The blossom of Morello cherry is particularly long-lasting and compatible, making it an excellent pollinator of most other cherries (sweet or sour).

We sometimes offer Morello cherries grown from cuttings on their own roots. These have a similar vigour to trees grafted on the the semi-dwarf Gisela 5 rootstock, and should start fruiting within a year or so of planting.

History

Morello cherries have been grown in the UK since the early 17th century, but the origins of this variety are unknown.

Morello characteristics

• Gardening skillBeginner
• Fruit persistenceNormal ripening
• Self-fertile?Self-fertile
• Pick seasonLate - mid / late July
• Country of originUnited Kingdom
• Period of origin1600 - 1649
• Fruit colourRed - dark

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  Summer Sun
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  Sunburst
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More about cherry trees

Sour cherries look like sweet cherries, but their flesh is sharp and acidic. You can eat them straight off the tree, but they are much better used in the kitchen, where that acidity is transformed into a rich cherry flavour by cooking.

Sour cherries are also far less demanding than sweet cherries. Pruning is not usually required, and they will grow in almost any situation - including on a north or north-east facing aspect which is usually unsuitable for all other fruit trees.

Sour cherries are reliably self-fertile so you only need to plant one.