Merton Glory
Prunus avium A well-known large English "white" cherry - in practice the skin is predominantly flushed red over a white background.
Merton Glory ripens towards the end of June in southern England.
Merton Glory cherry trees for sale
1-year bare-root
tree
on Colt rootstock£34.95
Mature height: 3m-5m after 10 years
Can be trained on as a large free-standing open centre or half-standard cherry tree, or a large fan-trained cherry..
Available next season
Growing and Training
Like many traditional English cherries, Merton Glory is self-sterile and needs to be pollinated by another compatible cherry tree of a different variety. Most of the modern self-fertile cherries such as Stella are a good match. It is also able to pollinate the very early-flowering Early Rivers cherry, and is a good pollinator for most other early or mid-flowering cherry varieties.
History
Developed by the John Innes Institute in the 1930s.
Merton Glory characteristics
- Gardening skillBeginner
- Fruit persistenceNormal ripening
- Self-fertile?Not self-fertile
- Pollinating othersGood
- Pick seasonEarly
- Picking periodearly July
- Keeping1-3 days
- Food usesEating fresh
- Country of originUnited Kingdom
- Period of origin1900 - 1949
- Fruit colourYellow / Red
You might also like these varieties
LapinsA popular red mid-season cherry which is easy to grow. Self-fertile.
StellaStella is perhaps the most popular mid-season red-cherry. Self-fertile and a good pollinator for other cherries.
SunburstA large red mid-season cherry with a good sweet mild flavour. Self-fertile.
SweetheartOne of the best-flavoured late-season cherries for the UK climate. Self-fertile.
More about cherry trees
Sweet cherries are easy to grow as long as you have a sunny sheltered spot. The main challenge is to keep the birds off - use a net or horticultural fleece to cover the tree or at least some of the branches in late spring.
If you only have space for one cherry tree make sure it is a self-fertile one. We highlight these on our website - look for Stella, Sweetheart, Sunburst, or Lapins.Self-fertile cherry trees are also good pollinators for the more traditional English cherry varieties.
Sweet cherries are often categorised by colour. Red cherries have red or skins and light red flesh, and nearly all the self-fertile cherries are in this category. So-called 'white' cherries usually have pale red or pink or white skins and pale flesh. So-called 'black' cherries usually have dark red or black skins.
Sweet cherries are also categorised by their picking season. Early season equates to mid / late June in southern England. Mid-season is late June / early July. Late-season is mid-July onwards.