Regina

Regina is a modern late-season black dessert cherry, ripening in mid-to-late July.

Although usually classified as a black cherry, in practice the colour is more often very dark red. The flesh is firm, dark red, with an excellent flavour. Regina often ranks well in consumer taste tests, for appearance and flavour.

Regina has quickly proved popular with both commercial growers and gardeners alike, on account of its good balanced flavour, large size cherries, and resistance to fruit-cracking. It is a useful alternative to Kordia, and is one of the best dessert cherry varieties for northern climates.

Growing and Training

Regina has some resistance to cracking and splitting, a common problem with sweet cherries, caused by rainfall at the time of ripening (a common issue in the UK climate).

Regina is not self-fertile and requires a compatible cherry tree nearby to ensure pollination - Penny or Kordia are good choices, as are any of the Canadian self-fertile varieties such as Celeste, Lapins, Skeena, Stella, and Sunburst.

Cropping is often better in cooler climates than warm climates, but it is usually a regular cropper.

History

Regina was developed in the 1950s at the Jork Fruit Experiment Station, Hanover, Germany. It was released in the 1990s. It is a cross between two other German cherry varieties, Schneiders Spate Knorpelkirsche and Rube.

Regina characteristics

• Gardening skillAverage
• Fruit persistenceNormal ripening
• Self-fertile?Not self-fertile
• Pollinating othersAverage
• Pick seasonLate
• Keeping1-3 days
• Food usesEating fresh
• Country of originGermany
• Period of origin1950 - 1999
• Fruit colourBlackRed / Black

You might also like these varieties

• 
  Lapins
  A popular red mid-season cherry which is easy to grow. Self-fertile.
• 
  Stella
  Stella is perhaps the most popular mid-season red-cherry. Self-fertile and a good pollinator for other cherries.
• 
  Sunburst
  A large red mid-season cherry with a good sweet mild flavour. Self-fertile.
• 
  Sweetheart
  One 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.