• Planta mars 2009

During the late 1950s and the 1960s, work at Summerland Research Institute in British Columbia, Canada, led to the first self-fertile cherry, Prunus avium ‘Stella’. This was a breakthrough: for gardeners it allowed good crops from a single tree. Continuing research has now resulted in a ‘golden seam’ of new cherry cultivars (many also self-fertile) that has seen fruit size double from 7g to 12–16g. RHS