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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> >It's a little too cold here for regular sweet cherries, so I'm thinking of 
> the bush cherries (I know they aren't 'real' cherries). What's the 
> difference between Nanking and Hansen? Difference in taste?

I've got both. Nanking are bright red, look and taste like a small tree 
cherry except the pit is nearly the same size as a tree cherry but the fruit 
isn't. 
 That is, they are a pain to pit.  We end up stewing most of them whole and 
making jelly and syrup.  They don't grow on a stem rather right on the branch 
like a peach does.

Hansens are purply black colored, not as productive (here anyway), and have a 
heavier, less sweet taste.  They too are smaller than tree cherries but the 
pits are not the majority of the fruit as is the case with Nanking.  They are 
shorter lived plants.

When the bushes are young, break off a lot of the fresh 'water sprouts' and 
put them in damp sand to start new plants.  The survival rate is hardly one 
out 
five but then again it isn't costing you anything.  

In good years five bushes will bury you in fruit.

James