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We've been trialing Jan, Joy and Joel bush cherries here in Virginia Beach to see how they held up in our hot humid conditions and heavy clay soil.  They all took off wonderfully when planted, although Joel (reported to be self-pollinating) consistently performed much better than the other two.  We've had serious problems with Japanese Beetles damage and with scale on the Jan cherry.  Although the Joel produced a surprisingly crop of cherries the third year, it has suddenly begun serious die back and we expect to lose it by end of summer.  The new suckered shoots appear very healthy, but the established plant is failing.  This has been an unusually dry summer, but that does not appear to be related to the failure of the cherry.  We did notice that the birds failed to notice the cherries - partly because of the lovely "weeping" habit that the Joel bush formed.  It was a beautiful landscape shrub and we are sorry to lose it.  Overall, we are not recommending the bush cherries for our area of Virginia, although they seem to do well in the higher locations of the state.


Sybil Mays
mays@paradisenursery.com
 Paradise Nursery - Figs & Fruit Plants 
6385 Blackwater Road
Virginia Beach VA 23457
757-421-0201 FAX 757-421-7043