North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["alden@waldenwinds.com" <alden@waldenwinds.com>]

<< Does anyone know anything about which, if any, species might be 
compatible with P. serotina as understock?>>

     Yes, basically nothing.  The Serotina is a raceme-bearing 'cherry'.  
'Cherry' is a broad word describing plants that are very much unalike as 
well as some that are alike.   The raceme-bearing cherries like serotina 
just aren't very similar to the cluster-bearing cherries like the sweet and 
sour cherries grown for fruit.  Think of a lobster and a crab . . . very 
different from each other.  Actually once in a fit of rashness I did try 
grafting a sour cherry onto serotina.  Many of the grafts did actually 
'take' but their growth was almost nothing and long-term they died.   We 
don't call peaches cherries, and we don't call cherries peaches, both are 
Prunus, well, we ought not to have a connective word 'cherry' that describe 
both the raceme and cluster bearing cherries.

     Serotina is something of a specialty with me, in that I found one wild 
that was loaded at 6' tall.   There used to be someone in NAFEX who passed 
away who was very interested in serotina, as well.  The serotina has a 
unique american flavor, think of the Luden's wild cherry cough drops, its 
similar to that.  It's a flavor no other flavor comes quite near.  The 
serotina we discuss here, is the same cherry furniture is made from. 
Charlie Paradise, Massachusetts