Allen: Someone must be a little confused. As you know, Montmorency is not a rootstock, it is a variety of sour cherry. Perhaps they mean mahaleb, mazzard, marianna, or myrobalan of which only the first two are cherry rootstocks but at least all are rootstocks. If they cann't do better than that perhaps you should shop for another nursery. The Fruitnut

I too am in PA and wanted a Rainier but not sure how it would take in this climate. Instead I purchased a White Gold on Gisela 5 from Raintree last spring as it is a gold cherry with a red blush so I am hoping it is somewhat similar to a Rainier. The taste is supposed to be great. I am container growing my tree in a 20-25 gallon container. It's done very well so far and is a little over 6 ft. I haven't done any pruning yet. I just repotted it in a 5-1-1 mix of pine bark fines, peat, and perlite with Fruit Trees Alive organic fertilizer and pruned half of the roots off (a week ago) and now the leaf buds are all opening beautifully and I think we are going to get some fruit this year. It seemed to take to the new mix and root pruning surprisingly well. I will probably have to top prune it down a little after the end of this growing season.

CC is normally a small, compact cherry tree (sounds like an oxymoron to me, lol!) Mine is small and still maybe only 5' tall after 3 years in the ground. I noticed yesterday, that the bark is peeling in several areas - not good. Have no idea what would be causing that. So, it may have to be replaced. My two RR's and robust, and blooming right now, next to the Lapins, which is also blooming. And fruitnut, I have two Sandra Roses that look like their full of flower buds, please send up a prayer to the cherry gods for fruit this year. I am very excited to try SR. I bought several other cherries that are either in or going in this year. It is the "big cherry experiment" here. I was again, at about 660 ch, which is so interesting, since you can drive maybe 2 miles from my house, and be 200 to 300 ch less. We are in such an odd and unique microclimate. Lots and lots of temps at night between 40 and 45 degrees. Rarely ever below 32. I feel so blessed being able to grow some stone fruits others in N. San Diego county could never be able to grow, right next to my papayas, mangos, avocados and citrus. Patty S.

Piedmontagl, this is the Citrus Forum :-) You'd be much better off posting your question over on the Fruits & Orchard forum on GW. Short answer is yes, though (I have about 8 different cherry varieties, including the two you are asking about, and my C'sC is for pollinating 2 of my RR's). Patty S.