Nanking cherry - Prunus tomentosa - is considered more of an ornamental than an edible fruit bearing plant but it does produce a tasty fruit best used the way one would use a pie cherry.

It does require cross pollination to produce fruits so a second plant is needed. "Nanking cherries need cross pollination, for fruit production, therefore more than one plant is required, or an early flowering plum such as Brookgold, Bounty or Dandy. Mature plants reach heights of up to 2 m. Plant in rows 3 m apart with 2 m between the plants in the row. Prune annually to prevent shrubs from becoming too dense. Remove no more than one-third of the total number of branches at one time. This allows the plant to replace older wood with young, vigorous wood."

It is very cold tolerant (z2!!) and should not require any sort of winter protection.

Thank you so much! I was getting worried, as it's going to frost very soon. I guess I'll pick up another cherry in the spring then :)

Tough as nail and nothing you need to do, my only one Nanking, [gone now], had lots of fruits and cross pollinated with other plums.

Konrad, Thanks! That's quite interesting that it pollinated with your plums.

Looks nice in bloom but in my maritime area there can be some blighting of twigs. Where I first saw it was in the hot, cold and dry continental climate of the inter-mountain region east of here. To which it is probably much better suited. Nevertheless if it is still hanging on there is actually one growing under trees in the shady forest park quite near here (I see it out my front window) that is dominated by tall conifers (including a snag top Douglas fir 176 ft. high).

I had one for years in my old Shoreline, WA garden. Grew it for its form and flower feature, not fruits. For any sort of cherry - notorious for problems in my climate - it did very well.

killandwarrior, if you reread my first response, the info (from the Alberta, CA Agricultural website) suggests several varieties of plums (Prunus nigra) that would serve as pollinators.

Gardengal48, Thank you for the source :) That seems very interesting to me...

Yup, tough little tree. I have four of them in a line and interestingly enough one seems to bloom much pinker than the rest.

That's great! Now it's going dormant but still has a few leaves! Glad I don't need to do anything! :)

I can't imagine that anyone would try to go to the trouble of pitting something the size of the nankings I've grown -- they're just too small and there's not enough flesh on the pit -- but I like them anyway for what they are. They're very pretty in the spring, seem relatively trouble-free, and I like to snack on them like I would wild strawberries or black raspberries or other small fruits that you don't tend to find in significant quantities but are nice to snack on anyway. Taste-wise I'd compare them to a good but not great and definitely not particularly sweet sour cherry.

Yeah, I got the tree half for the fam and half for the birds :) I'm sure if I don't like them the birds will be happy :D