franktank232, the trees I got from raintree are on G5(black gold, white gold and kristin) and are doing very well. I also got a dwarf lapins from miller and a kristin on muzzard, the lapins is doing very well also but the full size kristin died ( it was a very very poor tree with almost no roots). I wish i new what root type my lapins is. I chose theis types based on a couple of things: hardyness and self pollenating, kristin is suposed to be the toughest but is not self pollenating. They are very different than apple trees! everything likes to eat there leaves and they do seem to be temperamental we've had quite a drought here and i think it may have helped them, my soil is very heavy but black as cole. I'll be looking for ways to get them though the winter soon. I hope this helps some. I'll try to post some pics soon... tom

Looks like the fruit lords and this forum have been good to me as my two year old dwarf Spring Satin Plumcot is loaded with delicious fruit! You can see the three styles of "protection" ( footies, cotton bag and green oragoma (sp) bags) being used in an experiment to learn about how well they keep bidrs/squirrels away and how long they take to apply and how many fruit are ruined in the process! The mockingbirds started feeding on them so I put out the bags. Right now many still have yellow flesh inside and are sweet/sour, but a few are ripening (red flesh) and are out-of-this-world sweet like a bing cherry! My flavor delight aprium just set a dozen fruit and estimate they will be ripe within 30 days. The stark bros plum and apricot that came with the order are loaded and will probably be ready to eat within 30 days as well. Your help and a little luck have been invaluable. Thank you.

Yeah I like Gisela5 I also like the canker resistance of Blackpearl. I'm close to you and canker is a problem! I would go with two from the pearl series, or White Gold. Stella is a nice tree too, but I worry about canker.

"subgenus" may be more appropriate (or maybe not, taxonomists have put both sweet and sour cherries into the subgenus Cerasus). All these different cherry species are very closely related, if one wants to consider them different species. This is one example where the line separating different species is not a clear one. It could even be possible to consider the different cherry families as subspecies. After all, if they can freely interbreed and hybridize with each other, can they not be considered members within the same species? (by this definition we could divide all cherries into only 2 groups: those with 16 chromosomes and those with 32) Or one could attempt to divide cherries into different families: Sweet cherries (P. avium), sour cherries, Black cherries plus Capulin native to the American continent (put into same group), and Asian flowering cherries. Perhaps better classification could be provided if taxonomists utilized multiple degrees of species relatedness/separation, because it is ambiguous whether some of the different cherries should be classified as entirely separate species or subspecies within a singular species, neither of which would be wholly accurate.