Sweet cherries for picking and sour cherries for cooking are different purchases. So are a young tree on a smaller-growing rootstock and a prepared fan for a wall. A useful UK cherry supplier comparison needs to keep those distinctions visible from the start.
The tempting photograph usually shows the fruit. The more consequential detail may be underneath it: Colt, Gisela 5, a bush form, a fan, or a particular pot size. Those words help explain what will arrive and what sort of tree it can become. Delivery height alone tells only part of the story.
There is plenty of choice, but a shorter personal shortlist is often enough. Decide whether the crop is for fresh eating or the kitchen, allow room for the intended crown, and establish whether another compatible cherry is needed nearby. The following suppliers offer different ways to put those decisions into practice.
What the ranking compares
Named cherry offers, rootstock specifications, nursery preparation and seasonal supply were compared across British nurseries and retailers. CRJ Fruit Trees leads through its choice of familiar self-fertile sweet and sour cherries. The alternatives cover comparisons within one cultivar, larger garden plantings, container sizes, nursery-trained trees and a later sweet cherry.
This order reflects the usefulness of published offers for those situations. It is not based on bought samples, orchard visits or measured crops. Generic size claims are not substituted for the selected rootstock, and a seller’s self-fertile category is not treated as proof that every item in it shares that characteristic.
Best 10 Cherry Tree Suppliers for Gardens in the UK
1. CRJ Fruit Trees
UK gardeners can begin the sweet-or-sour choice at Fruit-Trees, where Stella, Sunburst, Lapins and Morello are listed among its cherry offers. These names provide several distinct starting points within a familiar garden-fruit range.
Stella, Sunburst and Lapins are sweet cherries; Morello is a sour cherry commonly grown for cooking. That split is more useful than treating colour alone as a guide. A dark cherry in a photograph could belong in a fresh fruit bowl or in a prepared dish, and the buyer should know which ambition the tree is meant to serve.
The named varieties also allow a focused pollination enquiry. Stella and Morello are self-fertile choices recognised in RHS guidance, which is helpful when the garden has room for only one cherry. That does not guarantee fruit regardless of weather or growing conditions, but it removes the need to invent a second planting space solely because cherries are sometimes described as needing partners.
Choose Morello for the cooking shortlist or investigate the named sweet cherries for fresh picking. Then obtain the rootstock and supplied form for that exact CRJ tree. Several fruit choices remain available while the order becomes precise. A general cherry label has now become a crop, cultivar and planting specification.
2. Blackmoor Nurseries
Choose the Stella form at Blackmoor before comparing prices. Its options include a Gisela 5 maiden and Colt bushes or fans. Gisela 5 is smaller-growing; the Colt fan purchases a start towards a supported framework. A maiden leaves more of the first shaping seasons to the gardener.
This is a direct comparison within one sweet cherry. Sunburst and Morello widen Blackmoor’s fruit selection, but Stella alone already presents several distinct trees. Mixed orders wait until all plants are ready. A potted form combined with winter bare-root material may consequently arrive later than its individual listing suggests.
3. Landford Trees
Landford lists six cherries on Colt: Lapins, Morello, Stella, Summer Sun, Sunburst and Sweetheart. The common rootstock suits a comparison for a substantial garden planting. Morello supplies the cooking choice; the sweet cherries need their own cultivar and pollination decisions. In particular, shared rootstock does not imply shared self-fertility. The Wiltshire nursery handles larger trees and concentrates its delivery operation in the south. Obtain a quotation for the chosen form, access and address. This selection makes sense when the garden can accommodate a Colt-rooted tree and the cherry forms one part of a wider planting order.
4. Victoriana Nursery Gardens
Victoriana’s Stella is a young potted tree on Colt. Its quoted 90-120cm supply height includes the container. The nursery describes large, dark sweet fruit and self-fertility.
The small starting plant will grow. Compare it with another young Stella on Colt for nursery size and handling; compare it with a Gisela-rooted Stella for eventual scale. Those are two different comparisons. The Victoriana offer establishes cultivar and rootstock clearly, with the later crown development still to come.
5. Keepers Nursery
Keepers lists Stella as a Colt maiden or a one-year Colt fan, with Sweetheart also offered as a Colt maiden for winter supply. The fan is an early framework. It buys initial shaping, and its spread must be confirmed if existing wires are to be filled.
Check the selected stock variant. A cultivar description may remain online after a particular form has sold out.
The current Stella options give a choice between starting the shaping from a maiden and continuing a nursery-started fan. Sweetheart adds a later sweet cherry on the same rootstock, useful when the desired picking season changes the shortlist.
6. Thompson & Morgan
Thompson & Morgan offers Stella on Colt as a standard in a five-litre pot, a larger 12-litre plant and seasonal bare-root material. Compare the exact variants and their dispatch details. The smaller container may pass through a side access more easily; the larger one purchases greater initial nursery presence. The bare-root choice places the order in a winter planting schedule. General product references to patio growing cannot replace these Colt specifications. Once the garden has room for that rootstock, the page provides a practical choice of starting plant and supply format for the same sweet cherry.
7. R.V. Roger
For a wall-grown cooking cherry, R.V. Roger offers Morello as a traditional fan with five to seven shoots on Colt. Maiden, bush and larger forms are listed separately.
Morello tolerates some shade better than sweet cherries. It can therefore enter the discussion for a wall where a sweet cherry would be less convincing, provided the soil and growing conditions are suitable.
Measure the intended spread and access route. Roger’s fan supplies prepared branches through the dormant season; it still requires support and continuing training. Confirm carriage from the North Yorkshire nursery against the actual width. The purchase is a sour cherry plus an established start towards its wall framework.
8. Mail Order Trees
Mail Order Trees supplies a free-standing Morello bush, two to three years old, in a 12-litre slot pot. Its stated 150-180cm height is above the container. This puts a more developed potted cooking cherry on the shortlist.
The rootstock information on the product page is inconsistent. Confirm it before ordering where eventual size decides suitability. The documented bush form and supply dimensions remain useful, but they cannot support a compact-size promise. Compare this plant with other potted bushes, allow for handling the container and check the retailer’s delivery territory.
9. Orange Pippin Trees
Sweetheart brings a later sweet crop into the comparison. Orange Pippin lists an 11.5-litre, two-year bush on Gisela 5 and a Colt container alternative. The cultivar is described as self-fertile.
For an existing cherry planting, the later season may be the attraction. For a first tree, choosing between those rootstocks may matter more. Weather shifts ripening dates; it does not change which rootstock is ordered. Record that exact specification before comparing the tree with the available space. The Gisela 5 bush supplies a defined smaller-growing option for this named later cherry.
10. Ashridge Nurseries
Ashridge’s seasonal Stella offer includes maidens, bushes and half-standards on Colt. The bush begins its crown lower; the half-standard raises it above a longer clear stem. That changes access beneath the tree and the height at which picking begins.
Choose the crown arrangement around the garden’s use. Then check the selected variant’s winter dispatch period and the mainland delivery conditions. Ashridge provides a defined bare-root route when a prepared winter planting and the chosen Colt tree fit together.
Keep the future crop within reach
The final shortlist should contain trees whose specifications can be compared directly. Write down the cultivar, rootstock, form and supplied size for each. A cheap young tree and a prepared fan may both be sensible purchases, but they include different amounts of nursery work.
Access deserves as much attention as the fruit photograph. A crown that can be reached is easier to prune, inspect and harvest. If netting is used, it must be supported, kept taut and secured so wildlife cannot become entangled. Cherries also need pruning at suitable times in the growing season, with the method matched to the tree’s age and form.
Choose the crop first, then buy a tree that can be managed in its eventual position. That is the connection between an appealing cherry variety and a useful garden purchase.
Source note: The comparison uses official cherry product listings, nursery form descriptions and delivery terms. RHS cherry advice supports the points on rootstocks, pollination and growing care.
