Cornus mas
Cornelian cherry
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Hardiness
- Hardy down to −28 °C
- Harvest
- Aug–Sep
- Spacing
- 200 cm, rows 250 cm
- Water need
- Medium
- Origin
- Native to Germany
Photo: B.navez · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source
This description was machine-translated.
Description
The Cornelian cherry opens the garden season already in February with a golden‑yellow veil of flowers, making it one of the earliest bee trees. Its elongated, coral‑red fruits taste fully ripe sweet and sour and can be made into jelly, liqueur, and juice. When fully ripe they fall by themselves, at which point they are most aromatic.
Care instructions
Plant the Cornelian cherry in autumn (October, week 42) in a sunny to partially shaded spot with a lime‑rich, well‑drained soil. It grows slowly, becomes very old, and is extremely hardy. Harvest the fruits from August when they are dark red and soft or when they fall by themselves; a spread‑out cloth under the shrub eases collection. Pruning is hardly necessary.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
HarvestAug–Sep
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
loamy, humus-rich, well-drained, lime-loving, nutrient-rich
Give the cornelian cherry chalky, loamy-humus and well-drained soil. It does not tolerate waterlogging. It is undemanding and also copes with poor, stony, limy sites, but flowers and fruits most abundantly on nutrient-rich, neutral to alkaline soil.
Feeding
Medium feeder
Months
Mar–Apr
In spring before growth starts (March to April), spread well-rotted compost around the plant and rake it in shallowly; a mulch layer retains moisture and releases nutrients slowly. In the first years in place, soil enriched with compost is enough; on very poor soils you can supplement the spring dose with some horn shavings from the fourth year. A second dose is not necessary.
Overwintering
The cornelian cherry is fully hardy and needs no winter protection outdoors; only freshly planted young plants in their first winter you secure with some mulch over the root zone. In a container, the root ball freezes through more easily. Place the pot against a sheltered house wall or wrap it in horticultural fleece or hessian.
Propagation
Methods
- Cuttings
- Layering
- From seed
- Grafting
The most reliable way to propagate the cornelian cherry is by cuttings or layering. Semi-hardwood tip cuttings in July/August succeed most reliably (about 8 to 10 cm long, leave 2 to 4 leaves). Hardwood winter/autumn cuttings are considered difficult: they root much less well, and some varieties do not form roots at all. So rely on the summer cutting. Insert the cuttings in a free-draining, moist substrate, keep them bright and evenly warm (about 15 to 20 °C) under a translucent cover with high humidity; rooting takes several weeks. In the first year cuttings grow very hesitantly, then vigorously. For the layering method, in June/July choose a flexible shoot close to the ground, score it lightly on the underside, press the scored section into the soil with a stone or a hook and let it root there. As soon as the shoot tip shows new growth again (a sign of adventitious roots), separate the layer from the mother plant and replant it. True-to-type cultivars (e.g. ‘Jolico’, ‘Schönbrunner Gourmet’) can only be kept by grafting onto wild-form rootstocks, that is budding in summer or whip grafting in winter; this is better left to specialists. Sowing is possible, but protracted: use fully ripe fruits, wash the stones thoroughly free of all flesh (the flesh inhibits germination) and sow them straight away in autumn directly outdoors or in a cold frame. The cornelian cherry is a cold-stratification seed: alternatively, first stratify the stones warm and moist (about 20 °C) for around 90 to 120 days, then a further 90 to 120 days cold and moist (3 to 5 °C) in the fridge, and sow in spring. Germination takes place in the second spring at the earliest, often only in the third. Sowing is only suitable for wild forms, as cultivars do not come true from seed. Division is not practical for the cornelian cherry because of its deep-reaching heart root.
Companion planting
Good neighbors
Companion planting is partly traditional gardening lore. Where the reason is known, it is given.
For your garden
Grow Cornelian cherry yourself
Gartenkern tells you when frost is coming, when to sow and when to harvest, for your location.
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