Van is the quintessential bright red cherry, and a bowl of Van cherries makes a wonderful centrepiece to a summer dining table. The flesh is firm, and the flavour is primarily sweet. Best eaten straight from the tree.
Van is an easy and productive cherry variety, and these qualities led to it being used in the development of the modern self-fertile cherries such as Stella.
**All prices include delivery. We offer a discount on orders of multiple bare-root trees for delivery at the same time - this will be shown at the checkout.
Delivery period: Pot-grown trees can be delivered from September onwards. Bare-root trees can be delivered from mid-November onwards. Within those periods you can specify your preferred month of delivery during the checkout process. It is best to order as soon as you can to ensure items are reserved for you.
*Mature heights: Height shown is the approximate height of the tree when mature (after 5-10 years), not the height when supplied. See photos of trees as supplied. Actual mature heights may vary considerably dependent on your local conditions and training and pruning regime.
Stock availability: Items showing as 'sold out' will probably be available again next season. If you would like to reserve in advance use our enquiry form - this does not commit you to anything.
Van is self-sterile and needs to be pollinated by another tree of a different variety nearby. Since it flowers in the middle of the blossom season it can be pollinated by most other cherry trees.
Our online pollination checker lists suitable pollination partners for this variety.
More advice about pollination.
Van is not self-fertile, but it is readily pollinated by other self-fertile varieties, particularly Stella or Lapins (both of which are descended from it). It is also a good pollinator for many of these varieties - although they are often self-fertile, cropping may be improved with a pollinator such as Van nearby.
Van is easy to grow, and slightly more precocious and vigorous than many cherry varieties. It has some resistance to fruit splitting (caused by rain when the fruit is ripening), and is cold-hardy.
Planting instructions.
Pruning instructions.
Developed in Canada in 1940s.
