Hi,

Here's a link to the Natural History Museum website - they have a page for helping to identify Cherry trees: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/british-natural-history/urban-tree-survey/take-part/cherry-survey/identify-cherries/index.html

I hope this helps. Please could you let us know how you get on?

Thanks,
Tim

They do get pretty big, Cookiegirl - we have quite a few Italian Duroni cherry trees, and despite pruning (not very hard, I must admit) the biggest must be about 40' tall now. Actually, once established (and I think yours will need a year or two longer) the harder you prune them, the better the fruit and the heavier the crop. There is only so much a tree can produce, and the bigger the tree, the smaller the fruit are likely to be. Our biggest tree, which is very awkwardly placed for pruning, carries thousands of cherries each year, which are getting progressively smaller each year, whereas the ones we CAN prune, have some wonderful, large, luscious fruit but in smaller amounts. If only this blessed cold rain would stop, I'd be out there now, picking and eating them by the bucketful!
Don't forget that cherry trees should be summer pruned, not, as one might expect, in the dormant period of winter.

Hi Gattina...so I should prune in summer as everything im reading says winter or early spring :(

Yes, stone fruits like cherries, plums, apricots and almonds are susceptible to a fungal infection called, I think, silverleaf, which spreads through cuts when the weather is cold and damp, so the general advice round here (and probably everywhere else in the world) which is a major cherry-growing area in Italy, is to prune in July and August while the weather is warm and dry. Trees like apples and pears you do prune in winter or early spring.