Western Sand Cherry Bush

Western Sand Cherry Bush (Prunus besseyi) is a wonderfully cold-hardy native American fruiting shrub that flowers and looks great all growing season long! This hardy, rounded shrub is well-branched, and fills out in pointed, silvery gray-green foliage that will become the beautiful backdrop to everything else this tough plant displays throughout USDA growing zones 3 to 6!

Your local bees, butterflies, and beneficial insects will be drawn to the native pollen and nectar source that erupts each spring in the form of a profusion of attractive, single-petalled white flowers in May! These cheerful white blossoms are reminiscent of their Cherry Tree cousins and equally delightfully fragrant!

Once the pollinators do their work, the blossoms fade and the shrub produces an abundance of ¾-inch purplish-black, sweet fruit. Then watch as the birds flock to your landscape!

If you aren't quick, you'll miss out on these tasty delights for yourself! Sandcherry fruits are sweet and flavorful. These are related to Aronia berries and native Black Cherries, so you know they're healthy and delicious! Plant a few extra so you can share with your feathered friends yet still make all the preserves, pies, fresh snacking treats, and dried fruit to hold you over until next year!

As soon as fall begins to cool the air, your silvery shrub will transform into a red-purple display that is out of this world! Typically right after the fruit is ripe, all the foliage erupts into a fiery fall-color wardrobe!

Planting and Application:

Naturally informal and sometimes sprawling when not pruned, a good yearly trim will keep these shrubs looking tidier with ease. These are wonderful Rock Garden and full sun landscaping plants with an easy, graceful, flowing appearance!

Native to the Rocky Mountains where these shrubs take on a more creeping, spreading form. Sand Cherry thrives in some of the harshest environments around, so you know they'll do fantastic in your more pampered garden settings!

Use this toughness for your hell strip along the roadside or sidewalk or as erosion control on a steep hillside. Not only will you transform a hard-to-mow slope or hot and sunny site into a flowering and fruiting spectacle, but also make it safer for you to tend to.

Western Sandcherry makes a great shrub for farmstead windbreaks, drought-tolerant edible landscaping plants, flowering and fruiting screening around seating areas and patios, but are also unique Xeric specimen plants and accents! This shrub can be used as an easy-care hedge, or for a backdrop or border plant along a hot sunny walkway or the driveway!

Create groupings and long rows, or go big and fill that parched area of ground with an en masse drift of these hardy shrubs! Not only will the cherries be relished by flocks of birds but these shrub provides nesting cover for game and songbirds! Plus there will be more Sand Cherry fruit for you to pick when it ripens in late summer to early autumn.

• Showy Fragrant Shining White Blossoms In Spring
• Pollinator & Bird-Friendly Native Fruiting Shrub
• Pointed Silvery Gray-Green Foliage
• Wonderful Spreading Well-Branched Rounded Form
• Edible Purple-Black Fruit In Late-Summer/Fall
• Dramatic Fiery Red-Purple Fall Color
• Dual-Purpose Hedges, Backdrops, En Masse, Specimens & Windbreaks

#ProPlantTips for Care:

Plant this deciduous shrub where it will be in direct sunlight for most of the day. Well-drained soil is best but isn't a requirement because Western Sand Cherries are very adaptable to any type of soil, including poor, rocky soil.

Provide new shrubs with regular water to get them established, however, once they are settled after their first year, Sand Cherry becomes drought-resistant and very low-maintenance! You can topdress the soil surface with 3-4 inches of arborist mulch to help shrubs planted in some of the harshest sites thrive with minimal supplemental moisture.

Prune Western Sand Cherry every year in early spring before you see new growth. Remove any dead, crossing, or weak branches, and trim the tips of branches to maintain the desired shape and size.

• Full Sun Fruiting Shrub
• Any Well-Drained Soil - Tolerates Poor, Rocky, Sandy Conditions
• Moderate to Low Moisture Needs
• Prune Early Spring
• Very Cold-Hardy

Cold-hardiness, tenacious adaptability, and native endurance plus fragrant white blooms, fall color, and delicious fruit? You can have it all with this fantastic ornamental native! Hurry and order your own double-duty landscaping when you pick up a few Western Sand Cherry bushes from Nature Hills Nursery today!