Main varieties in order of ripening
Merchant - probably the best commercial early cherry - liked by the trade because it ships and holds up well for an early cherry - good sweet taste and nice bright shiny appearance.
Vista - can be a very nice early cherry fresh but not for shipping or keeping too long.
Summit - big heart-shaped soft flesh - gentle taste. Often sought after by fruit shops who know this one by name - can be a shy bearer here but sometimes there is a surprisingly good crop.
Van - short stem - distinctive taste with lots of character. Very sought after when they are large. Normally sets lots of fruit - sometimes too much which makes them small. Cracks fairly easily in the rain - sometimes the crack is not too bad and these make a good line of seconds for the bargain hunters.
Sunburst - whoppers - gentle taste but known as shy bearers. Some years we manage quite a good crop here without losing size. Maybe it's the winter chilling - we've certainly got plenty of that!
Stella - popular in garden centres because it is self-fertile but also a very good commercial cherry. Longer stem than Van and similar but slightly less distinctive taste. Holds up a bit better in the rain too.
Rainier - very fragile blush cherry (i.e. the skin is partly yellow). Extremely sought after in America because of its excellent flavour - not very well known here where retailers often don't make space for an extra line of cherries and where the public still associate 'white' cherries with some of the older less sweet varieties.
Bing - the gold standard of cherries - the main variety in the US and the one which has earned them such a good name in exports to Europe and elsewhere - we are starting to see them here also in our off season. Very crunchy and an excellent shipper. Unfortunately it cracks very easily in the rain.
Sam - a nice cherry when left to ripen. Can be picked almost black. Not much bothered by rain and the birds don't bother them so much until fully ripe. Can be a shy cropper but we often do quite well
Nordwunder (Schneider) - a leading European cherry for many years - all round good balance of taste and texture and fills the gap nicely between main season and Lapins. I have had difficulty producing any initially but, having added additional pollinators, they are gradually becoming productive.
Lapins - an excellent mid-late season cherry - usually big with a nice flavour. Some rain resistance but they do crack - the trees unfortunatley love to grow upwards (we prefer it if they spread out) so we have to work a bit more on them. We now have a lot of young trees becoming productive..
Lambert - our latest cherry - in America it has an excellent reputation. An excellent mild but enticing flavour. Not crunchy but moderately firm.
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Sour cherries
Morello - the only one for jam and also good for various drink preparations - a labour of love to pit them but the pit is quite small so you don't lose too much cherry flesh. These start to ripen around the middle of the season and we charge less for them.
You haven't tasted jam until you've tasted the jam made with these. Why not try a few just for fun. It's easy to make small quantities of jam in the microwave.