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Cherry tree buying guide: type, fertility and stock

Updated: October 2026

You are on amazon.co.uk, the search says cherry tree, and the row mixes a fruiting Stella, a 9 cm ornamental, and a silk blossom that never needs water. A cherry tree buying guide should settle which of those is the plant you meant, and which facts the listing still owes you, before the star line does the deciding. The [cherry tree comparison](/hub/trees-and-palms/cherry-tree) ranks the six listings kept in this set. This page is the order of checks. Prices are the amazon.co.uk shelf prices captured for that set in October 2026. We did not grow a trial orchard. If you buy through our links, a qualifying purchase can earn us a commission at no extra cost to you.

You are on amazon.co.uk, the search says cherry tree, and the row mixes a fruiting Stella, a 9 cm ornamental, and a silk blossom that never needs water.

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Fruit, blossom, or artificial

Start with the job, because three different products share the words. A sweet cherry is Prunus avium and it wants sun. An acid cherry is Prunus cerasus, used for cooking. An ornamental cherry is bought for flowers. An artificial tree is silk or plastic in a pot, and it will not fruit. In this set the split is already on the label if you read past the title. Carbeth's Stella (B0B42XMK2T, £33.99) and Regina (B0B4325ZTS, £29.99) are live fruit trees in 5 litre pots. Carbeth's Prunus Brilliant (B09TTJ75J2, £10.99) is one ornamental in a 9 cm pot, and the bullets do not sell it as a dessert cherry. The two Kaneodot listings, at £36.99 and £46.99, say artificial in the title. A £10.99 Brilliant is not a cheap Stella. It is a different plant at a younger size. The fruiting or ornamental cherry tree page stays on that type choice. If the title says tree and the reviews describe a packet of seed, stop.

One tree or a partner

Self-fertile means insects can set a crop from pollen within that one tree. A practical rule of thumb is a partner within about 18 m. Stella is on the RHS self-fertile list, in pollination group 4, cropping in late July. The same plant page says the fruit is prone to splitting in wet weather. None of those sentences appears on the Carbeth Stella listing. Regina is not in that self-fertile list. Pomona Fruits says it requires a pollinator and names Stella among the partners. Orange Pippin puts Regina in flowering group 5, while the RHS plant page says group 4, so do not treat the group number as settled. If you can plant only one tree, Stella matches that limit. Regina at £29.99 looks like the saving, and the saving disappears when you still have to buy a partner. The best cherry tree page assigns those two jobs to the two ASINs.

Rootstock and the height on the label

Size is mostly the rootstock, not the cultivar name and not the height in the parcel. The RHS names Gisela 5 as semi-dwarfing and the stock to choose for pots, and Colt as semi-vigorous. The grow guide puts Gisela 5 at about 3–4 m and Colt at about 6–8 m. Some shops quote Gisela 5 nearer 2 m. Treat 2 m as a shop claim until the label states the stock. None of the six kept listings names Gisela 5, Colt, or any other stock. A patio line plus a 5 litre pot is the shipping pot. A claimed dispatch height of 3–5 ft can still become a much larger tree. The Stella height field says 5 feet. The Brilliant height field says 30 cm, while the bullets say about 2.5 m later. The RHS says cherries are too vigorous for espaliers or cordons. The cherry tree in a pot page is where the final container size belongs.

What the current listings do and do not say

In this October 2026 snapshot, Brilliant is £10.99, Regina is £29.99, the single Stella is £33.99, and the artificial trees are £36.99 and £46.99. A nursery page that states fertility is not a reason to invent a rootstock for the Carbeth pot. Live Carbeth ratings are 3.7–3.8, from 22 to 68 reviews, with blackfly, dead leaves, and broken branches beside careful packing. The artificial ratings are 4.5 and 4.8 from five and six reviews. They do not make a silk tree a better cherry. The Stella three-pack repeats the single Stella's review texts, so 38 ratings are one sample. These listings do not show a plant passport number. Check cultivar, fertility, rootstock, and the supplied pot before the stars.

Common questions

Will one cherry tree produce fruit?
One tree can produce fruit when the cultivar is self-fertile, as Stella is on the RHS list, or when it is an acid cherry such as Morello. Regina is not in that self-fertile list. The Amazon listings in this set do not print the fertility line, so the cultivar name is what you take to the RHS page.
Does patio mean the tree stays small?
No. In this set, patio means the seller says the 5 litre plant can sit on a balcony or go into open soil. The rootstock is not named. Dispatch height of 3–5 ft is the plant in the box, not the height in ten years.
Is a 9 cm Prunus Brilliant a fruit tree?
It is a live ornamental cherry, supplied small. It is not sold as a Stella or a Regina, and it is not a source of dessert cherries.
What if the title says a tree and the reviews say seeds?
Treat that as the wrong goods. A seed packet will not be a grafted cultivar on a rootstock, and it will not fruit on a Stella timetable. Look at the reviews and the contents line before the photograph.
Which price is a young plant rather than a garden-ready tree?
Brilliant at £10.99 in a 9 cm pot is the young live plant. The Stella and the Regina are larger 5 litre fruit trees, still without a named rootstock. The artificial trees are finished décor, not young plants you grow on.

Related pages

Sources

Sources from the research digest, last checked on 19 October 2026.

  1. RHS, How to grow cherries (retrieved 19.10.2026)
  2. RHS, Prunus avium Stella (retrieved 19.10.2026)
  3. RHS, Fruit trees: choosing the best (retrieved 19.10.2026)
  4. RHS, Fruit in containers (retrieved 19.10.2026)
  5. RHS, Cherry blackfly (retrieved 19.10.2026)
  6. RHS, Silver leaf (retrieved 19.10.2026)
  7. GOV.UK, Plant health controls (retrieved 19.10.2026)
  8. Pomona Fruits, Regina (retrieved 19.10.2026)