“A large, red, acid cherry, larger than Early Richmond and fully ten days later” [Forked Deer Nursery Catalogue, TN, 1890, 16.] One of the old sour cherries, of the light red Amarelle family, this strain dates to imperial Rome. The ancient fruit was time. French fruit growers bred it to a more substant ¾ inch diameter (the Montmorency Ordinaire). But expanding the fruit became an obsession of pomologists, and strains with a greater girth and also a longer stem were developed. It first appears in advertisements from American nurseries in the early 1830s, sometimes as the Long Stem Montmorency. It found immediate favor as a fruit for drying. It ripened in mid-season. The cherry was thin-skinned, tender, and tended to slip from the pale yellow flesh. The cherry was very juicy. Indeed a market for the juice emerged in the twentieth century as a component of commercial fruit juices. Because of its versatility, it has remained an important commercial variety of cherry for 180 years. It is widely available from commercial nurseries.

"Montmorency Ordinaire. (Long Stemmed Montmorency). Montmorency: Fruit, roundish oblate to obscure heart-shaped; of light red color with thin and translucent skin and colorless juice; medium size; stem, 1 1/4 inches to 1 1/2 inches long; cavity of medium depth; suture, very indistinct; apex, convex; quality, very good; flesh, meaty; stone, small and round; flavor, sub-acid; season, June 20th to July 1st. . . . The Montmorency cherries originated in France, and in Prince's Pomological Manual, published in 1831, two varieties are described, the Long Stem Montmorency and the Short Stem Montmorency. The Short Stem Montmorency is said to be large and of the best quality but a poor bearer. For this reason it is not widely distributed and Prince says it was found growing only in the gardens of those " who prefer the fine fruit to the quality of fruit." The Cherry (American Pomological Society, 1905), 33.

Nurseries that offer the Montmorency prior to 1920 in the South:

Alabama Nurseries, Hunstville, AL.  Clingman Nursery, Kiethville, LA.  Eastern Shore Nursery, Denton, MD. Excelsior Nursery, Rome, GA. Fruitlands, Augusta, GA. Huntsville Nursery, Hunstville, AL. Kentucky Nursery, Louisville, KY. Munson Hill Nursery, Falls Church, VA. Old Dominion Nursery, Richmond, VA. Richmond Commercial Nursery, Richmond, VA. Van Lindley Nursery, Pomona, NC.

Image:  U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection. Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD 20705, Mary Arnold, 1912.

David S Shields