Rainier ( ) is a

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...

cherry A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The nam ...

. It was developed in 1952 at

Washington State University Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant unive ...

by Harold Fogle, and named after

Mount Rainier Mount Rainier (), indigenously known as Tahoma, Tacoma, Tacobet, or təqʷubəʔ, is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, located in Mount Rainier National Park about south-southeast of Seattle. With a s ...

. It is a cross between the '

Bing Bing most often refers to: * Bing Crosby (1903–1977), American singer * Microsoft Bing, a web search engine Bing may also refer to: Food and drink * Bing (bread), a Chinese flatbread * Bing (soft drink), a UK brand * Bing cherry, a varie ...

' and ' Van' cultivars. 'Rainiers' are considered a premium type of cherry. They are sweet with a thin skin and thick creamy-yellow flesh. The cherries are susceptible to temperature, wind, and rain, and the flesh is generally more watery than other sweet cherries. Birds eat about 1/3 of a 'Rainier' cherry orchard's crop.

Plant facts

The standard rootstock for the 'Rainier' cherry is the

Mazzard cherry ''Prunus avium'', commonly called wild cherry, sweet cherry, gean, or bird cherryWorld Economic Plants: A Standard Reference, Second Edition'. CRC Press; 19 April 2016. . p. 833–. is a species of cherry, a flowering plant in the rose family, ...

, a wild or seedling sweet cherry used as

grafting Grafting or graftage is a horticultural technique whereby tissues of plants are joined so as to continue their growth together. The upper part of the combined plant is called the scion () while the lower part is called the rootstock. The succ ...

stock. Mature 'Rainiers' reach a height of 30 to 35 feet and are widely adaptable to various soil types. Trees should be well spaced to provide maximum sun exposure for individual branches, ensuring fully developed, sweet, ripe fruit at harvest time. 'Rainiers' will produce fruit in 3 to 5 years, with a bloom period in early April. The creamy light yellow to medium yellow-orange fruit develops a red blush and is ready to harvest from late June through early July. 'Rainier' cultivars require pollination. Typical

pollenizers {{Unreferenced, date=May 2009 A pollenizer (or polleniser), sometimes pollinizer (or polliniser, see spelling differences) is a plant that provides pollen. The word '' pollinator'' is often used when ''pollenizer'' is more precise. A pollinato ...

are the '

', ' Van', ' Lapins', '

Black Tartarian Black Tartarian (originally ''Ronald's Large Black Heart'') is an heirloom cultivar of cherry. It was brought from Circassia to England in the 1700s by a man named Hugh Ronalds, and from England it was brought to the United States in the 1800s. ...

' and ' Lambert' cultivars. 'Rainiers' grow best in

USDA Zone A hardiness zone is a geographic area defined as having a certain average annual minimum temperature, a factor relevant to the survival of many plants. In some systems other statistics are included in the calculations. The original and most wide ...

s 4–9. It is one of the most cold-hardy sweet cherries.

Notes

References

* Chou, Hsiao-Ching
"Rainier cherries are the peak of the crop"
''

Seattle Post-Intelligencer The ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' (popularly known as the ''Seattle P-I'', the ''Post-Intelligencer'', or simply the ''P-I'') is an online newspaper and former print newspaper based in Seattle, Washington, United States. The newspaper was foun ...

'', 23 June 2001. retrieved 26 June 2006. * Moore, Elizabeth Armstrong
"If it's July, it must be time for those golden Rainier cherries"
''

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...

'', 6 July 2005, retrieved 6 August 2006. Cherry cultivars {{fruit-stub