Pioneer™ Cornelian Cherry

Pioneer™ Cornelian Cherry is a productive Ukrainian cultivar selected for its large, distinctive pear-shaped fruit and excellent yields. The dark-red fruits are juicy and richly flavoured, with a pleasant balance of sweetness and tartness that becomes sweeter as they fully ripen. Pioneer™ is an early-ripening variety, producing abundant crops that are excellent for fresh eating as well as preserves, sauces, syrups, juice and other culinary uses.

Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas) is a unique species of dogwood, combining showy late-winter flowers with abundant crops of colourful, edible, cherry-like fruit. Cornelian cherries wake from dormancy long before most fruit trees, with their bare branches covered in clusters of tiny, frost-hardy yellow flowers, providing an important early source of forage for pollinating insects. The fruit follows in summer, ripening to shades ranging from brilliant red to nearly black depending on the variety.

Despite the name, Cornelian cherries are not true cherries. The olive-shaped fruits contain a single elongated pit and develop their best flavour when fully coloured and ripe, when their initially tart, astringent character becomes softer, sweeter and richly fruity. Selected cultivars—particularly improved Ukrainian varieties—produce much larger, sweeter fruit than typical seedlings and can be excellent for fresh eating as well as preserves, jams, sauces, syrups, juice and wine. The fruit is also notably rich in vitamin C, anthocyanins and other polyphenols.

Slow-growing, exceptionally cold hardy and long-lived, Cornelian cherry develops into an attractive large shrub or small tree roughly 10–12 feet tall and almost as wide. Cornelian cherries are generally trouble-free once established. Plant two different cultivars within 30-50 feet of each other for effective cross-pollination and reliable fruit production.

Common names: Pioneer™ Cornelian Cherry, Pioneer™ Cornelian Cherry Dogwood, Lukyanovskii Cornelian Cherry, Cornel, European Cornel

Edible: Fruit
Harvest timing: Early-season (late August - early September)

Scientific name: Cornus mas 'Lukyanovskii'
Light requirements: Full sun 
Full-grown size: 10-12' tall x 8-10' wide
Hardiness: Zone 4
Pollination: Requires cross-pollination with a different variety of Cornelian cherry, such as Exotica™ or Svitlana™.
Wildlife: Early flowers provide nectar and pollen source for bees and other pollinating insects. Ripe fruit attracts birds and small mammals.
Origin: Species native to Central & Southeastern Europe and Western Asia. Cultivar developed through the Cornelian cherry breeding programme at the National Botanical Garden in Kyiv, Ukraine and released in 1975.
Noteworthy: Improved Ukrainian Cornelian cherry cultivars, such as the ones we offer, were selected for larger fruit, better flavour and more reliable production than typical seed-grown Cornelian cherries.