Van

Van is a sweet cherry introduced in 1944 from Summerland, British Columbia, long valued as both a productive fresh-market cherry and an excellent pollinizer. It produces heavy crops of medium to large, firm, dark red fruit with rich, sweet flavor much like Bing, ripening slightly earlier. Van is self-unfruitful and needs a compatible pollinizer, but it is itself a strong, widely compatible pollen source used to pollinate Bing, Rainier, and other varieties. The tree is vigorous, hardy, and precocious, bearing young and abundantly, sometimes so heavily that fruit size drops without thinning. Van remains widely planted both for its own quality fruit and for its dependable role in pollinating premium cultivars.