Stella

The first widely grown self-fertile sweet cherry, and the reason a single cherry tree in a garden became a sensible idea at all. Vigorous, so the rootstock choice matters more here than the cultivar does.

A cultivar of Cherry. Everything on this page is about the cultivar; how to grow the species is on the plant page, and how big the tree gets is on the rootstock page.

Names and origin

Origin: British Columbia, mid 20th century

Pollination

What this cultivar needs before it will set a crop.

Self-fertility: Self-fertile
source
Sourced guidancehigh confidence
Royal Horticultural Society: Cherry pollination
Checked 2026-08-13
Partner: No partner needed
source
Sourced guidancehigh confidence
Royal Horticultural Society: Cherry pollination
Checked 2026-08-13
Ploidy: diploid
source
Horticultural consensusmoderate confidence
NIAB — National Institute of Agricultural Botany: Cultivar ploidy records
Checked 2026-08-13
S-allele group: universal
source
Sourced guidancehigh confidence
WSU Extension — Washington State University: Sweet cherry pollination — self-fertile cultivars
Checked 2026-08-13
Partners needed: none

What that means in practice

Self-fertile, so the S-allele incompatibility that governs other sweet cherries does not apply. It also acts as a universal pollinator for many other sweet cherries.

Partners for Stella, from the 7 cherry cultivars GrowingHQ holds

Computed by the pollination engine from the flowering groups, ploidy and recorded pairings on each record — not a hand-written list. The scope is exactly what the heading says: these are the answers that exist in this catalogue, not the answers that exist.

No partner is required

Stella sets a crop on its own pollen. The table below is still computed, because a compatible neighbour does no harm and a grower planting two trees may want to know which pairs work.

Cultivar	Verdict	Why
Lapins	compatible	Lapins is self-fertile and pollinates every other sweet cherry — its pollen is rejected by none of the S-allele groups. It will set Stella.
Merton Glory	compatible	Stella is self-fertile and pollinates every other sweet cherry — its pollen is rejected by none of the S-allele groups. It will set Merton Glory even though that cultivar's own group is not recorded.
Napoleon	compatible	Stella is self-fertile and pollinates every other sweet cherry — its pollen is rejected by none of the S-allele groups. It will set Napoleon.
Summer Sun	compatible	Summer Sun is self-fertile and pollinates every other sweet cherry — its pollen is rejected by none of the S-allele groups. It will set Stella.
Sunburst	compatible	Sunburst is self-fertile and pollinates every other sweet cherry — its pollen is rejected by none of the S-allele groups. It will set Stella.

The fruit

Season: Mid-season
source
Sourced guidancehigh confidence
Royal Horticultural Society: Cherry cultivars — season
Checked 2026-08-13
Use: Eating
source
Sourced guidancehigh confidence
Royal Horticultural Society: Cherry cultivars — use
Checked 2026-08-13
Keeping: Eat within days
source
Sourced guidancehigh confidence
Royal Horticultural Society: Cherry cultivars — storage
Checked 2026-08-13

The plant

Vigour: More vigorous than average
source
Sourced guidancehigh confidence
Royal Horticultural Society: Cherry cultivars — vigour
Checked 2026-08-13
Habit: Upright
source
Horticultural consensusmoderate confidence
Royal Horticultural Society: Cherry cultivars — habit
Checked 2026-08-13
Cropping: Crops regularly
source
Sourced guidancehigh confidence
Royal Horticultural Society: Cherry cultivars — cropping
Checked 2026-08-13

What it is prone to

Cultivar behaviour, not a diagnosis. Every level here is relative to other cultivars of the same species.

Problem	This cultivar	What that means
Silver leaf	Susceptible source Sourced guidancemoderate confidence Royal Horticultural Society: Cultivar disease susceptibility Checked 2026-08-13	Reported as prone to this. Expect to manage it.

On each rootstock

The size of the tree comes from the rootstock. What the cultivar contributes is a direction, in words — GrowingHQ does not multiply the range by a vigour factor, because no source supports the multiplier and the resulting number would look far more precise than the inputs are.

Rootstock	Height	With this cultivar
Gisela 5	250–350 cm source Sourced guidancehigh confidence Royal Horticultural Society: Cherry rootstocks Checked 2026-08-13	Stella is a vigorous cultivar, so expect the upper end of this rootstock's range — though a dwarfing rootstock still keeps the tree small.
Colt	400–500 cm source Sourced guidancehigh confidence Royal Horticultural Society: Cherry rootstocks Checked 2026-08-13	Stella is a vigorous cultivar, so expect the upper end of this range or beyond.

Full profiles for each of these are on the rootstock page.

Cultivar record reviewed 2026-08-13.