Sweetheart cherry

It is a hybrid of the Van and Newstar cultivars first developed in Canada.

[1] The Sweetheart cultivar was developed at the Pacific Agri-Food Research Centre in Summerland, British Columbia.

The cross was made in 1975 and selected in 1982, and the variety was officially released in 1994.

[2] It has since been used as a parent cultivar for several new varieties, including Staccato, Sentennial, and Sovereign.

[4][5] Sweetheart is a self-fertile cultivar which can be used as a "universal pollinator" for other cherry varieties with similar bloom time.