Pawnee Buttes Sand Cherry (Prunus pumila var. besseyi 'P011S') - white flowers, illustrated plant cardIllustration

Pawnee Buttes Sand Cherry

Prunus pumila var. besseyi 'P011S'

Pawnee Buttes Sand Cherry blooms from April through May.

Bloom calendar
Bloom time
Apr–May
checked
Hardiness
Zones 4–8
checked
Sun
Full sun
checked
Water
Low water
checked
Mature size
1.5 ft × 5 ft
checked
Type
Shrub
house classification

Months here are Northern Hemisphere months; in the Southern Hemisphere, shift them by six months.

Growing Pawnee Buttes Sand Cherry

Plant it in full sun. It prefers low water. It is hardy in USDA zones 4–8. Expect it to reach about 1.5 ft tall and 5 ft wide at maturity, in roughly 10 years (a house reading).

Pets

  • Not yet checked for pets.

Lists differ and none is complete. If a pet eats a plant and seems unwell, call a veterinarian or a pet poison helpline.

No toxicity note is on file for Pawnee Buttes Sand Cherry. That is not a clearance: check its safety for people and pets before planting.

Verification
What was checked

Nine facts were checked against named botanical sources, each recorded beside the sources that carried it: mature height and spread, hardiness zones, sun, water, bloom months and color, the trait tags, and years to mature size, which rests on a recorded house rule where no publisher states one and is marked so. Soil, diseases, pests, toxicity and the plant's own names have not yet been read for this plant, and its trait tags are the ones a feature uses rather than every word a page prints. Each fact above carries its own mark. The planting, spacing and size sections are derived from these checked facts by a fixed rule, not checked separately, and the plant type is the library's own classification.

See the 8 sources it was checked against

When to plant Pawnee Buttes Sand Cherry

Plant Pawnee Buttes Sand Cherry in early spring as soon as the soil is workable, or in early fall at least six weeks before your first frost, so roots establish in cool weather. In zone 6, the middle of its hardy zones 4 to 8, spring means March to May and fall means August or September. Once settled, it blooms from April to May.

Month-by-month timing for your zone is on the planting calendar; if you garden near zone 6, the middle of this plant's hardy range, start with zone 6 in March. Derived from the plant's category, zones and bloom months plus typical zone frost dates, not checked separately.

How big does Pawnee Buttes Sand Cherry get?

Illustration of Pawnee Buttes Sand Cherry drawn to scale beside an adult1.5 fttall5 ft 7 inan adult5 ftwide
About 1.5 ft tall and 5 ft wide at maturity: knee-high beside an adult.

See Pawnee Buttes Sand Cherry in a garden plan: the planner shows it in 3D beside everything else you add, growing toward this size over the years.

How far apart to plant Pawnee Buttes Sand Cherry

Derived from the mature spread above by a fixed rule, not checked separately: spacing is the spread, center to center.

Space Pawnee Buttes Sand Cherry about 5 ft apart, center to center, so each plant has room to reach its full width.

Plant them
5 ft apart
Per 10 sq ft
one needs about 25 sq ft
4 by 8 ft bed
about 1

Add Pawnee Buttes Sand Cherry to a garden plan and the planner draws it at its full width, so you see the spacing before you buy.

Where these facts come from

Pawnee Buttes Sand Cherry's height, spread, hardiness zones, sun, water, bloom months and color and trait tags were checked against 8 published sources on November 5, 2026. Each one is linked below with every fact it carried, which can include a fact this page still marks as not yet checked, because a source carrying a value is not the same as the value being held to the standard. Facts not in that list, and the planting, spacing and size sections, are not covered by these sources.

How the checking works, and what each standard covers, is on the verified plants page.

Where it grows wild

A garden form of Western Sand Cherry (Prunus pumila var. besseyi)

Its wild parent is native to 15 states and 3 provinces.

Its parent's own page: Western Sand Cherry.

United States: Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming and 3 more

Canada: Manitoba, Ontario, Saskatchewan

Range data from the World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 4.0, adapted) and USDA PLANTS. How the native range is credited.

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