A few weeks, and then nothing
Why Do Cherries All Ripen at Once?
A cherry tree gives you everything it has in about three weeks, and then there are no cherries for a year.
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Step 1 of 5
The tree flowers all at once on purpose.
Flowering together means every flower is open while the pollinating insects are about, and it swamps the animals that eat flowers. Spread out, it would lose more.
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Step 2 of 5
So everything ripens together too.
Fruit set on the same few days ripens on the same few days. There is no way to have an early cherry and a late one on the same tree.
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Step 3 of 5
Which makes a difficult crop.
A whole year's work has to be picked within days, by hand, before it splits or the birds take it. That short window is most of what a cherry costs.
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Step 4 of 5
Rain at the wrong moment ruins it.
A ripe cherry sitting in rain takes water in through its skin faster than it can hold, and splits. One bad week at the end can destroy a whole season.
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Step 5 of 5
The tree needs a proper winter.
Cherry trees count cold hours before they will flower. Too mild a winter and the tree flowers raggedly or not at all, which is why they are grown where winters bite.
Cherry stones contain a compound that releases cyanide. Swallowing one whole is harmless; crushing and eating a lot of them is not.
The short version
A cherry tree flowers all at once, so the whole crop ripens in a few weeks — which is exactly what makes cherries expensive.
Try it yourself
Watch a cherry or plum tree in spring. It goes from bare to entirely covered in blossom in a matter of days.