Data from: A collection of European sweet cherry phenology data for assessing climate change

Professional and scientific networks built around the production of sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) led to the collection of phenology data for a wide range of cultivars grown in experimental sites characterized by highly contrasted climatic conditions. We present a dataset of flowering and maturity dates, recorded each year for one tree when available, or the average of several trees for each cultivar, over a period of 37 years (1978 - 2015). Such dataset is extremely valuable for characterizing the phenology response to climate change, but also the plasticity of the different cultivars’ behaviour under various environmental conditions. In addition, these records can support the development of predictive models exploitable at the continental scale to be used by growers and breeders, but also to anticipate breeding strategies in order to maintain and improve sweet cherry production in Europe.