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Cherry Blossom care

  • 17-07-2019 12:56pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 2,985 ✭✭✭


    My wife bought a cherry blossom last year and planted it but its growing very wild I think. Is it actually a cherry blossom and if so, should I prune it or leave alone? See attached pics.


Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 3,317 ✭✭✭macraignil


    xabi wrote: »
    My wife bought a cherry blossom last year and planted it but its growing very wild I think. Is it actually a cherry blossom and if so, should I prune it or leave alone? See attached pics.




    The leaves look like those on a shoot from the root stock of a plum tree I have. I made a video clip showing the vigorous shoot before I cut it off a couple of weeks back. This is the time of year to prune cherry and stone fruit to avoid diseases which are spread more easily in damp weather in winter. When the root stock on a grafted tree gets its own shoots established it can take more of the energy from the roots than go to the cultivated plum or cherry blossom that is growing on the root stock which is usually a hardier variety of tree from the same family. In my case there was a clear line on the main trunk where the join between the root stock and the plum was visible and I could clearly make out that the very vigorous growth that looks similar to the leaves in you photos was from the root stock and so needed to be removed if I want a good crop of plums. The root stock tree might also have flowers but they might not be as dramatic or as large as the cultivated cherry blossom you are looking for. I had to do something similar recently for a cultivated rose in my parent's garden with the root stock just producing smaller white flowers of a more wild rose root stock and taking away energy that would have been producing more of the cultivated rose blossom.


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