Flowering Cherry Tree

garyrolls

I have a 15 year old flowering Cherry which is about 15 feet tall which has severn stems/trunks measuring 3-8" in diameter emerging from the ground.  It has never been pruned and flowers beautifully each year. I am advised it requires pruning and would welcome advice on how much height I should prune off and if I should cut some of the stems/trunks off at ground level.  I believe the best time to prune the tree is immediatly after flowering, is this correct. Also what is the best feed for it please? Thanking you all in anticipation of your responses.

Lizzie27

Why does it need pruning? If you like it and it flowers well, I would leave well alone. Most flowering cherries get to about 20-25 ft in height but if yours is multi-stemmed, it probably wouldn't do so. It would look butchered if you cut the height and cherries grow a lot of straight whippy branches at that point which looks horrible - trust me, I've done it to ours in error!  if you must prune, it must be in the summer, otherwise there's a strong chance it will get silver leaf disease which will kill it - another mistake we made.

Liriodendron

I agree with Lizzie27.  If it's healthy and flowers well, leave it to do its own thing... and enjoy it!

garyrolls

Many thanks to u both for your advice. I shall do as u say and leave it be.

christinechittockz_4xmXHy

Our local council have had teams out cutting back ornamental cherries in March this year, 2021, cutting off all the flowering branches. My response was one of shocked dismay, reading your posts it looks like it would have been better for the health of the trees to be done after the flowering, in summer. One of our local Councillor's seemed to think it was fine and referred me to the council's policy on trees, which I didn't find helpful. I have to say I responded emotionally to seeing the butchered cherry trees, it's good to get some information based on facts. Thank you

Silver surfer

christinechittockz_4xmXHy said:

Our local council have had teams out cutting back ornamental cherries in March this year, 2021, cutting off all the flowering branches. My response was one of shocked dismay, reading your posts it looks like it would have been better for the health of the trees to be done after the flowering, in summer. One of our local Councillor's seemed to think it was fine and referred me to the council's policy on trees, which I didn't find helpful. I have to say I responded emotionally to seeing the butchered cherry trees, it's good to get some information based on facts. Thank you

That is just a tragedy.
Pruned in March with the flowers buds formed and sap rising is just shocking.
They may bleed and die.

Please complain to your council. I am horrified. Speechless.

JennyJ

I had a chap knocking at my door recently with the line "I'm working in the area and I noticed that your tree needs pruning" etc. It's a purple-leaved plum (so cherry family), it was just coming into blossom and there was a clearly visible pigeon sitting on a nest in it. I told him I thought it was the wrong time on two counts (plus I didn't want to lose this year's flowers) and why, and he didn't seem to have heard of either reason. I didn't want to be rude so I said if he popped a written quotation through the letter box, I'd think about it and let him know in the summer. Guess what? No quotation. There are lots of cowboys around.

Dovefromabove

Never ever employ a door- knocker to work on your trees ... it’s a disaster waiting to happen. 

Get a written quotation from someone with proper qualifications and recommendations from real people you can contact and talk to or even visit to see their work.