Please help my cherry blossom tree (prunus kursar)

emily.thelwell1

It was planted in October and managed to survive the awful rainy and windy winter. It blossomed in February and it’s leaves came through in March. The last 3 weeks when the weather has been good it appears to look underwatered? But I checked by digging down and there is wet soil. It is planted in clay soil however when planting I mixed lots of compost, grit, and bark into the hole I dug to help water drain better.

It is still alive as I have scratch tested and it is green on the branches. They are also flexible without snapping.

The first blossom tree we purchased died of transplant shock so I would love this to survive.

BobTheGardener

It's possible that you may have created a sump when digging a hole in a deep clay soil and filling with the other material and now water from the surround area is draining into the hole, effectively drowning the tree roots.  Unless you also dig grit etc into the surrounding area, this is almost inevitable on that type of soil.  I think I'd risk removing the tree as carefully as possible and checking that the bottom of the hole is not now a pond.  If it is, I would dig an area of at least 1.5 x 1.5 square metres over, preferably to 2 fork depths, mixing the stuff from the previopus hole with all of the surrounding soil.  Cherry trees will be perfectly happy in clay soil and if you had just dug the hole and planted it using the soil you dug out, it probably would have been happy.  It's really a case of being too kind!