Cherry never blossoms or fruits.

Why does the cherry in our garden never blossom or fruit. If anyone can tell me the variety of cherry it is this would be good. Sorry there are no leaves.

Last year it had one flower on blossom wise. Is it poorly? Is it not the right variety? Too old?

Heres not a very good picture of it:



You can't really see but it has three trucks that twist around and this creates a natural well which fills with stagnant water. Could the water be bad for it?

Its been amputated at some point, I think maybe badly. Obviously to stop it interfering with next door. and now all of the branches are growing very long and spindly in an upwards direction.

Abi X

 

Cant understand why a cherry of that age would not be flowering.
Are the leaves healthy enough during the summer?

For how many years as it been without flowers?

I'm wondering if its been drastically pruned perhaps the year before, cutting off all the flowering wood.

 

Generally speaking if there's a flowering cherry in a suburban area it's more than likely going to be P. serrulata 'Kanzan' which also happens to be one of my favourite trees even if it's as common as muck:hehe:

 

P. serrulata 'Kanzan' Hmm thanks Aesculus. Can it fruit then in theory and would the fruit be edible (or would it be putrid)

The leaves seem to be healthy. If memory serves some of them had black bits on though? When it gets covered I'll revive the thread and photo some samples. Perhaps they're not healthy and I just don't know it. It gets very attacked by leaf miners but I reckon that shouldn't make a difference?

This will be my second summer in this house, so we shall see if the same happens this year. (I'm pretty sure it will.)

Could the stagnant water be an issue? should I dry it out and plug it up so that water can't sit in the middle of it anymore?

Poor cherry :(

Another thought, there are bulbs growing around the base crocos..-whajuhmacallit Could they be the reason?

 

Hi Abi,

Wait until later in the year to see if it blossoms again and if not perhaps we can see then what the problem may be. Cherries shouldn't have long to go until they start flowering anyway.

Pools of stagnant water are not a problem for the tree as long as the bark is not broken. Stagnant water can actually be good for the tree as it has little or no oxygen in and therefore does not harbour harmful bacteria or other pathogens. If, however, the water sits over a crack or fissure in the tree this may cause a problem.

The tree doesn't look as if it has been pruned well in the past as you say. Unfortunately cherries do not repsond very well to pruning at the best of times and tend to shoot out new upright branches in reaction. For aesthetics these shoots can be removed, but keeping them on will not harm the tree.

 

Thanks treesurfer. Thats exactly what its done, put up a load of uprights. I'm sure the pruning was bad because the emphasis has been on getting rid of the width. Where its been lopped the end of the sumps are very black. is that normal? don't care about the aestheics I just want it healthy.

I'm sure it won't flower but, o.k will wait and see what happens. Its covered in buds now. I will get some leaves off him when hes got some to show you chaps.

 

Nope afraid not, it's an entirely ornamental cherry so no edible fruit:wink: although it might produce some inedible fruit, although I'm not really sure to be honest because I've never really noticed:hehe:

 

Hi Abi,

The black is the first signs of decay, where the tree is no longer actively sending nutrients out to that particular branch as it is no longer viable for the tree to keep. Unfortunately I can see from the photo that the branches were not correctly timmed back to the proper growing point, therefore it is inviting in decay & harmful pathogens into the stumps. Removing the stumps back to the branch collar of the main stem or trunk will hopefully lessen the severity of any infection. Google 'pruning trees' to find diagrams of where to cut correctly.

From the picture I can also see that it's a codominant stemmed tree - meaning the trunk splits into two or more stems. This is often a weak point in trees and another possible way of injury or infection occuring to the tree. Also, at the rear of the tree appears to be crossing stems that rub against each other. Guess what? Yup - that's bad for the tree too.

I wouldn't say the tree is totally knackered, and some TLC following the correct guidelines may brighten it up a bit. However, the codominant stem and crossing stems will never be remedied.

 

Thank you so much Treesurfer. I am learning loads on this forum. You know what, I think I am going to call in a specialist tree surgeon on this one. Even armed with my RHS encyclopedia of gardening I just don't think I can go it alone.

Is now a good time to do this though?

 

Depends what you are trying to achieve, Abi. Usually pruning cherries for fruit production involves carrying out pruning after the crop has been harvested, This is because there is an abundance of sap in order to cover the wound. However, if you're looking just to make the tree presentable and get rid of any structural problems then I wouldn't be so fussy. Get a few quotes in - It shouldn't take more than an hour or so to get it all done.

 

don't prune for a couple of years and see what happens as you could well be taking out the flowering bits