Weeping Cherry:

            It doesn’t cry per say, though it does drop its petals and leaves like tears when finished showing off their beauty. I guess they call them “weepers” because, like a sorrowful person with their head and eyes looking downward, and their shoulders drooping with arms close to their side, they resemble that posture. Although to the eye that has only seen white out in the landscape for the past four to five months, the pink flowers produced by this early spring time flowerer is a welcomed sight to our color catching rods and cones.

            The Weeping Cherry is not a tree you will see growing out in the wild, thou Cherry trees are a native to Michigan. The weeper is a genetic flaw turned profitable by a nurseryman.

            One or two must have grown like this at one time; they were noticed by the person growing them and set aside to see what, and how, it would grow.

            After proving itself strong it was then used as a “mother” plant, and cuttings were taken and graphed on to 3, 4, 5, or 6 foot cherry trunk whips.

            Cherries are sun loving trees that produce a double blossom flower. The extra set of pedals in this double blossom renders the flower incapable of producing a cherry; and therefore no messy fruit drop.

 

           The height of the tree can be around 30 feet with an equal spread if left to grow like a Weeping Willow where you prune nothing off. The heights of the 3, 4, 5, or 6 foot cherry trunk whips used when grafting is only important if you are going to plant this tree in a confined space where it will be pruned like a head of hair. This is simple to do, you just prune off anything that doesn’t grows down.

 

            The flower color most likely purchased is pink, but whites are also available. They grow in almost all well draining soils; clay soils should be mounded some so water won’t collect.

            To keep a longer lasting flower show in the spring planting in a sheltered spot will keep the spring winds from beating them up.

            Another easy keeper; another early welcomed sight to eyes sick of winter white.

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