I have read many many tree books and viewed many cherries in the lower mainland and van dusen gardens; however I rarely see any cherries that are graceful and willowly so to speak. Most are chunky, clunky looking trees, albeit with beautiful blossoms and fall colour. Occasionally, for example in a very expensive landscaped garden I will spot a graceful type of cherry, but I have no idea which type these are. Does anyone know of cherries that meet my desired criteria and are available to purchase? Thank you for your time. Sitka
The habit of the scion is basically the same whether on a stock or not. Disproportionately thick stems are eventually produced when sweet cherry (Prunus avium) is used. Some are now available grafted on dwarfing stock 'Gisela', which being a less vigorous (thus dwarfing) stock presumably will not produce the massive growth of sweet cherry. Fruits or seedlings of typical (wild-type) weeping Higan cherry (Prunus pendula) may be available to you from a local property if you have noticed one of these, they are the larger tree with more diffuse and ethereal flowering effect resulting from them having palish, single flowers rather than the often doubled, often more strongly colored flowers of the now commercially dominant named cultivars. Very commonly sold, single-flowered, fairly bright white 'Snofozam', marketed using the selling name Snow Fountains (and sometimes one or two others) is being produced part of the time from cuttings. The whole crown is made up of the same cherry, same as with a low graft. Alternative trunk shapes, including knots(!) and 's' shapes, resulting from training in the production nursery are available.
Kuitert, JAPANESE CHERRIES (1999, Timber Press) mentions that branches of young Prunus pendula are tied up to produce a taller shape; older trees are pruned "on upward buds" to make a wide-spreading crown. He also describes what you may have been alluding to: "A less time-consuming approach in the nursery involves grafting this cherry on an established stem; however, this practice results in a less beautiful tree shape as no branches grow higher than the place of grafting." You could probably still buy a grafted cultivar and train it to have an elevated crown yourself, using a tall, firm stake--maybe a metal post set in concrete. How tall you got it to go would only be limited to how tall the post was (and how high the ladder used to climb up and tie the tree was). Also, we had one of the common, named forms here for some years. After awhile it started rapidly hoisting itself up with new, tall arching branches of its own--grafted specimens do not always remain flat-topped.
