We bought a house last September in Vancouver. It has a huge fruiting cherry tree in the back garden (probably 40 ft. high) and two huge (3 storeys high) flowering cherry trees on the front boulevard. At the time we bought, all the trees looked fabulous. This spring, however, the fruiting cherry in back produced few blossoms and meagre leafing on the main branches, but not on any of the smaller branches. The flowering cherry trees in front blossomed and leafed out beautifully, but now the leaves, particularly at the bottom 1/3 of the tree, are looking terrible and falling off. We want to keep all of the trees! Can different types of cherry tree all get the same thing? Does anyone have any suggestions? I don't want to call the city yet, for fear they will just take down the trees. Thanks very much.
Our cherry tree is also looking terrible. Many clumps of dead leaves and dropping a lot green leaves. When I look around town, I see this happening on many trees. I think it is the very wet cold spring. In some cases the weather may be promoting pathogens on the trees, so it will be a good idea to monitor the trees and bring in an arborist if you think they need it.
Hi Eric, Thanks for your feedback and suggestion about getting an arborist. Do you have any suggestions for how to find one? No matter what, I think we need to consult on proper pruning of the huge tree in the back yard. It's so big, it's out of my realm of experience/expertise, plus appears to have a hole developing in the trunk area.
This is an older post, so if you still need a certified arborist, search "I.S.A." for a list of individuals in your area. Or when you look in the yellow pages or on line, a company with a certified arborist will have an I.S.A. logo on their ad. (a company can't be certified, only individuals in their employment) I.S.A. is International Society of Arboriculturists Ask if the person doing the pruning will be using "spurless climbing" if they can't get a bucket truck to the cherry tree in your back yard.
