Dwarf Sandcherry Help

[Soulsyphon]

They're fun to work with and will continue to push growth basically all season if healthy.

My furthest along one is getting a decent base and starting to get some interesting character. Haven't done any wiring yet this season, but my primaries are almost finished and maybe I'll get to build some secondaries this season.

A few things I've learned from mine:
*They're water hogs. As you're seeing, they'll flag during the heat of the day if they don't have enough water. I think I remember a day last summer when they were still flagging even with moist soil.

*Any new growth from late season pruning probably won't make it through (my) winter. And what I mean is pruning done in September or later. It will still push growth if you prune then, but I think the younger branches can't make it through the winter. Have most of your pruning done by mid summer to ensure that the growth has time to lignify.

*Beware of insect and fungal problems. Being a prunus, bugs and fungus love them. I have had: Japanese beetles, leaf hoppers, aphids, canker worms, caterpillars, and as I found out this year, borers... Trust me on this, get a systemic insecticide for yours. If you get a product with imidacloprid, wait to apply until after they flower because the chemical can transfer to pollen and kill bees.

*They can be prone to frost cracks in their bark. Not really sure how to protect against that, short of a greenhouse that stays above freezing. It hasn't killed mine yet, and has added to the character of the trunk.

Thanks! That's a lot of great info. It already got hit by insects within the first couple days of being here. I ran up and got some seven dust for now, but haven't seen any problems since then.

 

[Soulsyphon]

I see your plant tag but I don't see anything other than two common names that don't match up. Purple Leaf Sand-cherry is Prunus cistena which gets about 8 feet tall in the landscape. Purple Leaf Plum is Prunus cerasifera which can easily get to be 30 feet. I imagine you have P cistena that they are trying to pass off as P cerasifera. Is there a botanical name on the reverse side of the plant tag?

Cistena

 

[Soulsyphon]

Whoa! @Soulsyphon I think that might be your issue right there. Doing root work on a deciduous tree a week before the summer solstice is massive stress. I don't know anything about prunus but you're lucky it's even still alive. It's trying to survive the heat after losing a chunk of roots. ..That's assuming you did a spring type "get in there" repot. I would move it to a shadier location for a little while. It's going to have to regenerate roots at a time of year when a lot of trees will be going dormant. If you can keep the pot cool it will have a much better time producing new roots. I forget what temperature trees go dormant at but I'm sure those temps are coming. If it's been alive this long it does seem like it survived the repot, so that's good.

We just recently got out of our cold snaps and overnight frost so I assumed this would be the best time, after the cold and before the main heat.

 

[Soulsyphon]

Why not post a picture of the plant instead a picture of the plant tag?

It was dark last night when I posted the tag. It's raining now, but I grabbed him real quick for a couple pictures.

 

[Cadillactaste]

Tag says it's a shrub...so a flowering sandcherry. They take extreme cut backs. I actually had pruned hard...thinking already of a replacement for the following year...when we transplanted it. It laughed in my face and is lovely! You can see mine at the very top of the waterfall. The purple leafed shrub. Mind you I cut it under 12" because all the leaves died after transplanting. I thought it had died. It came back fuller and lovely! The nursery said, that they do amazing with hard cutbacks...rejuvenates them.

 

[Soulsyphon]

Fersure.

They have those same cherries around here.

Truth truth....every tree that makes a good bonsai, you eventually find one with a decent beginning, a fat trunk, short internodes, etc.... something

I gave up looking at these a long time ago.

And for as pretty as the leaves are, I've never seen one as bonsai.

$20 says @vancehanna has one that's wonderful!

Sorce

I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but I figured as a beginner, it's better to learn on a $40 sandcherry than a $200 established tree.

 

[Soulsyphon]

Full eastern sun, no midday sun, some western sun. If it's droopy, move it. They can't scream, but they can drop dead for the short-sighted.

Thanks!

 

[Soulsyphon]

Tag says it's a shrub...so a flowering sandcherry. They take extreme cut backs. I actually had pruned hard...thinking already of a replacement for the following year...when we transplanted it. It laughed in my face and is lovely! You can see mine at the very top of the waterfall. The purple leafed shrub. Mind you I cut it under 12" because all the leaves died after transplanting. I thought it had died. It came back fuller and lovely! The nursery said, that they do amazing with hard cutbacks...rejuvenates them.
View attachment 311130

Wow, that's great. And a beautiful picture!

 

[sorce]

$40

I look at the $29.99 on the side of some things that makes me wonder what the F I was thinking! And some of them are actually worthy!

Hell with $200!

Sorce

 

[Cadillactaste]

Wow, that's great. And a beautiful picture!

Thanks, they can take a beating with hard pruning. Have fun with it. Worst case...you toss it in the yard at some point. I've a few which ended up as landscape. Nothing wrong with that either. Back when I had a thing for ugly roots. Now, I still love a mess of roots. But it needs some order to them. lol Wish you the best of enjoyment on your journey.

 

[Soulsyphon]

I look at the $29.99 on the side of some things that makes me wonder what the F I was thinking! And some of them are actually worthy!

Hell with $200!

Sorce

Yep, I've had some indoor tropicals for a while, just started moving to outdoor ones so I bought a handful of thing to see how they fair, practice techniques, ect. I'm sure they'll never be show pieces or anything, but I'm just in it for the personal enjoyment anyway. Here's some of the other new ones:

 

[Soulsyphon]

Thanks, they can take a beating with hard pruning. Have fun with it. Worst case...you toss it in the yard at some point. I've a few which ended up as landscape. Nothing wrong with that either. Back when I had a thing for ugly roots. Now, I still love a mess of roots. But it needs some order to them. lol Wish you the best of enjoyment on your journey.

Yep. If it doesn't work out it'll go in the yard or to one of my nearby family who can put it in their yard. Thanks!

 

[cbroad]

So is it a Sandcherry, or a flowering purple plum?

I guess technically it's both

 

[Cadillactaste]

I guess technically it's both

Really? The tree out front is nothing like the one in the backyard as a shrub. That's peculiar...or, is the tag stating both species?

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I guess technically it's both

Really? The tree out front is nothing like the one in the backyard as a shrub. That's peculiar...or, is the tag stating both species?

I'm going to wander down a relatively unimportant side road.

Botanically speaking, the genus Prunus includes: cherries, plums, apricots, peaches, nectarines, almonds, sloe, & ume, & half a dozen others that have names that don't fall in the other categories. In the genus Prunus, there are some 430 species, give or take 50 or so. There is no bright line that separate cherries from plums. There are species that have traits of either or both groups, and the common names are really vague when it comes to botanical traits. Prunus are often called the stone fruit as the seeds have very hard shells. Cherries tend to have round "pits", hard shelled seed that are nearly round, but not all cherries are perfectly round seed. Plums have smooth skin fruit, with flattened oval seed, with rough but not fissured seed coat. Apricots, and Almonds have seed very similar to plums, but have a fuzzy skin to the fruit. Plums and apricots will hybridize fairly easily, Pluots and Apriums are common in farmstand fruit markets. Almonds will hybridize with apricots, and the Manchurian apricot can be used as both a fruit plant and a almond nut plant. Peaches have oval flattened seed, that are heavily fissured, as do nectarines. There are 3 or so species of flowering cherry native to Japan, and a dozen different hybrids. There are another dozen or more species of "wild cherry" native to North America, and a similar number native to Eurasia not including the Japanese flowering cherries. I could go on. For every category of Prunus, there are species that are intergrades between categories. That is the reason they are all in a single genus, because as a group, the 430 species have more in common than each other than with any other group. Lots of examples of species with traits in common with multiple different "common name categories" of stone fruit.

The point is, there are many, many species in the genus Prunus, and quite a few are significant ornamental or culinary species. The "common names" are arbitrary. Keeping track of common names is a "fool's errand", the only name that counts is the botanical name. So Prunus cistena, often written Prunus x cistena is the hybrid of 2 species, Prunus cerasifera (cherry plum or myrobalan plum) and Prunus pumila (sand cherry). You can see by the common names listed for Prunus cerasifera = cherry-plum or myrobalan plum, that there is a blurred distinction, between it being clearly a cherry and cleary a plum. You would be correct calling it a cherry, you would be correct calling P. cerasifera a plum. So the common names are misleading, often vague and vary a lot depending on where in the world you live. The botanical name, Prunus x cistena, is clear as to exactly which species, or botanical entity it refers to.

So when possible, at least once in a thread, use the botanical name of a tree if you have the information available. It helps to avoid confusion, as this is an international forum and common names vary from language to language and from country to country.

 

[GGB]

Oh jeez, that’s late. I saw zone 6 and figured you’d be similar to here. Perhaps not. If it was dormant during repot my theory is dead

 

[cbroad]

Really? The tree out front is nothing like the one in the backyard as a shrub. That's peculiar...or, is the tag stating both species?

Leo said it best but the purple leaf sandcherry is a hybrid between prunus cerasifera (plum) and prunus pumila (sandcherry), so I guess technically it is both haha.

 

[cbroad]

Here is my furthest along one. Picture is while repotting last year.



I need to get some new pictures of it this year and I really need to prune and wire this thing soon...

 

[cbroad]

A couple current pics

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

A little pruning and wiring is in order.

But looking good, nice and tree like.