Prunus subhirtella ‘disaster’

[CptnGlyn]

So a while but I acquired a winter flowering cherry. It had leggy branches (that I intended to chase back where possible) but a nice chunky trunk and pretty accurate nebari to how they appear round here.
However, this year we had a wild heatwave in the uk and despite my efforts I’ve got a lot of die back and dead branches all over the place, although mostly just on this one tree.
Furthermore, loss of the leaves has triggered an impressive but unseasonal bloom of flowers.

Trying to get info on how these respond to a solid trunk chop (ie to a stump) as this may be the best route to go now. Anyone have experience of a drastic chop on a subhirtella (or similar cherry species).

photos tomorrow when it’s not pitch black outside!

 

[CptnGlyn]

Here are some photos. I always felt the initial chop was too high, so it’s not terrible that it has come to this, but I’m hesitant to smash it back to no live growth…

 

[CptnGlyn]

Photos…

 

[Leprous Garden]

The unseasonal flowering makes me nervous that the plant is not going to survive the winter.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I've had a couple cherries respond to leaf losses like that, mostly because I pruned them too hard.
All of them came out OK, but they haven't flowered this year. That energy had already been spent.

 

[CptnGlyn]

I've had a couple cherries respond to leaf losses like that, mostly because I pruned them too hard.
All of them came out OK, but they haven't flowered this year. That energy had already been spent.

Cheers, hopefully mine will go the same way as yours then!

any experience with chopping them?

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Cheers, hopefully mine will go the same way as yours then!

any experience with chopping them?

I've chopped cherries, well, all of them are of the prunus family but I own only one ben chi dori prunus.
Worked out just fine, but don't do it in the fall. Try doing it in spring before they flower. That way they have the most energy to spend on new buds and branches.
Mine got clipped after spring by some rowdy birds this year, after a spring chop, and they did OK but I was anxiously waiting for them to move for about a month after that.

 

[CptnGlyn]

Had a bit of ‘dead branch investigation, and found that all the branches pretty much died back except this main branch… which luckily actually does provide quite a nice trunk line. Just gotta hope it survives the winter and il cut it back next autumn maybe (leaving the trunk for now to avoid further stress)

 

[CptnGlyn]

This one’s grown like a beast this year, but only from the branch that survived the heatwave, and an additional shoot that has appeared from the trunk almost at the base of the branch.

With the shoots elongating all year I think the best option is to attemp a couple of thread grafts back lower on the thick branch, to move the bulk of the futur foliage there. Once taken, I would use the stubs of the threaded shoots (the blue line sections) as sacrificial branches, to hasten the thickening of the branch into the new leader, whilst pruning the ‘new’ branches (brown lines) to keep the foliage compact. Let’s see what happens…