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Eldritch Cherry Tree
Hello,
I moved into a new house a couple of months ago. This cherry (I'm pretty sure it's cherry) tree is out the front (apologies that the main picture has been rotated to horizontal after i uploaded it. It should still give you a decent idea).
Im not into overly manicured plants, but this is far from ideal. Way too many straight shoots vertically and laterally, and a little too chaotic. Now the leaves have mostly dropped I can see it looks to have been coppiced at about head height at some point and then left to it.
So my questions are:
1) I know pruning of cherry trees is usually avoided in winter/spring. But is it less risky if I take out or shorten some of the thinner stems and branches before summer? It might improve the shape and encourage branching to make it look a bit less tentacle-like. I know pruning of vertical stuff should be done at an angle.
2) What should my long term pruning strategy be to get it as good as it could be? What should it look like? Should I be going back to the original prune spots in the summer and taking it from there? Or just thining out and and bringing it in? Should I keep all the healthy, established stems that aren't rubbing on one another? Or would significantly less be better? And should I be looking to keep the bottom 1/3 of the plant pretty much clear? I know all the little new stems need to go.
3) Does anyone know what kind of cherry (assuming it is cherry) it is? Is it a late flowering variety? Or has it just been tricked by the mild weather?
Any advice, greatly appreciated.

I moved into a new house a couple of months ago. This cherry (I'm pretty sure it's cherry) tree is out the front (apologies that the main picture has been rotated to horizontal after i uploaded it. It should still give you a decent idea).
Im not into overly manicured plants, but this is far from ideal. Way too many straight shoots vertically and laterally, and a little too chaotic. Now the leaves have mostly dropped I can see it looks to have been coppiced at about head height at some point and then left to it.
So my questions are:
1) I know pruning of cherry trees is usually avoided in winter/spring. But is it less risky if I take out or shorten some of the thinner stems and branches before summer? It might improve the shape and encourage branching to make it look a bit less tentacle-like. I know pruning of vertical stuff should be done at an angle.
2) What should my long term pruning strategy be to get it as good as it could be? What should it look like? Should I be going back to the original prune spots in the summer and taking it from there? Or just thining out and and bringing it in? Should I keep all the healthy, established stems that aren't rubbing on one another? Or would significantly less be better? And should I be looking to keep the bottom 1/3 of the plant pretty much clear? I know all the little new stems need to go.
3) Does anyone know what kind of cherry (assuming it is cherry) it is? Is it a late flowering variety? Or has it just been tricked by the mild weather?
Any advice, greatly appreciated.


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In the sticks near Peterborough