Can you please help my sick cherry trees?
A happy new gardener
Posts: 11
Hello,
I am new to this but hope that someone can help me 
I moved from a rural area to a flat in Glasgow a few years ago, and have taken over responsibility for the gardens and also two community grass areas near the flat. I have landscaped both areas by making two kidney shapes, one small one about 15 feet in length and the other covers a span of about 40 feet. The small kidney shape is well established (three years), but I only started work on the large kidney last November. The soil was turned over by a small mechanical digger and we added 3 tonnes of topsoil before planting. Amongst other things there are four well spaced small cherry trees on the site. I have had them as large pot plants for two years and all four were healthy at the time of planting. All four had lots of buds at the beginning of the spring and I was hopeful that all would thrive. As of yesterday one cherry seems to be doing very well and has a lot of flowers and small leaves, one is doing ok (not great, but ok), but two seem to be very sick. Both sick trees showed a small number of flowers and small leaves in late April / early May, but the flowers and leaves seem to have died on the tree and now neither is showing much sign of life 
. I was wondering if drainage was the problem, but that doesn't explain why two seem ok and two are sick. Things seemed to going so well at the beginning - I don't understand what has happened and I have no idea what to do now to rectify the problem. I also have lots of spring bulbs, several azaleas, myosotis, heathers, hebes, small lilacs, astilbes and several salvia nemorosas growing in the same bed and they are all very healthy. Although this large piece of ground is on a communal area, I have purchased all the plants and do the gardening work as I think it makes the area look much nicer. Many of my neighbours are elderly and they particularly enjoy the plants, but no one seems to have any gardening knowledge so I'm turning to your forum in the hope that someone can help. Many thanks in advance!
Posts
What rootstock where they on when you bought them. And have a look at the picture on this link as it may be cherry leaf scorch.
http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=567
Hello Dave,
Many thanks for your reply. I'm afraid I don't know the answer to the first question. I bought all four trees at the same time - 2.5 years ago from Lidel. They have grown well in large pots at the front of the flat during this time - flowering every spring followed by lots of small leaves and last year one tree even had a number of small red cherries! I do remember that two trees are of one variety and two are of the other. At the moment they are no more than four feet in height so they are still small and young. All four looked very healthy until just a few weeks ago. It is now dark outside, but tomorrow I will take photographs of the trees and I'll add them to this post - maybe that will help. Sorry I don't know the answer about the rootstock - I'm quite new to this but learning fast! Many thanks again for your help - much appreciated
Hello,
Apologies for the delay in loading the photos - I had to work unexpectedly tonight. The first two photographs show my healthy cherry trees, the rest are of my two trees that are clearly not well. Hopefully the photos will offer some clues to those of you who are much more experienced than me. If anyone knows what has caused this, and / or what I should do now, I would be most grateful for your advice. Many thanks
It's difficult to tell what has happened with these trees, I can't see the classic signs of any disease known to affect cherries. It may be they have simply taken serious objection to a move. I'd give them a spray with a fungicide, mulch them 2-3 inches, keep them watered and see how they go over the next few months. I think you may lose them but I'd give them a chance first.
Thanks very much Dave. What a shame - they seemed very happy until about three or four weeks ago and then things went drastically wrong. About five weeks ago all four tree were covered in buds and I was optimistic! Many thanks for your good advice - I'll look after them as you suggest and cross my fingers! I'm really pleased I found this site - I've been looking at some of the other posts and there's lots of excellent advice and suggestions for new gardeners like me!