How to Care for an Ornamental Cherry Tree

By eHow Home & Garden Editor

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Once you have planted an ornamental cherry tree on your property, you must take precautions to ensure that the bright white and pink blossoms appear every spring. While these trees are fairly hardy, and tolerate many different soil conditions, there are many steps you can take to maximize growth and overall health of your trees.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

Cultivator or trowel
Sphagnum peat moss

Step1

Care for your ornamental cherry tree by planting it in a location that receives plenty of sun, and is fairly resistant to frost during the early spring months. Water should not collect near the trunk. Placing any flowering tree in a shady or overly moist area will inhibit the number of blooms in the spring.

Step2

Prune your ornamental cherry tree in a timely manner to encourage blooms in the springtime. Pruning the branches in fall will remove too many buds, and you will miss the glorious heraldry of all those cherry blossoms at the first sign of spring. Once your ornamental cherry tree starts to bloom regularly in the spring, you can safely prune any dead or stagnant branches and encourage new growth immediately.

Step3

Gently loosen any compacted and hard soul around the root structure when you care for your ornamental cherry tree. Use a small cultivator or trowel to rake the soil near the trunk, as well as outward along the larger roots. You may want to add a few handfuls of sphagnum peat moss to the soil to prevent stagnant water from forming around the base of your tree.

Step4

Remove all the grass from around the trunk of your ornamental cherry tree. Grass and other plants compete for nutrients in the soil, and having too much vegetation near your tree may limit the amount of blooms you receive in the spring, and slow overall growth. Clear the ground approximately 2 feet in every direction for an average-sized ornamental cherry tree.

Step5

Water your ornamental cherry tree daily throughout late spring and the entire summer to care for it during warm and dry weather. Flowering trees may be fairly vulnerable to drought, so you will need to give the tree extra attention whenever the temperature rises above 80 degrees, or if there has been no rainfall for over 2 weeks.

Tips & Warnings

An ornamental cherry tree may experience a reduction in blossoms for the first three seasons after being planted due to transplant shock. Be patient during this early period of the development of your flowering tree.