{"id":22199,"date":"2023-06-14T09:29:26","date_gmt":"2023-06-14T13:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/?p=22199"},"modified":"2023-06-14T09:29:26","modified_gmt":"2023-06-14T13:29:26","slug":"why-is-my-cherry-tree-not-blossoming-and-has-few-leaves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2023\/06\/14\/why-is-my-cherry-tree-not-blossoming-and-has-few-leaves\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is my cherry tree not blossoming and has few leaves?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Question:<\/h3>\n

I have a Weeping Cherry tree in my yard that did not blossom and has very few leaves. Most of the branches are bare, looking dead. A neighbor about four houses away also has a smaller weeping cherry tree in the same situation. Could you please advise how we can help diagnose or treat these trees?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Answer:<\/h3>\n
Jonathan Foster, Special Project Assistant\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n

I’m sorry to hear about your\u00a0cherry\u00a0tree, but you are far from the only one in that boat this season. The combination of generally mild winter and a late brutal cold snap is wreaking havoc on many fruit\u00a0trees this year, and is a likely culprit for your tree’s woes. While I don’t have the exact dates, it was the cold snap in February that did it. I’ll include a couple of sources from slightly farther afield discussing the New England 2023\u00a0peach\u00a0crop (the effects are similar on many fruit trees):
\nCornell Univ Blog<\/a><\/p>\n

CBS Boston news story<\/a><\/p>\n

There are some other reasons why your cherry might be struggling–e.g., the watering regimen, soil conditions, and (importantly with many ornamentals) pruning. So I will also include a few resources on general cherry care:<\/p>\n

UMaine Coop Extension home page on fruit trees<\/a><\/p>\n

MOFGA page on growing cherry trees<\/a><\/p>\n

Univ of MD Coop Extension Ornamental Cherry Tree page<\/a><\/p>\n

The silver lining is that if the tree is otherwise healthy, it will typically recover from minor to moderate winter injury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Question: I have a Weeping Cherry tree in my yard that did not blossom and has very few leaves. Most of the branches are bare, looking dead. A neighbor about four houses away also has a smaller weeping cherry tree in the same situation. Could you please advise how we can help diagnose or treat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[199,200],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ask","category-fruit"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy is my cherry tree not blossoming and has few leaves? - Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard - University of Maine Cooperative Extension<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2023\/06\/14\/why-is-my-cherry-tree-not-blossoming-and-has-few-leaves\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why is my cherry tree not blossoming and has few leaves? - Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard - University of Maine Cooperative Extension\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Question: I have a Weeping Cherry tree in my yard that did not blossom and has very few leaves. Most of the branches are bare, looking dead. A neighbor about four houses away also has a smaller weeping cherry tree in the same situation. Could you please advise how we can help diagnose or treat […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2023\/06\/14\/why-is-my-cherry-tree-not-blossoming-and-has-few-leaves\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-06-14T13:29:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"twood\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"twood\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2023\/06\/14\/why-is-my-cherry-tree-not-blossoming-and-has-few-leaves\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2023\/06\/14\/why-is-my-cherry-tree-not-blossoming-and-has-few-leaves\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"twood\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/#\/schema\/person\/9f0056a6c4a281b4f517e1313fa2c518\"},\"headline\":\"Why is my cherry tree not blossoming and has few leaves?\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-06-14T13:29:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2023\/06\/14\/why-is-my-cherry-tree-not-blossoming-and-has-few-leaves\/\"},\"wordCount\":256,\"articleSection\":[\"Ask the Expert\",\"Fruit Trees and Small Fruits\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2023\/06\/14\/why-is-my-cherry-tree-not-blossoming-and-has-few-leaves\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2023\/06\/14\/why-is-my-cherry-tree-not-blossoming-and-has-few-leaves\/\",\"name\":\"Why is my cherry tree not blossoming and has few leaves? - Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard - University of Maine Cooperative Extension\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-06-14T13:29:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/#\/schema\/person\/9f0056a6c4a281b4f517e1313fa2c518\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2023\/06\/14\/why-is-my-cherry-tree-not-blossoming-and-has-few-leaves\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2023\/06\/14\/why-is-my-cherry-tree-not-blossoming-and-has-few-leaves\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2023\/06\/14\/why-is-my-cherry-tree-not-blossoming-and-has-few-leaves\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Why is my cherry tree not blossoming and has few leaves?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/\",\"name\":\"Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard\",\"description\":\"Information you can use. Research you can trust.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/#\/schema\/person\/9f0056a6c4a281b4f517e1313fa2c518\",\"name\":\"twood\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc8c7b5c8d78336ceef76f813278762e12972bcd042b075da831f24d0320bdb3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc8c7b5c8d78336ceef76f813278762e12972bcd042b075da831f24d0320bdb3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc8c7b5c8d78336ceef76f813278762e12972bcd042b075da831f24d0320bdb3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"twood\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/author\/twood\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why is my cherry tree not blossoming and has few leaves? - Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard - University of Maine Cooperative Extension","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2023\/06\/14\/why-is-my-cherry-tree-not-blossoming-and-has-few-leaves\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why is my cherry tree not blossoming and has few leaves? - Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard - University of Maine Cooperative Extension","og_description":"Question: I have a Weeping Cherry tree in my yard that did not blossom and has very few leaves. Most of the branches are bare, looking dead. A neighbor about four houses away also has a smaller weeping cherry tree in the same situation. Could you please advise how we can help diagnose or treat […]","og_url":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2023\/06\/14\/why-is-my-cherry-tree-not-blossoming-and-has-few-leaves\/","og_site_name":"Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard","article_published_time":"2023-06-14T13:29:26+00:00","author":"twood","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"twood","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2023\/06\/14\/why-is-my-cherry-tree-not-blossoming-and-has-few-leaves\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2023\/06\/14\/why-is-my-cherry-tree-not-blossoming-and-has-few-leaves\/"},"author":{"name":"twood","@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/#\/schema\/person\/9f0056a6c4a281b4f517e1313fa2c518"},"headline":"Why is my cherry tree not blossoming and has few leaves?","datePublished":"2023-06-14T13:29:26+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2023\/06\/14\/why-is-my-cherry-tree-not-blossoming-and-has-few-leaves\/"},"wordCount":256,"articleSection":["Ask the Expert","Fruit Trees and Small Fruits"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2023\/06\/14\/why-is-my-cherry-tree-not-blossoming-and-has-few-leaves\/","url":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2023\/06\/14\/why-is-my-cherry-tree-not-blossoming-and-has-few-leaves\/","name":"Why is my cherry tree not blossoming and has few leaves? - Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard - University of Maine Cooperative Extension","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-06-14T13:29:26+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/#\/schema\/person\/9f0056a6c4a281b4f517e1313fa2c518"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2023\/06\/14\/why-is-my-cherry-tree-not-blossoming-and-has-few-leaves\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2023\/06\/14\/why-is-my-cherry-tree-not-blossoming-and-has-few-leaves\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2023\/06\/14\/why-is-my-cherry-tree-not-blossoming-and-has-few-leaves\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Why is my cherry tree not blossoming and has few leaves?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/#website","url":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/","name":"Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard","description":"Information you can use. Research you can trust.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/#\/schema\/person\/9f0056a6c4a281b4f517e1313fa2c518","name":"twood","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc8c7b5c8d78336ceef76f813278762e12972bcd042b075da831f24d0320bdb3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc8c7b5c8d78336ceef76f813278762e12972bcd042b075da831f24d0320bdb3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc8c7b5c8d78336ceef76f813278762e12972bcd042b075da831f24d0320bdb3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"twood"},"url":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/author\/twood\/"}]}},"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":199,"label":"Ask the Expert"},{"value":200,"label":"Fruit Trees and Small Fruits"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"twood","author_link":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/author\/twood\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":199,"name":"Ask the Expert","slug":"ask","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":199,"taxonomy":"category","description":"This is the top level category for all posts submitted to our Ask the Expert gardening questions form.","parent":0,"count":652,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":199,"category_count":652,"category_description":"This is the top level category for all posts submitted to our Ask the Expert gardening questions form.","cat_name":"Ask the Expert","category_nicename":"ask","category_parent":0},{"term_id":200,"name":"Fruit Trees and Small Fruits","slug":"fruit","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":200,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":199,"count":108,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":200,"category_count":108,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Fruit Trees and Small Fruits","category_nicename":"fruit","category_parent":199}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22199"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22200,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22199\/revisions\/22200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}