To Weep or Not to Weep: Tales of Grafts Gone Bad, Part 3

I would say this is the end of the story of the cherry tree with two habits, but I have a feeling that it will eventually be cut down. That was the idea, I believe, when the grounds crew was sent to work on this tree. Instead of giving up on it, they cut out the root stock sport (which had almost completely taken over), and left the weeping limbs. It looks like a bad perm. Maybe it will fill in and look better in a few years. But probably not.

To Weep or Not to Weep: Tales of Grafts Gone Bad, Part 2

In early fall, I saw a cherry tree with a split personality.

Not only does it have two different habits, it has different flowering times and different flower colors. The weeping part bloomed first with pink flowers, and the rootstock sports bloomed afterward with white flowers.

To Weep or Not to Weep: Tales of Grafts Gone Bad, Part 1

A weeping cherry is supposed to only weep, but this tree has a split personality.

The bottom of the tree is skirted with pendulous branches.

But the top of the tree has no signs of weeping at all. And looking up into the canopy, all you see are branches reaching for the sky.

A weeping cherry is often made by grafting: a non-weeping variety is left to grow until the trunk is about four or five feet tall, at which point the branches are cut off and the weeping cherry is grafted on. The original tree can still throw up branches from below the graft, and if these aren't cut off at the base, they can end up dominating the tree.

That's what has happened here. Both types of branches are different varieties; they might even flower at different times. The only way to make a uniform tree at this point would be to cut off all of the weeping branches.