Japanese flowering cherry: when and how to prune

Japanese flowering cherry: when to prune it?

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Prune after flowering, in May–July, on a dry day during a dry spell. The tree is then in full growth, and the wounds close quickly.

Never prune in autumn or winter: the wounds then close slowly, and silver leaf and gummosis have free rein. If a branch breaks in winter, tidy up the wound neatly in May.

Flower clusters and twigs that wither soon after flowering and hang on, brown, have blossom wilt. Cut them out straight away in dry weather, back into healthy wood: this is not pruning, but hygiene.

What else to prune in those months? May · June · July

Japanese flowering cherry: how to prune it?

1. Prune little: only remove dead, diseased, crossing or awkward branches, and otherwise let the tree keep its own shape.
2. Saw just outside the branch collar, the swelling where the branch joins the trunk, without leaving a stub and without cutting into the trunk. Saw a heavy branch in three steps, so the bark does not tear.
3. Remove shoots that come up below the graft union or from the roots: that is the rootstock, usually wild cherry, which would otherwise overgrow the tree.
4. On a weeping form, top-grafted onto a stem, anything growing from the stem below the crown is a wild shoot. Also trim branches that trail on the ground.
5. If you want to walk under the tree, gradually remove the lowest branches while the tree is young, one or two each summer.
6. If you see silvery leaves, dying branches or gum oozing from the bark, saw off the branch in summer well back into healthy wood, then disinfect your saw.

How much to cut, and how often?

• Little, and not every year: a healthy flowering cherry often only needs a light prune every few years.
• Never remove a lot at once and never cut it back hard: large wounds heal poorly and leave the door wide open to silver leaf, and the tree responds with a mass of water shoots.
• If it is too big for its spot, pruning won’t make it small. When planting a new one, choose a narrow form such as ‘Amanogawa’ instead.

What does it mean for wildlife?

• Pruning in May–July falls in the nesting season (15 March–15 August). Blackbirds, chaffinches and woodpigeons like to nest in a flowering cherry: look carefully first, as disturbing an active nest is against the law.
• Double flowers such as those of ‘Kanzan’ give hardly any nectar or pollen. If you also want to help bees, choose a single-flowered variety such as the white ‘Tai Haku’, or plant a native wild cherry.
• Ladybirds, hoverfly larvae and tits usually deal with the black cherry aphids on the shoot tips themselves. Don’t spray poison.
• Put healthy prunings on a dead hedge, a shelter for hedgehogs and wrens. Do clear up fallen leaves riddled with the little holes of shot hole, though.

Common mistakes

• Pruning in autumn or winter, so silver leaf and gummosis get in through the wounds.
• Cutting the tree back hard or topping it every year, so it sprouts a mass of water shoots and loses its fine shape.
• Letting shoots from the rootstock grow on, until they overgrow the grafted tree.
• Leaving a stub or sawing flush with the trunk, instead of just outside the branch collar.
• Pruning in May–July without checking for nests first.

Nearby: related pruning guides

• Cherry tree
• Higan cherry
• Almond tree
• Magnolia
• Japanese maple

Similar to: Difference from wild cherry

Plant profile: Japanese flowering cherry · Pruning calendar and basic rules