HTA-0635: Henry's Garden — Cherry Trees

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Summary

Henry and Buzz discuss cherry tree varieties, planting, and care for Bay Area gardens.

Full Transcript

Speaker 1
00:00
A tale of two cherry trees.

Speaker 1
00:03
Two.

Speaker 1
00:03
Exhibit number one.

Speaker 1
00:05
A.

Speaker 1
00:05
Could you stand back so people can actually see it?

Speaker 1
00:07
Oh, shoot.

Speaker 1
00:08
This would be your weeping cherry tree, notice.

Speaker 2
00:10
Very nice.

Speaker 2
00:11
A lot of history behind this tree, folks,

Speaker 2
00:14
but we're not going to go into that, Henry.

Speaker 2
00:15
No, let's not.

Speaker 1
00:17
And then there's this thing.

Speaker 1
00:18
This is actually kind of a cool little ornament

Speaker 1
00:20
I guess I should mention since I tripped over it.

Speaker 1
00:22
And then exhibit B on the cherry tree--

Speaker 1
00:25
B. --is this one over here.

Speaker 1
00:28
Kwanzan flowering cherry.

Speaker 1
00:29
Yes, now neither one of these cherries has ever put out any fruit.

Speaker 1
00:33
They are flowering trees.

Speaker 1
00:34
Exactly.

Speaker 1
00:35
And we're going to talk about a couple of little problems on these trees.

Speaker 1
00:39
First of all, on this one, this Kwanzan.

Speaker 1
00:41
Are you going to join us or are you just going to stand over there?

Speaker 2
00:43
I thought you were going to start over here.

Speaker 2
00:44
Now you're coming over here.

Speaker 1
00:45
No, we're starting over here.

Speaker 1
00:46
Kwanzan.

Speaker 1
00:47
Okay, so this is the Kwanzan cherry.

Speaker 1
00:49
And on this one, it probably needs a little bit of pruning.

Speaker 1
00:51
You're supposed to, I just read, take out these sort of these low-lying items that,

Speaker 1
00:59
probably not what I should have used.

Speaker 2
01:01
No, no, it's not what I should have used.

Speaker 2
01:04
Everybody should have a little pruning saw.

Speaker 2
01:06
This is very handy in your arsenal.

Speaker 1
01:08
Overdoing it a little bit, are we?

Speaker 1
01:11
Maybe, but I didn't have those with me.

Speaker 1
01:13
Anyway, the stuff that's down low, you don't want these to be growing,

Speaker 1
01:18
so you want to be cutting those off.

Speaker 1
01:20
Notice how I just did that with these nice pruning shears, didn't need a saw.

Speaker 1
01:24
We want to take out crossing branches.

Speaker 1
01:27
For example, there's a crossing,

Speaker 1
01:29
there's a couple of them up here.

Speaker 1
01:32
To give it some shape, oh, right there.

Speaker 1
01:34
See that one, it's kind of going up to there, see that?

Speaker 1
01:36
So I'm gonna take that one out.

Speaker 2
01:39
Thank you.

Speaker 1
01:39
- There we go.

Speaker 1
01:40
- And then in the winter--

Speaker 2
01:41
- You wanna point out to people

Speaker 2
01:42
that this tree is leaning, that makes it easier?

Speaker 2
01:45
- Well, it is leaning a little bit.

Speaker 2
01:46
- Yeah, but that's a different story for a different time.

Speaker 2
01:48
- Yeah, there was some trees back there,

Speaker 1
01:50
and so it was kinda good sun.

Speaker 1
01:51
Anyway, it's too big, what are we gonna do about it?

Speaker 2
01:54
- We're not gonna do anything more about it.

Speaker 2
01:56
All right, ladies and gentlemen, my kind of gardening.

Speaker 2
01:58
You know why?

Speaker 2
01:59
Because why do we want to cut off all this growth

Speaker 2
02:01
when it's going to sit there and flower for us next spring?

Speaker 2
02:04
Okay, so we're not going to do anything.

Speaker 2
02:05
We're not going to prune it until after it finished flowering.

Speaker 1
02:07
Now, this tree is just about perfect, this weeping cherry.

Speaker 1
02:10
Look at it, it's beautiful.

Speaker 1
02:11
The only thing about this, it's weeping.

Speaker 1
02:14
I would probably want to take off.

Speaker 1
02:15
Wait, wait, wait.

Speaker 1
02:16
I would want to take off.

Speaker 1
02:17
See this?

Speaker 1
02:18
Yeah.

Speaker 1
02:18
This is not weeping.

Speaker 1
02:19
Yeah, I'll go with that.

Speaker 1
02:20
So I'll take that off.

Speaker 2
02:22
Henry, can I point out that growth that's in the back there,

Speaker 2
02:24
those tall things?

Speaker 1
02:25
These guys?

Speaker 1
02:26
Yeah.

Speaker 1
02:26
Yeah, but those are different plants.

Speaker 2
02:27
No.

Speaker 1
02:30
Those are not weeping.

Speaker 1
02:31
Look at them.

Speaker 2
02:32
No, I know they're not weeping, but they are part of this plant.

Speaker 2
02:36
Suckers.

Speaker 2
02:37
Absolutely.

Speaker 2
02:37
Oh.

Speaker 2
02:38
On cherry trees, just like on roses and citrus.

Speaker 1
02:41
Follow me, ladies and gentlemen.

Speaker 1
02:42
We are going to go into the depths.

Speaker 2
02:44
Deep, deep.

Speaker 1
02:45
OK, come on in here.

Speaker 2
02:46
Deep into the underbelly of Henry's Flowering Cherry.

Speaker 2
02:49
Come on in, Dean.

Speaker 1
02:51
OK, so now, if you'll look at this,

Speaker 1
02:54
This tree is actually two trees.

Speaker 1
02:57
Sorry, I got a little bit of leaf in there.

Speaker 1
02:59
This tree is actually two trees.

Speaker 1
03:01
- Could be three, but I'll stay with two.

Speaker 1
03:03
- This is sort of the basic stock.

Speaker 1
03:05
This is nice and firm and sturdy.

Speaker 1
03:06
- Called the broomstick.

Speaker 1
03:07
- And then above this, there is another tree grafted on

Speaker 1
03:11
and that's what gives you the flowers.

Speaker 2
03:13
- The desirable portion.

Speaker 2
03:14
- So would you show them now?

Speaker 2
03:16
- This is the bud union.

Speaker 2
03:18
So this is the desirable portion of the plant.

Speaker 2
03:20
Anything below that basically is suckers.

Speaker 2
03:22
So we have one, two, three, four branches that need to come off.

Speaker 1
03:27
So what you're seeing outside sticking up.

Speaker 1
03:30
That vertical growth.

Speaker 1
03:30
Is these four guys that we want to take out.

Speaker 2
03:33
And that's where the pruning you saw comes in really handy because we can make a nice, clean cut right next to the crown or the collar, I should say, on the stem itself.

Speaker 1
03:45
You know what?

Speaker 1
03:46
You win on this one.

Speaker 1
03:46
I can't cut these.

Speaker 1
03:48
But anyway, the idea is that they are ugly.

Speaker 1
03:51
they aren't going to produce flowers because they're rootstock basically.

Speaker 1
03:55
And you're going to get a much healthier tree because these aren't going to sap all of that extra nonsense from the...

Speaker 2
04:02
Yeah, too bad you didn't do this five years ago.

Speaker 1
04:04
Yeah, you're right. You know, this could be one of the reasons I haven't got as many flowers as I wanted.

Speaker 1
04:08
I could be.

Speaker 1
04:09
So now, if we look at the tree...

Speaker 1
04:12
Can we back... You keep going. Stay under there.

Speaker 1
04:14
But if we look at the tree from outside...

Speaker 1
04:17
Oh, what a difference.

Speaker 1
04:18
Stay under here, Buzz.

Speaker 1
04:20
If we look at the tree from outside,

Speaker 1
04:23
we can see that that's what it used to look like.

Speaker 1
04:26
Very good.

Speaker 1
04:27
Okay, and now what it looks like.

Speaker 1
04:29
- What a difference.

Speaker 1
04:30
- Much, much better.

Speaker 1
04:31
Well, it would look even better if Buzz weren't in there.