Cherry Trees

Your questions about cherry trees answered

You often ask us how to care for your cherry trees, so here we provide quick answers to your most common queries.

Do cherry trees lose their leaves?

Cherry trees are deciduous and so their leaves turn a spectacular array of golds, ambers, and reds prior to shedding as the trees enter their dormant phase during the autumn.

When to prune cherry trees

You should prune all cherry trees, including both cherry blossom trees and dwarf cherry trees, during July or August. This helps reduce the risk of your plants contracting deadly silver leaf fungus and certain bacterial diseases to which they’re particularly susceptible.

How to prune cherry trees

Always disinfect your tools before pruning and do so again after you’ve finished working on one tree and before moving to the next. Look for dead, damaged, or diseased branches, and branches which rub, and cut them away. Next, prune sparingly to produce an open goblet shape. To do this, take out inward and downward pointing shoots, as well as particularly vigorous upward shoots. You should also remove any buds appearing on the lower trunk, or suckers that grow out from the rootstock.

For more stone fruit trees, head over to our apricot and peach trees or browse our classic plum trees.