hmm- i spoke to a member of the california rare fruit growers and she told me her greengage and bavay gage trees blossomed a year after she planted them bare root. she got her trees from dave wilson via the bay laurel nursery. maybe the california climate encourages earlier blooming. i got my greengage from forest farm. this year i have planted a bavay gage and a golden transparent gage from raintree who get their trees from dave wilson. hope those dont take7 years to bloom. scott- did your french prune go from zero blossoms to full blossom in one year, or was it a gradual increase. my green gage has had about 5- 6 blossoms each year its been in my ground. none have set as yet. I just pruned several feet off my greengage tree. will see if that does anything. scott- how many years will you give your gages to bloom before giving up on them and uprooting them.

Johndoug: I come down with Baumer on this one, in disagreement with my esteemed colleagues Konrad and Geraldo. A rare moment indeed. I would have headed the tree back at 3 feet or even less at planting time, but for now would cut it off below the top of the chickenwire, just as Baumer suggests. That wild single branch up-top is not the future of your tree. You don't need it and you don't want it. What you want is a nice, low-branching, spreading tree if you can train it, and that is why I suggest you look into ways to spread the branches and reduce the sharp crotch angles and upward growth of this tree. If you are having deer problems on the tree (And who doesn't?), you should soon be looking into taller, stronger wire, maybe anchored by a couple of steel posts, to allow for future branch spreading within the protected area. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

The low graft just means it will never get to be a very large tree at all. And you don't want to do any pruning at this time. Let the tree establish and develop. You should remove any shoots that appear below the graft and any top shoots that are growing in an unusual, outward or non-weeping pattern. But leave the lower branches/shoots in place for the time being as they help with establishment and trunk development. After a few years in the ground, you can gradually remove them from the the lowest point up to where the canopy really starts to develop. Not to rain on your parade but you should be aware that weeping flowering cherries - in fact, most flowering cherries - tend to be problematic trees in the PNW. Our climate seems to generate a lot of disease issues and weeping cherries/flowering cherries tend to have the lion's share. Keep on top of any problems, watch for rootstock shoots and enjoy your little tree for as long as it looks good and remains in good health.

While I respect your considered opinion, gg, (thank you for sharing your knowledge) pruning when the tree isn't growing is very much advised against when it comes to stone fruit. No orchard owner here in the PA fruit belt prunes the stone fruit until the very last thing. A snowy winter when it's hard to get into the blocks means that in many years peaches, plums and cherries are pruned when in bloom. It is pretty, but pretty jarring too, to see the orchard floors spread with pink and white bloom. This from Maryland: Stone fruit trees are also very susceptible to a disease called Cystospora canker. If pruned in late winter, the tree cannot protect the pruning wounds from infection by this disease. Prune your trees from budswell through petal fall in the spring. (The bold type is from the MD Extension Service site.) This from Penn State: "The best time to prune is from just before bloom to 2 weeks after petal fall. Do not prune the trees from January through March, and do not prune before budswell. Stone fruit trees are very susceptible to a disease called cytospora canker. If pruned in the winter, the trees cannot protect the pruning wounds from infection by this disease. The exception is sweet cherries, which are best pruned after they have fruited or in early July.