"What caused the injury(ies)" Mabel, Montmorency is said to be good to -40F but not under every circumstance. There are so many things that have to be just right for your tree to be healthy enough to survive that limit. For example a tree that has begun to become stressed can become infected easier with bacteria P.S. short for "Psuedomonas syringae", which is an opportunistic disease. Once stressed and established these bacterias then try to kill plant cells in the way diseases do and the P.S. bacterias do "ice nucleate" adjacent plant cells. This means that the cells that are otherwise prepared to survive much colder than below freezing temperatures are less able to because the cells get injected with compounds that favor ice crystallization at closer temperatures to the normal freezing of water, when then the cells will freeze and burst. I would say most extension services are really not prepared to advise all the things you must do (tree health) because this can become a rather involved project in some weather locals and even soil types. You can't always rely on spraying to prevent initial infection sites because many of them have got specialized and resist the chemicals. I would be prepared to tell you to burn the tree after you've eaten the cherries, or at least surgically torch all the open diseased area. And if it is the disease I truly think it is (it happened in the same way to my cherry in Alaska) planting a peach (lower 48 peach experiences) will give you the same maintenance requirements because they are just as susceptible or more, to the same disease as cherries. But if you DO plant peach I've heard about a new peach rootstock bred in N.J. called 'Guardian' that has in trials shown to keep the host tree scaffold in good enough condition to prevent these bacterial infections, for the most part.

you dont want to take the time to rotate the pix.. but i should take the time ... blah.. blah.. blah ... 2nd pic.. why the giant staking procedure .. how big is that tree. and how long has it been there???? is this a fruit tree or an ornamental flowering cherry???? third pic.. any conifer that does not grow is dead ... but dead ones cna hold their needles for a year or so.. until hot weather browns them.. and makes them fall off ....is it supposed to be yellow??? or blue/green ... but dead ones.. eventually shed leaves ... i say.. rotate this pic.. and post it in the conifer forum ... [what the heck did you edit out of that pic.. lol.. the neighbor standing in your pic with a silly grin????] i know the first pic is a problem.. but i am blanking on it ... ken

No...I found them after talking to the nursery. I'll admit I'm a newb so I could have been taken on this one. We'll see. I assumed it was the other way around (bores caused the split)...or that my neighbor introduced the bores to our area. They did say they would "work with me" on a new tree if this one doesn't make it but after seeing it he is confident that it will. The nursery has a really good rep in the area and I've talked to the same guy each time I've been in. I've bought other plants from them over the past 3 years...this is the first hiccup so I hesitate to switch to guns on this guy. If nothing else I will have learned a lesson.

Two guesses which play into eachother. Glyphosate lowering a tree's resistance to cold. Complicated world!. I am willing to be the distance trees travel to be planted anymore is growing. I know I can mailorder Oregon trees and I wonder how many of the big boys get trees from gentler climates with longer growing seasons. Couple that with some spray and the previously mentioned way trees are packed in at a nursery then planted out alone in our yards and I bet they are shocked by the cold.