hey brian ...

a good start would be.. giving us the latin name of exactly what you are looking for ...

otherwise.. we may make a bunch of suggestions about things that are irrelevant ...

otherwise.. hit the link ... but be sure to check watchdog sites for vendors ...

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

Most weeping cherries are grafted on to a single upright trunk......very hard to find one of the size you are looking for. Once you factor in shipping and handling, you may be paying almost as much as if you were to visit a local nursery. And online sales to California tend to be limited (unless from an instate source) because of agricultural restrictions. Plus, many online sources do not provide warranties for their plants as do local nurseries/garden centers and ornamental cherries are one tree I would definitely be looking for a warranty with!

That said, most ornamental cherries are not very expensive trees in most nurseries - they certainly sell for a lot less than $60-120 around here! And right now is an excellent time to find them as bare root stock, which tend to be even less expensive than potted ones. Home Depot and Lowe's typically have these available quite inexpensively as well.

Potted weeping cherry trees (in this case the now common 'Snofozam' cultivar, I believe) delivered recently to Home Depots appear to be priced at ~80 dollars.

Part of your problem may be your Orange County location, perhaps not generally a good area for these - making them scarce in local outlets. Do you see many around in existing plantings there, of some age?

I have seen 'Snofozam' offered here over the years in a variety of forms including low-branching ones, so at least in an area where hardy Prunus are regularly and frequently presented to the consumer it might be possible to find some smaller stock somewhere. Otherwise, try searching the internet.

Note that if you plant a weeping Japanese apricot, instead of a weeping cherry you get the additional feature of a strong, carnation-like fragrance.

boy i never heard of a carnation scented flowering tree .. guess thats one downside to z5 MI ... lol .. darn.. looks like z6 at best ..

i think i can sum up our suggestions by saying this might be the one you want to blow the budget on .. rather than starting small and cheap ... and trust me.. for every 10 babes i plant.. i do invest in one big one ..

setting aside conifers.. its really hard to find the bargains on grafted flowering trees ...

check the link.. and add your zip code and see if it is available .. add shipping and find out if you arent back into the range you didnt want to pay .... i have bought a bunch of fruit trees from them and have had great results ...

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

It was said: "Part of your problem may be your Orange County location, perhaps not generally a good area for these - making them scarce in local outlets."

Yep. In fact it's *the* problem.

Jean,
who gardened for 30-some years in Long Beach, CA

Golly, I was gonna say, that's one that you can usually find in the home improvement stores for $9-$20 for a decent sized potted.

I've ordered with forest farm. they've got a great selection and I think they've got a warranty although I've never tried it out.

They don't do well in regions with mild winters.

Find your Sunset climate zone in the Sunset WESTERN GARDEN BOOK, then see what zones are indicated for weeping cherries in the plant encyclopedia section.

Sunset Publishing also has a gardening section on the internet, with similar information (the book is more complete).

I second the Sunset Western Garden Book suggestion. Thirty seconds with its chart on ornamental cherries would show they don't like Orange Co. Like Jean said. And Sunset has pages and pages of suitable replacements.

Dan

Thanks for all the advice!

I do have the Sunset western garden book and it says that there are two varieties that are suited for my climate, just not any of the weeping cherries. Besides the weeping ones, I know for certain that I can grow at least a couple of different ones because my grandfather's house, a few miles from me has always had flowering cherries that do flower. He has the okame, yoshino, and another pink one, maybe the pink flair? He got them from Home depot a few years back, but I don't see any home depots or lowe's around here that sells any. Maybe I will just buy from forest farms or spend the $60 at Armstrongs. If they don't bloom, at least I tried. Thanks again for all your help!

I bought an Okame from japanesemaple.net since it's one of the few cherry varieties that are supposed to do okay in this region, it was very small when it arrived (18 inches maybe) it struggled through the summer but we've had a very cold winter for S.E. Texas so hopefully it'll bud and look lively when it warms up here.