Thanks- yeah I don't know if it's own-root, I must look up what is "normal" for sour cherries. Bare root sounds best for me, as well as the tree. They can load it in the truck and I can pull it out with tractors so it should be a gentle move, at least. It was dug out with a bobcat bucket, not what I'd call ideal! But it is silty clay soil, and it popped out quite intact, besides a scar on the side (slip of the bucket...)

Lives over here cut short by grafting on sweet cherry rootstock and other misfortunes. In Japan they have huge specimens of Japanese flowering cherry trees, some of which are claimed to be preposterously ancient. Cherry trees in general are live-hard, die young trees that (in nature) pop up in sunny clearings, bloom heavily and early in life so they are able to reproduce before being crowded out by longer-lived, forest or woodland species that succeed them over time. But 25-30 years is a very short span for any tree. Such statements, also made about purple-leaved plums, probably all originate in less suitable climates where these are average lifetimes resulting from a proportion of early deaths.

I grew up in the Washington D.C. area and always loved the Cherry Blossom Festival trees. I thought all Yoshino cherry trees had the soft pale pink blooms I remembered from childhood, so I planted one. To my dismay, I found out after my Yoshino bloomed WHITE that what I really wanted was the 'Akebono' cultivar of Yoshino cherry tree. The Yoshino has white blooms, whereas the 'Akebono' cultivar of Yoshino has the pale pink blossoms. I mail-ordered my Akebono from Greenwood Nursery (www.Greenwoodnursery.com) bare-root and it's growing great! I also like the 'Kanzan'. It has extravagant double blooms in a deeper pink and the tree is vase-shaped. I've seen young ones pruned like a standard with the top rounded and it looks really nice. These trees grow EXTREMELY fast - my white yoshino is 12 x 15 feet and is only 4 years old. The downside is they are relatively short-lived (I've read, no personal experience) due to the fact they can succumb to diseases & pests fairly easily. I don't care - they look absolutely glorious while they last - to me they're well worth it for 10+ years of pure beauty.

.But it sure is true that I couldn't get any real "rootball" type of thing on these. I call it with this vague name, because for moving roses, people often seem so hung up on the "rootball" concept, excessively so, IMO. ==>>> when i moved to this property of all glacial sand ... i learned.. that there is no such thing as moving a root BALL ... no matter how carefully i tried to dig a ball of soil ... it frankly... just fell off ... so i learned how to move things bare root .. lol ... frankly ... it does matter .. period ... BUT ... and there is usually a big but around somewhere ... i learned that timing of moves.. as well as aftercare is really the solution ... a few of much much used cliches: move in dormancy.. so there is reduced water stress .. trying to hold active leaves ... do it in the right season ... for me in my z5 MI ... fall or spring.. when dormant.. and so they are set.. and the roots working.. 6 to 8 weeks before the heat of the next hot season ... and finally.. move nothing after about 6/1 .... unless i can personally care for it. and thats not easy on 5 acres ... some times you have to do.. what you have to do.... say a building project .... but then.. i have to be checking it every few days.. inserting finger.. etc ... so.. back to your premise.... the BALL ... is basically irrelevant .... so dont fixate on it ... but hey ... if you can get a good chunk of roots.. with the soil ... all the better... all the easier ... but again... its not requisite ... ken ps: back when i was a rose collector ... i mail ordered hundreds of them.. all bare root ... with barely a couple stringy roots ... off some larger woody ones ... never lost a single one for that ... so there is no real reason .. not to bare root a rose ... in the right season.. etc ... the dirt is not the important part .... [here in MI.. winter killed most of the foo foo roses i tried to collect ...but thats a different show]