ther than keeping it well-watered, should I fertilize with a high N fertilizer, or just leave it alone? I dont want to kill it with kindness, but I really liked the tree. ==>>> you are on the verge of lovin it to death i dont care where you post.. but this isnt treated as a fruit tree.. and there is a tree forum ... let me clarify why nitro is not useful ... nitro stimulates green growth ... you lost your leaves.. because you cut off 99% of its roots ... using fert to stimulate green leaves.. will de-stimulate its need to GROW ROOTS ... make any sense ... all that.. plus IMHO.. trees NEVER need fertilizer ... other than actual FRUIT PRODUCTION trees .... but that aint you ... focus on what need be done.. grow ROOTS!.. and all the tree needs for root growth .. is water for that ... and if it thrived for 2 years.. i will not agree you have sterile soil ... so fert isnt needed ... and next time you want to move a tree .. do it in FULL DORMANCY .... rather than after bloom and leaf out ... it spent all its stored energy blooming and leafing.. and now it has no roots ... to process water ... if you perfect TIMING.. the whole process is much more forgivable ... good luck ken ps: NEVER fertilize a stressed tree.. and your is stressed from transplant ...

Other(s) have asked about "weeping" cherries that were purchased smaller-than-usual, that didn't look typical. Yours doesn't either, at this point. Before I think it was determined there was raising from seed involved, probably resulting in a an absence of a weeping habit being passed along to the stock being sold. However, if a single-stem tree is to be made out of yours, without waiting to see if it does it on its own at some point later (looks like it is branching from the base, as trees may often due when planted in the open, without competition for light drawing them up vertically) the procedure is the same: insert a firm stake of adequate height close to the base of the tree (try to figure out where you can due it without pushing down any of the larger roots), select one of the branches and tie it securely into a vertical position at several points along the stake. Use tying materials that will not cut into the bark later, ask at a garden center about this (hopefully the same place you find the stake).

Lawn, being a lawn is likely to need fertilization. Whether tree needs it later or not depends on individual situation and not sweeping generalization. Cherry trees do not come back well from heading cuts, tend to grow off at right angles when lopped. Also there is the problem of their disease susceptibility, introducing pathogens through pruning. The tree has a genetic blueprint to even out the top as it grows, does not need to be cut on for this to happen. The way for it to fill in nicely is to have it grow vigorously, not be dwarfed and deformed by arbitrary top pruning and subsequent small, badly angled replacement sprouts. The fact that the one branch grew like a weed on a prior occasion is not made up for by the other branches growing more slowly now. Quite the opposite, in fact. once this guy is up and growing-think Ken's "tree years"-it will behave pretty much just like all the others of its type Yes, definitely - trees have a growth phase and then a reproductive phase during their lives. This is why so many trees have crown shapes that are more upright and pointed for a time and then more rounded and spreading later. Seedlings (specimens grown from seed rather than grafts or cuttings of already sexually mature examples) of wild species trees often do not flower at all for perhaps decades while the top is developing.

>Prunus x yedoensis (Yoshino) cherries have an ability to get much larger than the 'Kanzan'......almost double the size< Both are large and vigorous Japanese cherries, which tend to produce generally similar individual crown dimensions. For example a 'Kwanzan' in Sultan, WA was 50 ft. high in 1993; another example, in Sumner, WA had an average crown spread of 55 ft. the previous year. P. x yedoensis has been measured 55 ft. high in MD (1990), and with an average crown spread of 65 ft. in Seattle (1993). More recent (~2005) measurements for Seattle (USDA 8) include a 'Kwanzan' 53 ft. high, another with an average crown spread of 57 1/2 ft., and a Yoshino cherry 57 ft. high. The charm of the Yoshino is in its perfect balance: its dark rugged trunk, often burly and besprouted, makes an ideal contrast for the quintessentially delicate pink blossoms. Nor is the tree so fussy and weak as the winter-blooming Higan cherry, or so bloated and gaudy as are 'Kwanzan' and the other Sato-zakura --Arthur Lee Jacobson, Trees of Seattle - Second Edition (2006)