Oh God! It can be frustrating to read people giving advice based on books they've read. There has been so much bad advice given on pruning over the years it is boggling to the mind and a lot of it is published and written by pedigreed specialists. Fortunately things are getting better in the information coming from places like Cornell if you search for advice for commercial growers- the stuff for the home grower tends to be quite uneven. Different cherries have different growth habits and cherries are amongst the most difficult trees to prune to the most productive shape. I struggle to achieve good productivity from a reasonably compact tree but at least the first years don't have to be complicated. It is most likely that your tree will become an open center tree even if you try to maintain it as a central leader, but if you train it originally as a central leader for the first 2 years using the ratio formula I've suggested you will have a leg up producing a productive and compact tree. If you want an open center from the get-go, just plan to cut the central leader to a scaffold after 2 years. Cherry trees usually only need 3 scaffolds to harvest the full 360 of available light. The real goal of pruning any fruit tree in my opinion is to produce a tree with the maximum amount of well lighted fruiting (small) wood and the least amount of structural (large) wood. Basically harvesting the most light with the least "infrastructure".

Good eye, Sandy! They were inadvertently mixed up when I posted the pics...I didn't notice until you mentioned it just now. Thank you! Here they are as of a few days ago... Stained Glass - very late bloomer Paradigm Julie Morss Touch of Class. Blue Angel is planted... all the bareroot hostas are doing well - this year's and previous purchases. Rainforest Sunrise and Liberty were the only ones that didn't make it the following spring but I had replaced them last year (although not bareroot).

I would contact them right away about this damaged bareroot. I personally would not plant that. Even from reputable companies such as Reagan stuff like this seems happens from time to time. I received a similar bareroot from DA last year (normally receive wonderful bareroots from them) and they replaced it right away. I don't sweat minor damage but this is more than that.

We replaced old ugly red ones with these from overstock. It is a sisal look. I was worried about cats ruining that faster (same texture as their scratch things). These were very inexpensive because I don't trust the cats at all but they have been leaving them alone. They aren't very comfortable bare foot but I like the look enough for the cost. They are nailed in with many tiny nails. This pic really pointed out a paint job is in order! They are shallow steps so they get kicked.