Cristobalina is somewhat common in So. California. Could be Minnie Royal or Royal Lee. All 200 chills or less. Depends on where in SoCal you are (chill hours) and if the home owner knew what he was doing (or just liked a cherry tree's looks without the fruit). And how long the tree has been in the ground (at least 3 years from what I see but maybe not more). If your area has 400 or more then quite a few cultivars could have been tried. Here is a link that might be useful: Cristobalina at Arboreum

Sure. Just spray appropriately during the dormant season as you would for PLC. Your anti-fungal product used for PLC will also control Shot Hole. I spray on the "holidays" - Thanksgiving, Christmas, (mid Jan), and Valentine's Day. That does it for me, for by SH and PLC. The tree will recover just fine, and the pest pressure will really depend more on your yard and the issues you have in your yard, not so much what happened to this tree at the nursery. And yes, always pick up an fallen leaves from all your stone fruits to reduce spore build up. Patty S.

It's a weed, sorry. :~) We have LOTS of it, at our new place at the edge of the hill country; wherever we have piled up dirt and rocks ready to landscape it has sprouted and gets 5-6 feet tall. The blooms aren't very exciting. I believe it is horseweed, aka marestail. Many pics on links show it in the rosette stage or don't show a good picture of it, but this one should look somewhat familiar. Anyway, that's what I think it is....it's not goldenrod. http://www.umassgreeninfo.org/fact_sheets/weed_herbarium/pages/erica.html

Thanks for all of the constructive comments. I have them scheduled for removal in about a week, but I am liking the idea of keeping #2 and am considering that option. If I keep this tree, I would would like to have some branches removed (those that are directly above where the maples will fill in in the next 10 years or so. I am not looking for perfect specimen trees and like the them to look more natural (forest like) with higher branches, and without perfect symmetry. I have marked up the branches that I would have removed (see those marked in red). The yellow represents the locations where the pruning cuts would be. My question is...... would this be too heavy of a removal all at once, and should I have these branches taken out over time? I would like to avoid sprouting, but I know that is a normal reaction (see tree #3 on far right from sever storm damage). Thanks for the great suggestions!