I think what your saying is tree is not tall enough but it will grow up once it plugs in and it needn't be grown as a central leader, although it may still provide you with the opportunity to train an upward groing water sprout into a CL. Eventually cherries generally become open center trees anyway. Lapins is an extreme upright grower so tree may have been trained to counter that tendency. It's a pretty tough variety to train.

No, I did not neglect watering the tree. It along with about 11 other pots I have in that area are watered regularly, and this tree is the only one out of them that came in an exposed B&B rootball form. All the other pots seem to drain better, than what I ended up with after putting this tree in a pot, and none of those others are looking like too much or too little water has stressed them at all. Also, when I poke my finger down into the rootball, yes I do feel moist soil that my Wada Memory Magnolia's roots should be able to take up. The root ball is still covered within it's orginal soil. When I poke my finger into it I can tell that it is not clay soil that the tree was grown in and that the orginal soil seems to not have been displaced from it's rootball. The potting soil I described adding around that rootball only fills the extra 2 inches all around and beneath the root ball that I put in to fill the pot. I cut the string that wraps around the top of the root ball, and rolled back the burlap; just enough so it could not be seen once I finished filling the pot to the correct level. I also brushed off just enough soil on top of the root ball to expose only the top of the tree's root flare; from that, determined that none of those topmost roots could easily be seen to have grown improperly. Hopefully this tree is not so temperamental for that small amount of disturbance to it's rootball to have bothered it enough to respond as it has. Last night when I did my regular water routine on all those potted items, I did notice that the tree has finally begun to push a few of its dead leaves off. Seeing that ecouraged me just enough to give me a little hope that the tree still has some life in it. Guess I need to do a scratch test to make sure. Haven't done that yet, because I have been feeling very unsure about what I should and should not be doing for the tree at this time. Currently all I am doing, is to make certain the pot's drain holes do not get blocked, and during my regular watering times for the other potted items, I'm sticking my finger in the tree's rootball to determine how much moistness I can feel. I am not watering that pot as long as I can feel moisture in the rootball of that tree. Maybe if the tree keeps dropping its dead leaves I will get the courage to do a scratch test to see just how much green still can be seen. Certainly hope this tree pulls through, because it is a grafted tree, and I do not think any root sprouts could be expected to produce a new 'Wada's Memory' Magnolia tree. At least the last 5 days' high temps turning out to be another period of execessive heat with the shade temperatures reaching the 100 degree F. mark each of that excessive heat, for our area, period is forecasted to have ended: starting today. Hopefull that turns out to be true, so all my other trees that seem to be, just, enduring will get a reprieve. Maybe not though because, I just now saw a severe weather notice pop-up on my screen which in now claiming that the high today is expected to be 101 degrees F. Certainly hope they are wrong, but not likely since it has also just now at 10am, local time, reached 90 degrees F. in the shade.

Thanks, lazygardens and thisisme!!! I have some great news. When I went out to check my trees this morning, not only did the branches bend rather than break for both trees, but I also noticed really tiny buds of new growth coming out of the ends of the branches on my Pistache, and some tiny new leaves on my Purple Plum! Yay!!! I feel sooo happy! I just can't wait for them to start growing again. Thanks for your help!

Some of the most beautiful Weeping Norway Spruce have their leaders cut off at 4 ft - 6 ft. They form a wide cascading umbrella shape. It looks like a totally different tree than the traditional up and over. It also fill a different space in the landscape. So unless you were tied to filling the vertical space make lemonade out of what you think is a lemon. I personally prefer the Norway growing horizontally and the Picea Glauca Pendula for the vertical space. Good luck and how about a picture.