Life of a cherry tree

It is remarkable and even surprising that my cherry is still alive and thriving. I used to make posts on flickr, with a summary of the struggle and here on this blog about it being really slow at growing and its very asymmetrical growth taking pictures every year and being happy for every new flower or every new cherry it produced, but I never realised how much dead wood it had to overcome to grow. It is surprising it is still alive at all. I have other examples of plants suddenly regrowing from little and not so little pieces in my garden, the most remarkable of which was the deepest roots of a fuchia I eradicated years before because I thought it was dead, sprouting once again from under the rose that took its place (sprouts have been carefully moved to a vase now and are happily producing more and more branches) or the buddleia buzz midnight eradicated by the wind this year that didn't die, but the cherry is for me the most impressive. I've always found it a good metaphor of how I feel about myself and when I'm a bit low on morals I go to look at it and I feel reassured, even more now in the knowledge that even if there was dead wood slowing everything down it will crumble away and disappear at some point. I'm happy I kept it and didn't go to buy another specimen. If it ain't completely dead life will take over. Next update next year.

The Cherry Story Continues...

The Cherry Story Continues..., originally uploaded by afortiorama.

The cherry with only one developed branch has produced also some cherries this year. Not as many that they cannot be counted but enough to be notice if some are missing - I suspect it might have produced a couple last year two but they were gone before they could be noticed. Primary suspect is The Squirrel. My guess is that next year there will be either many cherries or a very fat squirrel. Hopefully also a second branch to balance the current one or secondary trunk from the twigs I've left grow this year at the base. I don't know why those cherries make me so happy. The apple has grown almost 4 times it's original size and produced many decorative apples and I'm happy about it but not as thrilled. Perhaps it is the struggle this cherry tree has to produce something that endears it so much to me and keeps me glued every year to see what happens. Maybe I feel an affinity. My brother the cherry tree. :)

Previous pictures.