Going, going ...

The weeping cherry on our terrace is probably 47 years old this year. It's been in decline since we moved here in 2005. Because of the warm winter and spring, it's blossoming almost a full month early. This is how it looked yesterday ...

... and this is the same tree last year.

I hope this precipitous decline is temporary, possibly caused by the lack of a really cold winter, but I'd be fooling myself to think a nearly fifty-year-old cherry isn't nearing the end of its life.

Though the flowering cherry is pretty, it isn't appropriate to this place or this garden. The large Sycamore on the right is.

If the decline continues next year, it may be time to cut the cherry down.

Reprise - the weeping cherry tree

 

Again, the old weeping cherry - the tree I say doesn't belong in my garden - began another brief, and highly theatrical, annual show last week, just before we left on an unexpected trip to the deep south, to Mississippi where, as my Yankee friend Addie says, "the boats go push."

I think this tree was planted in 1965. It's showing signs of senescence, and a groundhog has taken up residence in a den directly under the trunk, which can't be helping it one bit. Who knows? It may outlive me.

Weeping Cherry

This weeping cherry tree was planted by the original owners of our house, the Howeths, in the late 1960s, making it about 40 years old. It's showing signs of age and diminishing vitality, but it may well last another 20 years.

The terrace is over 40 years old too, but I'm resisting thoughts of renovation. I like its patina of age. Perhaps a line of boxwoods outlining the near right corner will provide a pleasing finish.

Yes, that's likely to go on the "to do" list ...

 ... underplanted, of course, with a bergenia groundcover, to reflect the same combination used in other parts of the garden.

Weeping Cherry

The house came with this weeping cherry, which was planted sometime in 1965, just after the house was built. It appears on the planting plan from that year. Each spring I think how inappropriate it is for my garden, but enjoy it nevertheless.



It doesn't appear to be in the best of health, and I continue to wonder how long it can last.