What's Wrong With My Weeping Cherry Tree?

About This Episode

The Grumpy Gardener solves a reader's question about a weeping cherry tree. Plus his tip of the week on growing Beefsteak tomatoes.

Question Of The Week

"I was recently gifted a weeping cherry tree. It's about seven feet tall and doing well, however a bunch of long, thin branches have sprouted near the base. I've gotten conflicting advice on how to deal with these. What do you suggest?" -Martha.

Grumpy's Answer

Here's an answer to your question about weeping cherries. Weeping cherry is a very popular ornamental tree and it is basically a tree that has been grafted at the nursery. One part has been joined to another part to make this weeping tree. The weeping tree with the pretty flowers is called a scion. Scion sounds like real science-fiction here. And what it is, it's grafted on top of a tall, straight trunk, which is called the under stock. They do this so that the weeping branches don't just crawl all along the ground. You know, that would be creepy. So what I think has happened in your case, is that these slender shoots that are growing up from the ground are coming up from the roots of the under stock, and you need to prune them off, because if you don't, they'll eventually grow up to become more trunks, and you'll lose the weeping form of your tree. So just cut them off, and problem solved.

Tip Of The Week

I got a question, and it was about how to grow really big beefsteak tomatoes. 'Cause someone had tried, and only got a few measly, little tomatoes on her plant. She was dissatisfied. So the first thing you gotta know is beefsteak tomatoes are the ones, those are really, really huge, and there is a different want to grow them versus others.

About Ask Grumpy

Ask Grumpy is a podcast featuring Steve Bender, also known as Southern Living’s Grumpy Gardener. For more than 20 years, Grumpy has been sharing advice on what to grow, when to plant, and how to manage just about anything in your garden. Tune in for short episodes every Wednesday and Saturday as Grumpy answers reader questions, solves seasonal conundrums, and provides need-to-know advice for gardeners with his very Grumpy sense of humor. Be sure to follow Ask Grumpy on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen so you don't miss an episode.

Editor’s Note: Please be mindful that this transcript does not go through our standard editorial process and may contain inaccuracies and grammatical errors.