Beginning to dislike our flowering cherry tree

'At the end of it', of course.
Oh for an edit button...

It would take years for an apple tree you planted now to bear fruit witzend .
I have an apple tree (a Cox)that was given to me for my 50th birthday nearly 20 years ago.
The blossom is nothing like as pretty as a flowering cherry and it's only the last 4-5 years that it has borne more than a few fruits. Last year we got about 20.
I would have your flowering cherry properly pruned & shaped & enjoy it. Put the blossom on the compost heap!

We planted two new apple trees about six years ago, and they fruited every year from planting.....as long as there is blossom there is fruit.Choose self pollinating or plant two together.
We have two ornamental cherries as well, an Amanogowa and a Kanzan, both wonderful!

The apples trees we planted are small ones, one up from dwarf variety, so easy to prune.

Oooh, I thought it was only me! We have one in the front garden, which silly people kind neighbours think is wonderful! It just annoys me! As you say, it doesn't do much all year, blossoms, then drops pink snow everywhere. To add insult to injury, our is not shaped properly. We had it done 'professionally' a while ago and he made a complete mess of it. Since then DH has had a go, with me directing from the ground, but, while it's good from some angles, it's just wrong from others.

I know there are far worse things to worry about, but this struck a chord with me.

PS The lady opposite has a beautiful magnolia, which she hates and I love! Takes all sorts ... Maybe we should swap houses. Probably easier than trying to dig up the trees and swap those. I have a feeling that ours has roots which extend right under the house! If only I wasn't scared of DG's chainsaw.

Glad it's not just me, retrolady!

My dd moved a couple of years ago into a 1920s house with an old apple tree that has been laden with apples both years. I dare say that's been influencing me. Seems such a waste to have all that blossom for nothing! It'd be different with something like a magnolia that's not supposed to,produce anything edible anyway.

There isn't really anywhere suitable for a fruit tree in our small back garden, or I'd do that anyway.

One of the small apple trees today in bloom.

Magnolia is even worse. It flowers for max 2 days and then the petals are all over the place. Then it's just twigs for the rest of the year. Well, it does have leaves, I suppose, but so do most other plants and trees ......

Most cherries have lovely autumn colour. The fallen petals will disappear on ther own if you leave them won't they?
Apples often need a partner to fruit.

I am an apple ?!!

I have two different 20 year old Apple trees which fruit well, filling many buckets. Every other year dh thins it out. We used the fruit and wired it to make table centres with candles for ds wedding. Now, if only my plum tree would fruit.

I wish the pink snow would disappear on its own, Saralou! But there's always so much of it falling on a public path - it can get slippery after rain and we have elderly neighbours using that path. In any case it turns into a horrible brown mess after a while, so we can't just leave it.

Swap your flowering cherry for two silver birches, Witzend. Planted over thirty years ago by the developer they produce these catkins that have these tiny seeds that litter the drive, land on the window sills and keep appearing for months. Added to that my husband has become allergic to them and they give him scratchy eyes. They weren't too bad before but as they matured, and got larger, so the amount of catkins seem to have increased expedentially. I love silver birches, just not in my garden. We are in a conservation area so we are stuck with them.

Aaah,Cherrytree we do like you!

Nandalot we also have two silver birches ( huge) nearby, and the catkins line everything as you say, and the pollen rains down night and day......I am allergic to it.

The pic I posted of our small apple tree is a Red Windsor and is a gorgeous eating variety and is a self fertile tree.

Steer clear of Sycamores. I pull up handfuls of seedlings ever day from the gravelled areas. The ones in the grass will go when it gets cut. Very behind England here, the plum tree is just coming out, the apple has a few leaves and nothing on the cherry. Looks like no fruit again this year.

They look so lovely in other people's gardens. I would love to have one instead of the huge tree in ours which drops bits nearly all year round.
We had a magnolia tree in the front garden of one house we bought. Lovely, but the previous owners had planted it about 2 feet from the front window so we had it removed. I don't think our neighbours were very happy but the roots weren't damaging their foundations.

Sycamores are weeds!

Love our flowering cherry. A few weeks of stunning blossom in spring, then much needed shade for the summer with chairs and table under it, then rich autumn colour and at Christmas we put lights on it. Beautiful shaped tree all year round (with lots of pruning).

I read that flowering cherries live for twenty five years,and that is exactly how long mine lasted. I miss seeing that lovely pink blossom in April,the but is there was always winds that scattered them and not just in my garden but neighbours as well. I have two trained apple trees that are attached to an archway close to the bottom of the garden.One eating apples and the other cookers. I end up giving them all away to friends and family.As now I live alone I cant be bothered to make apple crumbles etc.

The cherry trees in Washington DC, a gift from the Japanese Government, have lasted a lot longer than 25 years.
www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardeningpicturegalleries/9153916/100-year-old-Japanese-cherry-trees-blossom-in-Washington-DC.html
Although I've been there twice now at Easter I've never seen them in full bloom

Roses you are so kind
You are welcome in my garden anytime

We had our cherry tree lollipop pruned last year
so I am quite sad that we had very little blossom this year it has just gone straight to leaf
Perhaps heavy pruning is the answer for those who don't like falling blossom.
We also have a (2 tree) grafted apple tree it is in full blossom even though that was also heavily pruned last year
Because it is grafted we have a lot of apples with out the need for a second tree.

I can't remember which programme it was on, but they showed all the flowering cherry trees in a town in Japan and they looked beautiful.
www.seejapan.co.uk/jnto_consumer/experience/outdoor/enjoying-japans-seasons/where-to-see-cherry-blossoms