Winter Flowering Cherry

Considering we were going to remove the winter flowering cherry in our front garden two years ago, we're rather glad we didn't.  Instead I asked the head gardener at Weston Park for his advice, which was to prune the crown back by between a third and a half and encourage some new growth.  Previously it would flower sparsely and lose many of its leaves during the summer.

Since carrying out the work it has retained its leaves better over the last two years and produced a much better show of flowers.  In fact this year there are so many buds still to flower I am sure I will return to it for another photograph when it is at its peak.  A period of sunshine and blue sky also helped to make this an almost spring like image.