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I didn't kill it! And I assure you, I'm as surprised as any of you. Also, I need advice, of great gardening hive-mind.
OK, maybe a bit of a backstory on this is in order.
Last year, my mother-in-law gave me a cherry tree for my birthday (end of March). About 30cm tall, potted, from a very reputable nursery. The tree did quite well indoors, but we waited *way* too long to plant it outside and didn't repot it. By the time we did replant it, it was probably six to eight weeks in the pot, and the leaves started yellowing. Over the next couple of months, it lost all the leaves, but didn't dry out, and the nursery suggested it was most likely going dormant early -- not an unknown reaction in young cherry trees.
Come this spring, there are *buds!* It's alive! ... and I have no idea how to care for it.
The original instructions were to not plant the tree in compost, and to water it daily or every other day. Now that it's spent a good eight months in dormancy, do I continue to treat it as a fresh replant, or do I put out more compost on top of the soil (which is incredibly clay-rich, and rather acidic)? Do I still water it daily, or am I likely to cause more problems by doing that?
Any and all advice would be appreciated.
Also? I have a *tree!*
OK, maybe a bit of a backstory on this is in order.
Last year, my mother-in-law gave me a cherry tree for my birthday (end of March). About 30cm tall, potted, from a very reputable nursery. The tree did quite well indoors, but we waited *way* too long to plant it outside and didn't repot it. By the time we did replant it, it was probably six to eight weeks in the pot, and the leaves started yellowing. Over the next couple of months, it lost all the leaves, but didn't dry out, and the nursery suggested it was most likely going dormant early -- not an unknown reaction in young cherry trees.
Come this spring, there are *buds!* It's alive! ... and I have no idea how to care for it.
The original instructions were to not plant the tree in compost, and to water it daily or every other day. Now that it's spent a good eight months in dormancy, do I continue to treat it as a fresh replant, or do I put out more compost on top of the soil (which is incredibly clay-rich, and rather acidic)? Do I still water it daily, or am I likely to cause more problems by doing that?
Any and all advice would be appreciated.
Also? I have a *tree!*