Grafted Weeping Cherry: all is not lost!

I have just received a question (“Hi, Liz!”) about a rather ugly flowering Cherry: she says they recently moved in, and have this poor thing in the front garden:

 

Aargh!

It ticks every item on the Salix Kilmarnock hit list: it's grafted, it's been neglected, it's had the hedgetrimmers run over it to shorten it, and it has not been properly pruned for some time. Liz tells me the house is a little less than 30 years old, so it is entirely possible that this tree is about the same age: and certainly, the size of the trunk - “stout!” - suggests a tree of about that age.

Liz said in her email that she called in three arborists: and she put the word “arborists” in quotes because she wasn't satisfied with their answers:

“One said he’d come until I sent pictures ( of the tree, I mean, haha!) then ….. silence.

Two others came - one said leave it and see what happens and the other said cut it down ‘cos it’ll never grow properly again!"

The first one, who simply didn't respond after seeing photos: well, probably because this is a gardener's question, not an arborist's question, but it was extremely rude and unprofessional of them not to respond at all.

The second one said to leave it: why? Do they think the dead branches will just fall out by themselves? It needs pruning, and a bit of TLC, the sooner the better.

However, this answer is better than the third arborist, who said cut it down because it will never grow properly again, which shows that they have no idea what they are talking about.

OK, so for the benefit of anyone who hasn't scoured my archive blog for mentions of How To Prune Weeping Trees, notably Salix Kilmarnock and Weeping Pears, here's the low-down....

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