Trees are grafted as a method of creating clones of a tree. Imagine taking 1000 twigs off a kwanzan parent tree and grafting them onto 1000 root stocks. All the twigs will have the same genetic make-up giving them the same flower color, near identical growth form and all that.

what he said...

but also ...

the inability to make a tree out of a weeping form ... maybe in 10 or 15 years ..

the volume needed to make a profit in a shorter time period.. like getting the 1000 he mentions ...

how long it would take to root then .. then train them ...

instant gratification of the buyer ...

etc ...

i bought a plastic tube of weeping cherry ten years ago ... this is the first spring it bloomed ... and has been on the edge of my killing it for 4 years ... lucky for it.. life got in the way ... and it has many trunks.. as compared to the tree form you normally associate with the name ..

does that answer your query???

ken

Grafting is used for reproducing identical plants where other methods of vegetative propagation (primarily cuttings) don't work, or are so difficult as to be economically unviable.

Resin

And grafting is also used, say, in nut or stone fruit trees, to have the production of the top with the drought tolerance/salt tolerance/whatever tolerance of the rootstock. Lots of reasons to graft.

Dan

Grafted trees grow faster, allowing the field to be turned over more often, the final selling price to be lower. Cherries raised from cuttings may also have a more shrubby habit at first. Nevertheless, I have read of 'Kanzan' being produced from cuttings using special methods.

A common rootstock for Japanese flowering cherries is sweet cherry (Prunus avium). However, using this one results in problems. Some Japanese cherry trees are available on other rootstocks, certain retailers here offer a part of their inventory on dwarfing (Gisela series) stocks for instance.