I would keep thinking about it awhile. Tree choice is pretty important. I had a dwarf weeping cherry for awhile . I don't remember if it was a Yoshino or the double one..it's not Kwanzaa but something like that. Anyway it was beautiful but died after ten years or so and I got the impression somewhere that they are a short lived tree. I'd look into that.

I planted a lot of trees in the blank slate part of my yard 30+ years ago. I ended up with more shade than I want for gardening with plants that like sun. All the same I have loved the trees and garden pretty well anyway. Did cut down a red maple a year or so ago to let in more light. Also, maples hog water. River Birches also like water...I might have guessed from the name! I do think the river birch is pretty. It sheds little twiggy branches in spring but they are good supports for plants like clematis. I had my river birch limbed up. But that part of the yard is pretty dry, probably due to the tree. Without the maple my plants are recovering some vigor.

A dwarf tree can be good if you want to keep more light. I planted semi dwarf apples and ended up with a lot of wasted apples on the ground. I didn't want to spray for insects. Didn't want to bite into a worm. I planted some dwarf pears and only have one left. You need more than one to pollinate but I think the Bradford pears in the area pollinate it. Anyway fruit trees can be messy.

Redbuds are pretty but little seedlings of redbuds pop up everywhere. The trunks tend to lean, or grow sideways, which I don't like. Ornamental peaches are pretty pink in spring...very early.

I like the idea of a food tree, like a pecan tree. Black walnuts are no good...they fall like little bombs in fall.

I guess all trees have their pros and cons. I have a Yoshino cherry on one side of my house and it seems to be in decline after about 30 years. Seems brittle . But what a lovely thing it is when the petals fall in spring. Same with crabapple.

See the " snow" on the ground?

Thinking it over, I don't remember anything bad about my weeping cherry except that it died eventually. If yours lasted ten years, you could just plant another one if you liked it! They're really pretty. Seems like it grew fast too.

Thanks for the quick responses! Yes, I have read that weeping cherries may only last about 20 years, and I think I'm okay with that. If I get 30 like you have that should do it for me, lol. By then it will be the next owner's tree! And funny you should show the pink "snow". Some people hate that the cherries do this. I think it's gorgeous, and love when the wind blows and it actually "snows" pink lol!

Is your tree more of an upright as opposed to weeping? I was looking at Kiku Shidare Zakura, which supposedly gets to 10-15 feet high. I suppose, however, the bigger the tree, the more snow lol!

I actually love my shade, which is one reason I miss that oak so much. My yard has many, many oaks, and while I do wish I could grow more sun-loving plants, when it comes down to it I'd rather have the coolness and peacefulness of a shady yard. So my thought process started as OMG! I MUST replace the oak! Then, hmm, I really like maples so much better. Maybe I'll get a maple. Then I read about all the issues with gardening under maples. Then I got the river birch, and my friend's is quite lovely, shady but not heavy, an airy shade and nice bark. But her's is in the middle of a lawn. Starting reading some negative experiences with gardening under river birches - root and moisture issues. So now have moved on to a smaller, ornamental tree.

I didn't realize redbuds reseeded. I hadn't seen anything about that. But I think even if I don't get a redbud for this spot, I'll get a small one for another part of the yard. Decisions, decisions...

:)
Dee

Yeah, the Yoshino cherry is the upright type. I don't think I have any pictures of my weeping cherry when I had it. The snow is magical when it's coming down.

I bought a red maple and a sugar maple. Cut down the red maple as big chunks of it would fall off from time to time in a storm. Also I needed more sun. But I love so much the new red leaves of the red maple in spring. At least I can see other people's red maples. I bought the red maple because I thought the fall foliage would be red, which it wasn't. If you want red fall leaves, be careful what kind you get. The sugar maple has wonderful yellow and orange fall colors and seems sturdier than the red maple. You have to think about safety with trees, distance from your house, roots interfering with stuff....I didn't think of everything when I planted them but it has been very nice to see them grow. Can't believe how expensive it is to have them cut down.

Here's a piece of our red maple after a storm:

How about a coral bark japanese maple? Beautiful year round.

Go with another oak. They support more native insects than any other tree, actually grow to a decent size very quickly, and you will be providing enjoyment for generations to come!

Dee, I had a weeping cherry many years ago and the sap/jelly that it oozed attracted carpenter ants, and then they discovered my old front porch and started eating the wood. I ended up having it cut down and having to replace the porch. The porch needed replacing anyway but this forced me to do it sooner.

Richard, are you Richie from the CT swaps??? If so, how the heck are you? Haven't heard from or seen you in ages! Hope you are well and good to see you! (If not, never mind hahaha! Although I still hope you are well lol!)

I'm not overly concerned with the carpenter ants only because I have about 40 trees on my acre and have been trying to co-exist with carpenter ants for the 25 years I've lived in this house! They get the outdoors, I get the house lol. For most of the 25 years they haven't abided by this deal but it's an on-going process I guess. However, I hadn't read anything about any sap oozing from these trees so that is something to look into, thank you.

Thank you for you input cyn! However, as I just mentioned above, I have about 40 trees already and most of them are oaks, . Whatever oak I plant in this spot would never replace the beautiful tree I had, possibly not even in 200 years, if it only has one trunk. So I'm going in a completely different direction and want to add a little color and variety to the existing trees. But I very much appreciation you taking the time to post!

Jean, I have considered a very dwarf weeping maple but not for this spot. I may add one as a focal point in the front some day. They are gorgeous. This current area is in the back yard and my tree stump (for a few years at least) will tower over any dwarf maple lol. Plus don't want to have to worry about my existing garden if I add a maple here. Thank you though!

:)
Dee

I was remembering the oozing sap from the weeping cherry last night.

lol where does it ooze from, and how bad is it? Is it so bad it would affect anything planted underneath? Is it only at a certain time? Sigh, I do wish more places would list ALL attributes of a plant. I get many of them are trying to sell stuff, but even garden blog articles don't always give all the info. Oh well, I'm off to do a bit more - specific sappy - info lol!

The "oozing sap" is gummosis, a common problem with ornamental cherries and can indicate variety of problems. They are also prone to brown rot, shot hole and bacterial canker. And most weeping cherries are top grafted so graft reversions (root stock taking over the scion) are common as well. Ornamental cherries - and especially the weeping forms - are just prone to a LOT of issues, which is why they tend to be short-lived.

There are a lot of smallish spring flowering trees I would pick before I'd ever consider a weeping cherry.....redbud, dogwood, crabapple, service berry. Most of these are native and all have far few issues than any cherry will.

So the oozing sap in not a "regular" feature but a sign of a problem? Hmmm

I'm already planning a dogwood addition, as well as the redbud, which I thought I'd put in another spot instead of this area for the cherry. Service berries look very promising ornamental-, native-, and bird-wise, but they seem to have many issues as well. And I really did want a weeping tree. (grew up with a weeping willow and always trying to get back to my childhood tree-wise, lol). There are weeping redbuds but they seem too small

So many choices, so many decisions....

:)
Dee

Young queen ants choose a nesting site after mating with males and then generate colonies of workers that comb the surrounding area for food sources - the carpenter ant workers coming to the gummosis in the one instance were from a nest that was already present due to suitable wood being found by the queen that started it.

There are no genetic dwarf weeping Japanese cherries. Where dwarfness is an inherent characteristic, making the phrase "dwarf weeping cherry" apt. There is however a percentage of dwarfed weeping cherries on the market at least part of the time, wherein a weeping cherry has been grafted onto a dwarfing rootstock. To be sure of ending up with a shrub sized specimen a body has to be sure that they are buying such a combination.

That said there is a component of the previously much distributed Snow Fountains ('Snofozam') present in my area that don't seem to be in much of a hurry to produce a tree of much size. After years in place. But: are some of these still going to go on to become markedly larger in time? And are any of them on dwarfing rootstocks?

One thing that is known is that a lot of these become scattered with dead shoots that retain dead leaves in the local climate - it is almost a hallmark of this variety here.

Sounds like weeping trees just make your heart sing and that counts for a lot! Would it be terrible if you planted a weeping cherry and it lived maybe 7 years with no oozing sap, then got the ooze, then died at ten years? That's what happened to mine, roughly. Meanwhile you can enjoy it for years. My crabapple tree has some kind of issue. Limbs of it die now and then. It's next to my driveway so little crabapples fall on my car, plus birds like the crabapples so they hang out in the tree and mess with my car quite literally. But I like the tree a lot....some issues are not disqualifying. I should try making some crabapple jelly.

Crabapple...what's not to love?

How about weeping Katsura, weeping spruce, weeping blue atlas cedar, weeping beech, weeping pear, weeping apricot, weeping apple? There’s a lot to choose from.

Oh no, kitasei! Now you've given me MORE choices! More decisions lol! Thank you, I will look into each one of those!

Erasmus, I DO love weeping trees, and no, it would not be a bad thing to plant one, enjoy it for 7-10 years, and then have to replace. Like I said, it seems like all things have some kind of issues, so it's kind of a pick-your-poison thing lol.

Embothrium yes, I had read that the "dwarf" trees were grafted, and some have had issues with this. I did once have a grafted hakuro nishiki willow and it did well in terms of the graft. Poor siting and neglect is what did it in. Still, thanks for letting me know about Snow Foam. Apparently these are naturally weeping, and not grafted, if my quick google search was correct. So this may be a better option, although I did have my heart set on pink. It may be better to get the white if the tree is all-around better.

Thanks all!
:)
Dee

diggerdee zone 6 CT It's me. I'm mostly a lurker in here but do comment occasionally. I tried to get the swap going again a few years ago but there wasn't enough interest. I like the idea of the redbud. My weeping cherry did start having issues. One of them was a gap on the trunk that kept widening over the years and the sap was more like this amber colored thick jelly coming out of the trunk. One of these times I might put one in my front yard. Hope you are doing well.

More options, not sure if they will grow in your area though. We have both, central NC. Ours are very old, 30 plus years, height on both is about 20-22 ft only. Lovely shapes and blooms.

Fringe tree....

https://www.monrovia.com/white-fringe-tree.html

japanese Snowbell

https://www.monrovia.com/japanese-snowbell.html

It's usual for clonal flowering trees to be grafted, although there is some production from cuttings. With as you have found 'Snofozam' being one of those where there may be a history of quite a few of them being raised from cuttings instead. So that the entire finished specimen consists of a single genetic individual. Instead of two or more separate plants grafted together.

But what I was talking about was the production of smaller than otherwise tops using dwarfing rootstocks. So that if a shrub sized top was desired it would be possible to achieve this by being sure to look for indications that a given cultivar was on one of these stocks when shopping.

I did not say anything else about grafted combinations, including that any particular health problems would be due to purchased specimens having been grafted. (There can be future issues associated with a tree having been grafted, but that is not what I was talking about).

Emothrium that's not what I meant to say. Guess I should have put a period instead of a comma. "Embothrium yes, I had read that the "dwarf" trees were grafted. Some have had issues with this." Sorry, wasn't putting words in your mouth. Just saying that I knew there were no genetically dwarf weeping cherries and that the ones on the market were grafted. THEN, I mentioned how I heard people have had issues with the graft.

Jean, thanks for those options. I can't believe I didn't think of the styrax. Not only have I had one, but I actually just mentioned it to my husband about five days ago. I was given one by a friend, planted it, it had gotten about 7-8 feet tall, and the next year in a storm the oak tree next to it came down and fell right on top of it. That was that and I never replaced it. That was at least a decade ago but for some reason I was thinking of it last week. But for some reason, not thinking about it for this spot lol. If I recall correctly, it was fragrant as well...

:)
Dee

P.S. Richie, again, so good to hear from you!

If you want a weeper and you like the styrax, then maybe go with a weeping styrax! 😊 It comes in both pink ('Pink Parasol') and white ('Carillon'). Neither gets very tall but they are attractive little things and with none of the drawbacks of the cherry.

What you really need (hey, what we all really need) is this

a 200 year old European weeping beech. I know it's a bad picture, but the sun was in exactly the wrong spot this afternoon. Almost everything in the picture is that tree.

This is it from the other side, where it is obscured by other trees.