Prepare to graft

There is a cherry tree in a parking lot near us that produces delicious little sweet cherries. Sweet cherries are more difficult to grow in our area, so this well adapted tree is somewhat unusual.

We happen to have an ornamental, flowering cherry tree in our yard. Not being much for ornamental fruit trees, we plan to graft it over to a fruiting cherry, using scion wood collected from the above tree.

We collected pencil sized pieces of last year's growth, labeled them, and stuck them in the fridge. When the stock tree is leading out this spring, we will attempt to graft these branches on. It will be our first experiment with grafting. If it works, we will have a fruiting cherry in less time than it would take if we planted a new tree, and it'll be of a variety we know grows well in the area.