I planted two Carmine Jewel cherry trees in early 2018. I’m in North Carolina, zone 7b. They are in a location next to some thornless blackberries where they receive about three quarters sun. This spring one of them really didn’t return from dormancy. If I remember right, it blossomed (the first year of blossoming for both), but it hasn’t broken any leaf buds except a few near its base. The other one has leafed out strongly (except a few branches which remained bare). Can anyone suggest why this tree didn’t leaf out? It seemed to be happy in its location for the last two years. I will try to attach a photo below.
If one has leafed out by now and the other hasn’t, my guess is that it might not have made it thru the winter, or succumbed to some kind of disease.
You can wait a few more weeks to be sure, but in the meantime, you can do a scratch test of various branches. Just scrape off a little bit of the bark and it should be green underneath. If it’s darker green or brown, it might be dead.
Those green shoots might be suckers coming up out of the ground, or maybe new branches just below the dead part of the tree.
I have a Juliet and Romeo cherry but not CJ. @clarkinks grows a lot of these, maybe he could comment.
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Thats correct and it does happen @subdood_ky_z6b it could be dead. These bushes need sprayed with a fungicide like immunox or captan 1-3 times per year here in Kansas.