Question
I hope you can help me.  Based in Dublin, Ireland, I have just had a 4 year old cherry blossom tree planted in my garden.  It is c14 feet high, has c15 main branches with buds just starting to open with white flowers.  It unfortunately has 3 branches which are broken and also has a number of short branches coming off the main trunk which are naked i.e. no offshoots or buds.  The tree is healthy but I imagine just got damaged in transit.  I just don't know whether I should remove these broken and naked branches and if so where I should cut them back to.
Would appreciate your guidance.
Margaret

Answer
Hello Margaret

The usual time to prune cherry trees (Prunus) is late winter or early spring, but I think you have to remove the broken branches now as leaving them may allow infection to get into the tree.

First cut off half of the branch to be removed to reduce the weight, and then cut the rest off as close to the trunk as you can.  Tidy up any 'raggedy' bits around the cut with a clean, sharp gardening knife.

If the 'naked' branches are more like twiggy stems than branches you could cut them off now #close to the trunk#.  If, however, they are over about an 1" in diameter, it might be best to leave them until late winter or early spring, when the tree will be in its dormant period.
It is possible to prune in early/mid autumn if you must!

The general rule for pruning a cherry is just to remove any unwanted or wayward stems.

Gill