What’s wrong with my cherry tree?

Yesterday I noticed my cherry tree had brown shriveled leaves. On closer inspection I noticed a lot of dead wood just breaking off in my hands. I removed all the dead wood which opened the tree more. Seems a lot going on, bark coming away, leaves look like something has feasted on them, some sort of growth on trunk and branches and a gluey substance. Also little black specks. I’ve taken quite a few photos to give you some idea. The tree is west facing. I only moved here last year and know very little about gardening, but hope there’s something that I can do to save the tree. Had lovely blossom on it. Thanks for any advice.

 

The grey scaly growth (e.g.3430) is lichen, completely harmless to the tree

The little brown scales e.g 3419 with white powder are scale insects. They secrete honeydew which will be causing the stickiness and it will get black and sooty over time. You can wipe or hose them off. They won’t harm the tree but can look unsightly

The stem remnant such as in 3425 could simply be the old stems from the blossoms. It’s probably an ornamental cherry so you won’t get any fruits forming and the old blossom stems will die off.

All plants will have the odd leaf nibbled. I cant see any significant problems from the photos? The leaves look healthy. Quite often cherry leaves, imo, are quite droopy in appearance

Don’t peel away any of the split bark. I don’t know why that is happening. Our quince tree has splits in its bark from when we had the very cold beast from the east around 7-8 years ago. Your tree may have suffered similar damage then or in bad weather since.

As you have already done, any dead wood can be pruned out.

 

The tree looks quite young so may be suffering from draught. As above, remove any dead wood, then leave alone unless you can give it some hefty watering non stop for at least a month, be patient and give it another year.

 

It doesn't look particularly young to me, the scale insect is the main thing I'd want to get rid of, they suck the sap and weaken the tree.
A few chewed leaves is pretty normal, not keen on the flaking bark, but wouldn't like to say what could be causing that.
As said the grey growth is just lichen, although I find it does tend to form on trees that are struggling a bit or are old.

Cherries do sometimes get gaps in the bark that exudes a gummy substance.

 

Thank you all for your good advice. Good to know the tree is not dying. I’ll remove the scale insect and give the tree a good watering. Thanks once again.