Cherry blossom

Our back garden gentle slopes down to the back corner, where there is a solitary cherry blossom. The top soil is quite thin and underneath is clay. So when it rains very heavily, or is consistently damp, such as through winter, the back corner becomes quite soggy, and for prolonged periods.

Our cherry blossom, although doing ok, has never seemed to thrive, and I put it down to its position in the garden, it probably has quite moist feet for long periods at a time. It's only about 8 years old. The base of the trunk is about 5" diameter and it's about 15 feet tall, so not substantial at all.

I was thinking of getting rid of it but I'm not sure of the procedure with regards to its roots. If I do get rid, I'll be looking at putting something else there, what I do not know yet, but will the old roots then become a real hindrance for the new tree/shrub?

Can I just simply cut it's trunk at the base, and plant something else pretty close to where the stump is?

 

It sounds like it's doing ok actually, as long as it flowers well and looks healthy, some are not big trees.

If you just cut it down it will grow back and I think you could also end up with lots of suckers coming from the roots.
You would need to either kill the stump or dig as much out as you can.

 

It does flower very well but it's season long foliage always seems quite sparse and the leaves seem small when I compare them to other local thriving cherry blossoms. For want of a better word it just seems a very wimpy tree, lol.

I've given it lots of time to prove itself but as mentioned I don't think it's often soggy position is doing it any favours. We've been in the house for about 7 years now and this cherry blossom is the only remaining greenery left from the previous owners. I got rid of all there other "choices", not my cup of tea, lol.

If the root system is going to be a problem when getting rid of it, then it looks like I may be stuck with it!

 

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