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Hi everyone, we have this large weeping cherry in our front yard, it has small pink blooms in the Spring. It is quite lovely when it is covered with fresh, new leaves, but it kinda is too large for our front yard, as you can see in the picture it really blocks the front our our house. I love the privacy it offers but our HOA isn't thrilled. They are not the type of HOA to ride you or nitpick you but they did send us a letter last year so I'm already thinking proactively for this new year... just in case. I wish we could just move this tree to the backyard but since that isn't feasible, do you have any suggestions as to how we can best trim this tree to make it more presentable? Maybe we need to call a tree service or landscaper to go up in it and selectively take out some branches? I hate to take it down but I am hopeful that we will have our house on the market by the end of this year and we need to do what we need to do to make our yard market ready. By then it will be just naked branches (it starts to lose its leaves in August). After this picture was taken we chopped a few feet off of the bottoms of the branches so that you could see underneath the tree better which the woman in the HOA office (who didn't actually see the tree) said that it was OK, we did something, but I'm gearing up just in case there is another letter this year. Any tips would be appreciated! Thank you!
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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This is one of the many reasons I would never live in a place with an HOA, that is a beautiful tree. Yes, you could thin it, but would have to cut the branches selectively to maintain the balance, and remove them at the base of each branch, to prevent getting two new branches from every one you remove. You can also use an electric hedge trimmer to cut all of the branches at the bottom to 2-3 feet above the ground, but those will produce multiple new shoots so would have to be done every year. Pruning this time of year they tend to bleed sap, best to do it in winter when dormant.
The view looking out from inside the house must be gorgeous. Yes, have it thinned professionally, if at all. Unless you are forced to do something with it, you should leave it alone.
See if the local news station would film it in the spring as a beautiful display of springtime. See if you can send a picture to the local paper or have a photographer come out. You might even send a photo to other places you can think of...online or hard copy. How about you local Garden Club or any tree club.
The neighbors might have a better response then to their neighbor's well publicized beautiful tree.
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