What are the chances of getting three cherries?
Three
cherries on a slot machine would be very nice. Three cherries on my
tree would be a miracle. Fortunately, I believe in miracles. We have an espalier Stella, sold to us as a perfect dwarf rooted specimen to grow up a trellis.
For
the first few years, Stella was the star that her name promised she
would be. We got cherries in abundance – dark, verging on black, plump
and luscious.
And
Stella grew. Alarmingly for a tree that we expected to remain
diminutive, the trunk quickly became as thick as an arm, then a thigh –
and I’m talking about a wrestler’s thigh here. With all this muscular
growth, the cherry crop diminished.
I
know the basic problem is we have been sold a tree that needs space. If
it could grow right up the back of the house it would probably be
happy. But it can’t.
So for
the last couple of years I’ve cut it right back. It has a frame to
support its five main branches, but beyond the frame I will not let it
grow. So those main branches have to grow sideways, via a multitude of
little side shoots. Last year things looked a bit more promising, in
that there were a few fruitlets after the blossom. But, come June, they
all dropped.
This year, there are many little fruits forming. Next month will tell whether they will stay or go.
As
I say, I believe in miracles. Or maybe it’s responding to threats.,
Perhaps it overheard Elena saying that this was its last chance. Fruit
or scoot. We get cherries, or we get cherry firewood.
It has been warned.
Three
cherries on a slot machine would be very nice. Three cherries on my
tree would be a miracle. Fortunately, I believe in miracles. 
And
Stella grew. Alarmingly for a tree that we expected to remain
diminutive, the trunk quickly became as thick as an arm, then a thigh –
and I’m talking about a wrestler’s thigh here. With all this muscular
growth, the cherry crop diminished.