Our daughter Caroline turns 13 this Saturday.  She is not materialistic, so we usually don’t have to buy her a birthday present.  She typically asks for only money, and she saves nearly every cent that comes her way.

Last year, however, she asked for a rather unique birthday present.  She wanted some type of fruit tree that we could plant in our yard.  I took her to Lowe’s one afternoon, and we went up and down the aisles of their garden center, looking at the fruit trees.  We read the tags with the name and description of each and every tree, trying to decide which would be best for our front yard.  Caroline eventually decided she’d like to have a cherry tree.  We didn’t buy one that evening, but instead, we went home so that she could research all the cherry trees on the Internet.

Her final choice was a Montmorency Cherry.  We returned to Lowe’s and bought one the next day.  Alexander helped us plant it in our front yard.  Caroline watered her cherry tree religiously throughout the spring and fall.  That took some dedicated effort on her part, considering that last year’s summer was very hot and dry.

The tree began dropping leaves last summer, which prompted me to contact the West Virginia Department of Agriculture to discuss the situation with one of their staff botanists.  He said that in his estimation, the tree was afflicted with a fungus called cherry leaf spot, which commonly affects cherry trees in this part of the country.  He recommended the application of a fungicide, which we did every two weeks or so until the tree lost its leaves in the fall.

Truthfully, the tree didn’t appear to be in the peak of health, despite the fungicide.  We wondered if it would survive the winter.  

Lo and behold, the tree began to sprout leaves this spring.  We were so relieved, especially Caroline.  The tree was covered with white blossoms last month, and by this time, it is covered with small green cherries.  Its leaves look quite healthy thus far, so hopefully, the fungus won’t come back this year.