Unlike pruning hedges or many fruit trees, pruning ornamental trees—such as Dogwood, Flowering Cherry, Magnolia, Snowbell, or Japanese Maple—involves mostly thinning to enhance natural branching patterns, open up views to trunks, and reduce the overall density. As you can see from both these photos and the ones I included originally, the tree leafs out nicely in the spring. Though the plum trees grew wildly, there were never enough giant prunes to meet the constantly growing demand of this nascent prune-loving nation. It bears simple, 2”-4” long elliptically shaped leaves which are arranged alternately on the shoots. Begin pruning immediately when you plant a young tree to ensure a proper shape. Pruning Ornamental Trees. Prunus cerasifera‘Thundercloud’ -- ‘Thundercloud’ Cherry Plum Page 3 Other Figure 3. Young plums are generally pruned in early spring, before bud break, in order to avoid infection by silver leaf disease. Foliage of ‘Thundercloud’ Cherry Plum. I am enclosing some additional pictures of my thundercloud plum as you requested. We had an extremely cold winter this past winter and most likely the flower buds were killed by the cold. Morphology: This deciduous garden tree grows to height and width of 25’. Established fruit tree plums are best pruned in mid-summer. Purple leaf Plum tree is commonly known as cherry plum and myrobalan plum, this tree is now available in many hybrid varieties, the most popular being the Prunus Cerasifera Thundercloud, thanks to its exuberant reddish-purple foliage. The time for plum tree pruning depends on the maturity and type of plum tree. Thundercoud Cherry Plum is a small ornamental flowering tree in the rose family. Since 2015, we have had three very cold winters (2015, 2016 and 2018) that have killed the flower buds on hydrangeas, apples, peaches and any early blooming shrub or tree. Shortly thereafter, though, the leaves start dropping throughout the tree so that it actually is a thinning process over a period of time. The answer to that question is simple, prune your plum tree when it's growing strongly and for established plum trees early June to mid July is the best time. Do not prune it in winter /spring because the risk of fungal infection is high and don't prune it in autumn because the leaves are needed by the tree to transfer nutrients to it as they die. The Thundercloud Flowering Plum is an early blooming tree. It has one of the darkest purple eaves and twigs of all the flowering plums. Description `Thundercloud' flowering plum is grown for its red foliage which is borne on a fast growing and upright-spreading tree. The other widely grown cultivar is Prunus Cerasifera Atropurpurea which also has vivid purple leaves. Roots: surface roots are usually not a problem Winter interest: no special winter interest Outstanding tree: not particularly outstanding Invasive potential: little, if …