I am pretty new with the gardening and I have a Fuyu and an Izu planted this spring. The Fuyu started to leaf out about a month ago but all of its few leaves dried out completely after a few days. The Izu has been a bare stick with not even a single bud getting any bigger. I guess the threshold for the number of heat units passed a long time ago here in NC, where we have had 90+ degrees pretty much every day for the last couple of months. Both trees still have green tissue under the bark, and *both* have just started to leaf out *from the rootstock*. I read that all of those leaves should be removed. Is there any other recommendation anyone can give? What could happen with the Fuyu that it has lost all the new leaves and is there still any hope in it? My other new trees seem to feel happy with the same watering schedule etc.

Same with me this year. The early, warm part of winter kept the grass green and lush into January...then winter decided to hit all at once with a blizzard, followed by a warm streak, followed by below-zero temperatures. I'm good, but even my grass can't handle that crap. It went about half to sleep, which is unheard-of for me (east-central Pennsylvania, here). You take good care of your grass and winterize as well, so it's not that. I can't remember if I've seen a soil test, but if not, it might not be a bad idea. Low phosphorus or potassium can lead to higher levels of dormancy in winter as the grass simply doesn't want to take the risk. Low levels of iron can also contribute as colder soils have lower levels of available iron to begin with, and iron is required to construct a chlorophyll molecule. Other than that, the chosen cultivars can certainly influence how much winter color the grass maintains. My old Abbey/Kenblue lawn was OK but no great shakes. The new elite lawn does much better even though none of the cultivars are particularly good scorers. Rye, common in cheaper mixes, actually performs amazingly well over northern winters. Fescues are so-so, and KBG is usually fair to poor, depending.

The OP already stated there were other cherries in leaf in the area. And showing green under the bark is not always a sign the tree is still viable - a tree may be technically dead (no new growth, no root activity) and still show green. It takes time for all the wood to dry, become brittle and show gray or brown coloring under the bark. Reading posts from other OK residents would indicate that plants are performing on schedule for that zone (7-8), so flowering and leaf out of the cherry should have already occurred. I would agree the tree is probably dead.

Great news, everyone! I just grabbed my tree from outside and it's growing several tiny leaves! We had a warm day today so maybe it finally got it started in some way. I definitely think the cooler temperatures were to blame. In answer to the question about care, I kept them in a cool sunroom, usually in the 60s or 50s if temperatures drop, that room is unheated but the rest of my house is so it stays above freezing. I water them when the soil dried out (about every two weeks in the winter) and didn't fertilize. When spring rolls around all of my plants get osmocote and a liquid plant food at half strength until August, when I start winding them down for the winter. My citrus trees get full sun out in my front yard and water when they need it, varying between every few days to every day in a heat wave. I actually haven't had to water anything this season because of the Noah's ark rain we've been getting. The tree was completely bare for two months, yes. I'll prune off a few dead twigs and try to nurse it back to health. Thank you to everyone that responded :)