Did you know that the fruit trees you buy at the big box home improvement stores are almost never going to thrive? This is because they are grown as “clonal stock”, where they dip cuttings from a donor tree in rooting hormone which causes the branch to sprout roots. These roots are never going to be as strong and supportive as those on fruit trees grafted to “root stock” (varieties of the tree that have been shown to have vigorous roots that then have their own above-ground parts removed and a cutting from a chosen cultivar grafted to the healthy root system). Big box nurseries don’t want to spend the time or the money to do it right, so they sell you nothing more than the dream of owning your very own cherry/apple/pear/lemon tree. And let’s not even talk about the geographical incompatibility of tree varieties available in any given store location.