Close up

Other cherry in foreground for comparison.

That looks dead. I highly doubt it comes back at this point. I had a container Stella sweet cherry that did almost the same thing. Just pushed some half dead looking crusty leaves and the tree (last spring) ended up dying afterwards (i had moved it from a large container to the ground while dormant...that may have been a factor, but i doubt it). Its some root issue. Could be borers? Could be winter related...who knows. Lapins is an excellent cherry.

If anything, the heat should have pushed that tree into leafing faster. Mine have leafed out almost entirely in the past few days (Lapins/Kristin/Black Gold)...

Funny, I transplanted a cherry that has a similar "fried look" to the few leaves that have emerged. I would love to know why cherries are susceptible to this. I was careful to keep the rootzone damp. I do not think yours or mine are dead. Scrape the bark with your fingernail...and see if the flesh below is still green.

If you had these out in the open during winter, the pots would have frozen solid during even a couple days of freezing weather. That's the equivalent of more than a foot of frost penetration into the ground, as your pots look at least a foot deep. I doubt in zone 7 any regular soil freezes deeper than a couple inches, if at all. My point is that I think the roots froze and died.

If you kept the pots somewhere protected and mounded with mulch, then ignore the pot-freezing idea, and then I have no clue...

Yes, it looks like winter damage. I have seen this this year on blackberries, raspberries, even currants. Partial leaf formation. It may die because vascular system was compromised by the cold.

Pots out in open but other plants in smaller pots were fine. I hope it isn't dead. That would be frustrating. No evidence of borers. I figured winter related but these are listed as pretty hardy. I don't think we saw less than 0 degrees maybe just but I think it is a little warmer in my backyard due to south facing and on concrete.

To me the pot looks too small to have provided adequate freeze protection for the roots. If you must have your tree in a pot you should either bury it during the winter or garage it. It is also very tricky to maintain proper moisture in a pot. Once a pot gets dried out it is also difficult to get the soil evenly moistened.

The tree next to the lapins looks like the leaves are withering also. When I have let a pot get too dry the only way I can moisten the soil properly is to submerge the bottom few inches of the pot in water for a few days until the soil has become fully saturated. This might save your tree but it is doubtful at this point. The other tree might be salvageable.

Yup. That tree appears to be toast. The few cherries that set are starting to yellow and leaves have all browned. I doubt the soil dried out that much as these are outside in NYC and we have had frequent enough rains. If the cherries are rated for much colder zones i thought they would be fine here outside. I always bring in my rasps and strawbs and usually my blackberries. I didn't bring the blackberries in and they were next to these cherry trees, the odd thing is that this is the best the blackberries have ever looked.the tree next to it has a small section that hasn't leafed out but the rest is ok (warped leaves aside)