Traditionally we are not safe from frost until mid-May, and we now have to sit back with crossed fingers, hoping that our fruit crops will survive.
Above is our Greengage tree; an over-sweet plum when fully ripe, that also attracts egg-laying insects. Almost every ripe fruit contains a wriggling grub. It makes you wonder why we grow the wretched thing.
This is the Pear tree that bears inedible fruit. Whilst on the tree they are hard and grainy, and when they drop they instantly turn to mush. Even so, it's wonderful when in flower.
And this pink blossom is on one of our better Peach trees. This winter I pruned-back most of our Peach and Nectarine trees to almost nothing. The fruit grows on the previous year's wood, and they had all become rather straggly like the one above; its turn for a trim will come next year, by which time the others should have returned to fruiting.
Also in flower are the good Pears, Cherries and Plums.... I can't wait!
I don't know this blog just gets more mouth watering all the time, Cro you are going to be so busy preserving all your goodies,can't wait to see the end result.
ReplyDeleteI saw an offering on Antiques Roadshow the other day. A man had two bound tomes of colour illustrations one of fruit species and the other of vegetable species.The books dated from the early 1800's, all beautifully drawn and lustrous representations of the abundance of F and V species available and all set out in a taxonomy of "truth" as they also showed the common flaws and blemishes of those individual varieties - scabs, scale, etc. The comment made was that many of them no longer exist as the growers moved away from the effected varieties and concentrated on the disease resistant varieties - I guess another example of the form of natural selection.
ReplyDeleteI so love the blossoms this time of year, definately worth keeping the trees just for that. Shame about the fruit though!
ReplyDeleteWe have plenty of others. It's just a shame that those that seem to be the most bounteous, are the ones that often aren't!
DeleteI'm not good with combined fruit/bug products, haven't been quite the same since absent-mindedly scoffing a Japanese pear only to look down and see only HALF of a juicy fat grey worm remaining in the core ...
ReplyDeleteYour fruit trees coming into bloom as mine bear their fruit. Interesting that your greengages attract grubby things. Although we have plenty of codling in the apples, the greengages are more inclined to scabby rubbed patches. And with our lousy wet summer there were plums aplenty but not achieving their true flavour. It's always a gamble isn't it for the home orchardist: when the frost will bite or the gale thrash, or the hail batter. Good luck with this year's fruit set.
ReplyDeleteI lover to see the fruit trees in blossom I have several in my small cottage garden. My favourite fruit has to be the Greengage, alas the wasps love it as well. It takes me back to my childhood when I was wandering in a friends grandmothers orchard - I had never seen a green plum before and it tasted like heaven. The memory stayed with me and as soon as I had my own garden that was the first fruit tree I planted.
ReplyDeletecro
Deleteits lovely to see that you had such a nice day like we did yesterday!
back on form its cold and wet today with frosts on the way!
It's a bit cooler here too, John.
DeleteOh I didn't know that about greengages. I was looking for a couple of trees to plant as I thought they sounded a bit exotic.
ReplyDeleteDad always ran a few pigs in the orchard. We rarely had a worm in our apples. They clean up the windfalls and lick the trunks of the trees in order to catch the tasty little worms. How would you feel about a pig or two?
ReplyDeleteOn my lawn?
DeleteI love this time of year when all of the fruit trees are in bloom.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful!
ReplyDeleteWe're a few weeks away from flowering things--after a teasing week of warm, we had a week of seemingly very cold, some snow showers. Even so, the lilacs are starting to leaf, so spring is coming!
I hadn't noticed before, but my lilac is also out (just).
DeleteThe blossom on your trees is fantastic. The weather has turned quite a bit colder again here.
ReplyDeleteWe've fingers crossed as regards a frost - there is little out so far that one might want to eat later in the year but the Sloes are breaking bud and a frost now would seriously affect the production of 2012's Sloe Gin.
ReplyDeleteWish we could grow Peaches and Nectarines but are cursed with the ugly Peach Leaf Curl. Presumably this is not a problem for you. What,s the secret?
We do get some leaf curl, but we just ignore it. It doesn't seem to affect the fruit.
DeleteAt least the blossoms are beautiful. And now you've got me thinking, could mushy fruit be used in soap ? hmmmm
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