Blossom late this year

[RonH]

Our garden trees are late with their blossom this year.

Blossom.jpg

[HansV]

Lovely picture!

Spring has come late all over Northern and Western Europe this year. Where I live, there was only 1 (one) day in all of March, April and May with a higher average temperature than the 24th of February...

[RonH]

Snap.
It's been very wet up here but maybe we will get a summer this year. Since we can't head south to Australia some warmth would be appreciated.

[HansV]

It has been very wet here too, but that was actually welcome after three extremely dry summers.

[GeoffW]

Snap.
It's been very wet up here but maybe we will get a summer this year. Since we can't head south to Australia some warmth would be appreciated.

There aren't many blossoms down our way just yet.

But Canberra is getting rather chilly. We're making plans to move to a place that's a bit warmer - Central Coast, between Sydney and Newcastle. Warmer winters, and cooler summers.

[ChrisGreaves]

Our garden trees are late with their blossom this year.

Please and thank you, Ron, what trees are these? Cherry? Apple?
At what age did they start blossoming?
I ask because I grow apple and pear trees here, and still have 24 which survived last winter (I lost two trees out of 26).

I am threatening to fill my second driveway with apple trees instead of cucumbers, because I receive compliments on my flower display, and so contemplate, say, fifty trees trimmed low, like a solid mass of privet hedge, but instead a sea of blossoms.

Bonavista_20200922_170027.jpg

This is the second driveway after Bernard & Chris (the other Chris) had peeled off the asphalt and taken it to the asphalt plant for a credit, Lloyd had back-hoed out the gravel for his driveway, and Bernard and I had begin filling the cavity with sawdust and grass clippings late last year.
We are now well into the soil remediation phase, and the area will be ready for vegetable planting in a month's time OR tree planting come fall.
I have established one bluebell glade already; a second glade under the apple trees wouldn't hurt ...
Cheers
Chris

[RonH]

I can recall the bone chilling cold of Canberra during my visits there. And now I live in a super bone chilling country
Though today its 25c and good for a lunch time bbq. Summers short so have to take advantage of good weather.

[RonH]

Hei Chris,
The foreground is apple and the white flower pear. Most of our many fruit trees, including plum, are over 60 yo. We have also lost a few and I think more will soon follow. I have given up pruning them to get to enjoy a lot of blossom, but hopefully not too much resulting fruit!

[silverback]

What is your plan for these flowering plants? Do you want the fruit, or are you just after wonderful flowers?

If the latter, let me recommend Amelanchier Canadensis aka snowy mespilus.
This wonderful shrub/small tree has bronze coloured new foliage in spring. This is then complemented by masses of flowers which are pink in bud, but open to white. The final bonus is amazing autumn (=fall to you) colour. Absolutely stunning. We have reduced ours from a small tree to a shrub. It has produced masses of branches, easily trimmed as your expressed wish.
NOTE that this is often confused with Amelanchier Lamarkii - still a lovely plant but different habit.

Alternatively, consider a crab apple. These also have wonderful flower, masses of fruit and autumn colour, but these will be small trees. I've never heard of anyone managing to keep these as a shrub. Crab apples make a wonderful jelly and are frequently used as a source of pectin for other items that need to set.

Cheers
Silverback

[RonH]

This is our 'apple less' , apple tree, Silverback. Great decoration but it now needs some pruning.

IMG_20210531_133836.jpg

[HansV]

Do you have a whole orchard, or is that your garden?

[RonH]

Hmm ... just a garden, Hans.
It is now a bit large to easily manage ... age you know ... and to employ casual labour is too costly. We will carry on enjoying it for as long as possible and then I guess we will head for an apartment with some kind of balcony. Our neighbours want us to stay as long as possible for they fear developers turning it all into another apartment complex ...

[silverback]

Ron
I should have been clearer. My post was aimed at Chris Greaves.
Silverback

[RonH]

Ron
I should have been clearer. My post was aimed at Chris Greaves.
Silverback

No sweat ... Two for the price of one

[HansV]

Hmm ... just a garden, Hans.

Enjoy the garden!

[ChrisGreaves]

The foreground is apple and the white flower pear. Most of our many fruit trees, including plum, are over 60 yo.

Thanks Ron, that is encouraging for me. I seem to have had most success with apple, rather than citrus fruit (even indoors from seed), and that is why I have branched out into pears.
Fruit here is still cheap enough to buy fresh; economy of scale, i suppose, so I am thinking of the trees for blossom (and shade for the birds).
Cheers
Chris.
P.S. 60 years seems like a good age for a fruit tree.
C

[ChrisGreaves]

Ron
I should have been clearer. My post was aimed at Chris Greaves.
Silverback

Ron> "No sweat ... Two for the price of one"
Not yet.
Silverback? Which post was aimed at me?
Thanks
Chris

[silverback]

Silverback? Which post was aimed at me?

The one recommending alternative blossom shrubs/small trees.
Silverback

[ChrisGreaves]

What is your plan for these flowering plants? Do you want the fruit, or are you just after wonderful flowers?

Hi Silverback,
Being, by now, beyond a certain Age, I figure that I do not have a lot of time to experiment, so my ideas of what to grow are limited to what is proven here in Bonavista, or what can be proven at low cost.
Not one of the expen$ive artichoke bulbs have produced a shoot, so it seems as if Artichokes from British Columbia is not a good idea.


Apples however are a mere $3.99 per kilo, or pound, I am never sure which, so if I take the core of the core and push it into a tomato paste can filled with soil, I end up with either:-
(a) Five baby apple trees (in which case I have won) or
(b) Nothing happens (in which case I haven't lost anything).
I grew about 60 apple trees last year, gave away 35, and was left with 25, which survived our winter. I am now trading those apple trees for large containers, and people here seem impressed ("You grew these yourself?!!???"). I try to tell them that making new trees is what all trees do, given a chance, but I go to bed at night dreaming that folks here see me as a mini-God.
I have sprouted a dozen citrus trees on the same principle (drop the seeds in soil and see if anything comes up).

Amelanchier Canadensis aka snowy mespilus sounds wonderful, and I shall ask Connie-The-Wreath if she can get me a couple.

Bulbs are a winner; after our long winter the crocuses are the overture for the Grand Chorus and Dialogue of Daffodils, Hyacinth, Tulips and Bluebells, which last long enough to get us into the dandelion stage and then the days when it is not-quite-too-hot-to-work.

I do not plant potatoes or grow apples for fruit, because they are easily obtained at the local supermarkets, but once the blackcurrants snake into my bedroom I am moving to a new house.

Cheers
Chris

[silverback]

FAO Chris
I recommended an Amelanchier to you in this thread. Here's a pic of ours in full bloom; bronze foliage, pink in bud, white in bloom.
Silverback