Abundant Apple Blossom
The leisurely pace on this blog continues: we may officially have moved to summer (even if the weather continues to be rather chilly and un-summerly), but I’ve still got a few spring images to show you. So here they are, the apple blossom in my garden this year.
This little corner of the world is a haven for apple trees, after all we live next to a fruit farm. In fact, when we moved here and I was discussing my gardening plans with someone, I was explicitly told “whatever you do, don’t plant any apple trees!” (and this happened a few times I seem to remember).
In our garden there are some very old and picturesque-looking apple trees that still produce decent enough crop. These are the trees I photographed for this post.
In addition, there’s an abandoned apple orchard nearby where we have been given a permission by the absentee-landowner just to help ourselves to the apples. So, really there is no lack of apple trees here. In the orchard, on a good year, it breaks my heart to see all the trees full of apples, most going to waste because no one is eating them. Naturally, we always do our best to avoid such terrible waste.
But all the apples growing on these trees are very sweet, and I do like some crispy ones for cooking and mixing with the sweet ones for juice. So I ignored the advice and planted a few new trees nevertheless, sour cooking-type apple varieties.
After planting, the deer promptly ate all the growing tips, much to my distress. I should have guessed this would happen, but I was naive, a newbie to this area, but now I have certainly learned the lesson. Netting was quickly added, and the trees seemed to have survived. They are still too young to produce anything, but there were a few flowers on them, always a good sign.
Last year was very bad for apple growing, after a period of drought we had the wettest April and May and no bees were about. They must have been huddling in their nests instead of doing their job. In the autumn, only two of the trees in the old orchard had any apples in them. The rest; just empty.
But this year, apparently the cold late spring meant good apple blossom and hopefully a better year for fruit.
We’ll see, the blossom at least was abundant this year.
I find that having more apples easier to deal with than some of the other fruit that spoils more quickly such as cherries, apricots, cherries etc. I like to juice them and make jam, chutney and compote as well as storing them. However, you do seem to be more than well off when it comes to apples!
You are right, they do keep quite well. I wrap them in newspaper and keep them on an airy wooden rack in the outbuilding and they last for 6-8 weeks like that. I too have a juicer which is a great way of using up large quantities of apples. And I do love apple jam – most English people haven’t heard of apple jam and they find it quite unusual but in Finland we eat it with toast and pancakes, and it’s just delicious! People also keep suggesting we should get into cider making, but we haven’t quite got around to that yet…
An apricot glut just sounds wonderfully exotic and luxurious to me! Some people do grow them here, but you need a warm south-facing wall to have any success with those here, and you need to protect the flowers from frost which sounds a bit too much work for me, so having too many apricots is something that I can only dream about 🙂
Oh those photos are mouthwateringly beautiful! The colours are lovely. Wouldn’t they make a nice crochet or knitted blanket ? 🙂
I really hope that the apples do better this year. Although my plum tree isn’t looking so happy so who knows!
xx
Yes the colours are very sweet, in a nice and old-fashioned way, they would certainly look lovely on a homely blanket.
I’m sorry about your plum tree – mine haven’t flowered either but they are only three years old so it’s probably too early for them to be productive.
Beautiful pictures of lovely fresh apple blossom, well summer has arrived and Andy Murray has won Wimbledon YEA! Looks set fair for a few more days yet lets hope it lasts
Susan
These are beautiful photos, Heidi!
Thank you Hugh (for you first comment on my blog 🙂 )!
Hi Susan, indeed the summer has arrived, it’s lovely! (Although the gardener in me secretly already wishes for some rain as most of my waterbutts are empty and the borders desperately need some water… but I am going to hush the inner gardener for now and just keep enjoying the sunshine!)