Clouds of Blossom

Why do we get such mad weather in March, just as the fruit trees break into blossom?  The past two weeks we've had howling gusts of wind, lashing rain, a bit of hail and some blinding sunshine... you have to be adaptable to survive the combined onslaught!



Almond (prunus dulcis)



Almond blossom is the first to break out, sometimes as early as February, giving the insects something to buzz about.  Our tree is about three years old now and we should be able to harvest a small bag of nuts this year. 

Collecting almonds is quite labour-intensive, so I can understand why they're relatively expensive to buy.  But it's lovely to hull them in the garden and eat the nuts when they're still soft and sweet.

Next to come out, trained against a south-facing wall, is the apricot seen here with almost an embarassment of blossom!  Last year it resulted in equally dense clusters of fruit which ripened in July and some of those are still in freezer bags waiting to take their place in a tarte. 

Apricot (prunus armeniaca)

The ever-helpful internet tells us that the name 'apricot' comes from the Latin word praecox, which means 'early ripening'.  

Looking at these pictures, I notice that their flowers are not dissimilar to those of the almond - white with a dark red centre.  (Just how many types of prunus are there, I wonder...?) 

Peach trees are also flowering now and their blossom is a delicate pink.  Our main tree is dying of some disease... it put on a great show last Spring but was finally a victim of its own success, the weight of fruit bringing down a couple of big branches.

I'm afraid we get so excited at the prospect of all this exotic fruit that we don't take the sensible precaution of thinning it out.  This would be kinder to the tree and probably result in larger, sweeter fruit!

Hillsides around here are bedecked with prunus spinosa, the spiny shrub which produces clouds of white blossom - sometimes known as 'blackthorn winter' when it coincides with a cold snap.  This is another prunus which seems to do exceptionally well in our mild climate, producing thick creamy swathes of blossom along the hedgerows.  In late Summer, these same hedges glow with abundant blue sloes.



A cultivated hedge of viburnum tinus and wild prunus spinosa



Viburnum tinus, also in full-flower now, is frequently used in gardens where it's useful as a slow-growing evergreen hedge that doesn't need too much pruning but produces many more flowers than you would see in England.  The example above has been left to do its own kind of 'cloud pruning'...!





Prunus 'Kojo no mai'

This little prunus hybrid came with us from England where I'd had it in a pot decorating the terrace.  It must be almost 20 years old now and has got its roots well established in the chalky subsoil of our coastal garden.  Its little flowers remind me of scattered confetti in the low evening light.

Another good shrub which arrived with us from Hampshire was this pieris 'Forest Flame' which puts on a lively show of red leaves and creamy flowers for weeks on end.  It attracts the fluffiest bumblebees you've ever seen and great tits like to linger on its branches as they queue up for fat-balls on our nearby bird table.