A monochromatic vase of white spring flowers this week including Prunus incisa ‘Kojo-no-mai’, Magnolia stellata, Thalia multi-headed daffodils and Skimia. All plants currently in flower in our Warwickshire garden today (21 March 2022).
It is lovely to feel the spring sun on your face once again!
The Apricot is typically the first of our fruit trees to come into flower. It’s small blush pink blooms alongside deeper pink buds are lovely. Today (8 March 2022) is really the first day the flowers have opened this year. My last record in 2019 was for 27 February so we may be slightly later this year.
This particular Apricot tree has been on the move over recent years. Originally planted in the orchard it had to be dug up to make way for a wedding marquee. Due to covid-19 the wedding was delayed for a year so the tree has been in a temporary home all this time. It has however survived pretty well really.
This year we have decided not to put it back in the ground but plant it against a warm, sunny brick wall in a much larger pot.
Flavorcot has been specially bred to cope with the UK climate and is supposed to fruit more reliably because it is later flowering than many other Apricot varieties. Ours has clearly not read the script as it consistently flowers at the end of February and beginning of March.
It does seem to be very frost hardy and the blossom is not really damaged by the cold. However, there are fewer pollinating insects about at this time and we may have to tickle it with a soft paint brush this year to get a decent crop of fruit.
Much as I would love to have baskets of produce each year I still get a certain satisfaction from picking and eating a small number of sun ripened fruits straight from the tree. Heres hoping that it settles in well to its new position.
We are out in the garden ... 