Blossoming Pears

Its that time of year again when we all get anxious about whether there will be a fruit crop this year. I love the pear flowers when they are just opening and the anthers are bright red, and wow what a quantity of them on Jargonelle, Beurre Hardy and Christie in my garden!  After a good number of frosts last week, we now have bright sunny bee flying days with warm nights so all is good?  What can go wrong? After all we only need a small quantity of these blossoms to get pollinated in order to get a good crop. Go on, count the flowers and imagine the weight of fruit if they all turned to a full crop. The trees would collapse!

I used to bank on April 23rd as the first apple flower day, but this year again it is early.. my Arbroath Oslin and James Grieve have opened a few flowers a few days early. No need to run around with a rabbit’s tail this year as i have seen many earnestly working bees today. Keep up the good work girls!

Pear Stamens

 

Monarch

Some big tough old Monarch trees can be found in Scotland. It is a good late cooker for many areas of Scotland, in Stirlingshire i have sen the fruits still on the trees well into January.

Monarch Appletree

Monarch Appletree

It ripens greenish yellow with a red flush. This nice tree is at Kellie Castle in Fife.

Worcester Pearmain

A juicy crispy white fleshed early October eating apple, once grown extensively commercially but now much superceded by more modern varieties. I have a prolific tree in my garden, though i had to learn to prune it as a tip bearer to get it to do so! A deliciou

Worcester Pearmain

Worcester Pearmain

s apple.