I have a difficult time telling white apricots apart — all that I’ve seen (Afghanistan, Moniqui, Lasgerdi Mashhad, Angelcot) are very similar. BTW, @scottfsmith mentioned that his Canadian White Blenheim and Zard are “pretty much identical.” He suggested that “The variety name came into being due to a scion mix-up and in fact it could be Zard.” Arboreum also questions CWB’s relationship to Blenheim: “The literature describes this as an induced mutation of Blenheim, but there are substantial differences besides lack of color. Canadian has a melon flavor characteristic of the other two white apricots we offer.”
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I actually bought a box of these just last night at Walmart. They were pretty good. Not crazy good, but pretty good. Like most store bought fruit, I could tell they were picked a bit early and I suspect if they were homegrown/tree ripened they might be “Crazy Good”!
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I liked them well enough to plant seeds of them two years ago. They’ve been growing fine since and haven’t mysteriously died like most of my other apricots. Time will tell what comes of them.
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Angelcot was bred by a California breeder, I read an article about it at some point. … scroll down a bit in this story to find a description:
@Stan, I wished I had kept CWB so I could be more certain on the idea it is the same as Zard, but I needed room and it only fruited for a few years. It bloomed at the same time as Zard and Zard is later than all the other whites. That plus similar size etc made me think they could be the same. But after fruiting many white apricots I find they are all pretty similar as you mention so it could just be that they are similar. It certainly has nothing to do with Blenheim.
Re: whites being similar, there are some flavor size and shape differences but they are fairly minor. All are very reluctant setters, some worse than others. I removed Afghanistan last year because for 10+ years it refused to set a good quantity. Shalah and Lasgerdi are only now starting to set a somewhat-OK amount of fruit. All of these three are the egg-shaped ones. The more round ones tend to set a bit better, e.g. Moniqui and Zard, but they still take a long time to start setting well. There are also some really large-sized ones, I think they may all be closely related to Sparks Mammoth. Those guys are particularly bad on setting. Angelcot probably sets better seeing as how it is being grown commercially; I wished that scions were available for that one. None of the Angelcots I tried were any good, but they probably were just picked too early.
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Angelcots I had from Trader’s Joe were quite underripe. My tree-ripened white apricots were truly special.
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Apricots as a species don’t tend to sweeten until fully ripe. Only special handling and quick sales allow the commercial distribution of tasty cots. Angel’s creator was trying to accomplish with cots what the Zaigers have accomplished with J. plums (and, to a lesser extent, peaches and nects)- apricots that sweeten up while still quite firm, allowing affordable distribution of fully sweet fruit. Apparently he died before succeeding.
At least this means that only us homegrowers get to regularly enjoy truly delicious cots.
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There used to be a thread about Angelcots but I cannot seem to find it. It was mentioning they were a failure from commercial perspective and the breeder cut all trees down and refused to give/sell scionwood to anyone. Few members were also mentioning trying to grow these from seed (maybe @Bradybb ?).
I just read on Freshplaza they are still being grown (in Spanish but you can Google translate)
By the way how does the seed project go for those who tried?
I’ve got five seedlings that are 4th leaf, I think. No flowers yet. But I’m excited about them because all five are growing great while pretty much every grafted apricot I’ve tried here has died – maybe because of fluctuating spring temps, winter damage, or that apricot on lovell just doesn’t do well here. I’ve bent limbs this year to hopefully induce fruit next year.
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It wasn’t me,but I remember that thread.bb
Paul,this may be the thread.bb
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That’s great, I hope to read more about your apricots in the future and I am glad they are doing fine so far. Seedlings are always of better health, that’s my experience as well. I hope you got a lot of space cause the trees will be probably huge 
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Good memory, forgot about Anya, so Angelcot and Anya candycot are 2 different varieties, I mixed them up somehow. THanks
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Yes, you mixed up Candycots and Angelcots, they are different things.
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Hey there!
Any updates on how these apricot seedlings are doing in 2021?
I’d LOVE to hear!!
I’m trying to get some started at our farm in SW Mo. (just in the yard, not big time or anything) and I’m trying to discover which apricots are The BEST to go for!
Any info you all can share would be hugely appreciated!
Thanks!!
All the seedlings I’d been growing out died this spring. It was a disappointment, but not many apricots have survived for me here in the northeast.
AWw… that’s too bad to hear.
Hopefully, here in the much muggy, warmer Missouri weather, things might go differently?
What would you say is the “ideal climate” for apricots… do you think?
Thanks for the update!!
Your climate is not good for apricots. First, apricots are early bloomers, and therefore blooms/fruitlets will be killed by spring freezes at least four years out of five. Second, apricot trees hate humidity. They are very susceptible to fungal deceases and will keep dying on you. Apricot trees are native to mountain valleys in Central Asia where humidity is very low and late freezes are very rare. They do well in similar climates, like the Mediterranean type.
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Awww… rats!
What fruit trees would you recommend, then, for this climate? Any ideas?
Persimmons, mulberries, jujubes, pawpaws. If you don’t want to spray, that’s pretty much the list of what will work.
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Aha… okay, thanks for sharing your experience!!
This farm does have a super old apple tree, (which my parents pruned, as it’s right beside their house, and it suddenly BOOMed with fruit this year. Big ones!)
And doing a little research, it looks like a Roxbury. So that’s interesting…
Super tart! But interesting. 