Some folks have had some questions about blooms, what they look like and what order. Thought I’d walk through the orchard with some pictures. Maybe it will answer some questions.
These danm things may be froze off this weekend.
Zard apricot
35-007
Autumnstar
Victoria
Veteran
Julyprince
24c
Intrepid
Scarletprnce
Harrow beauty
Blazeprince (sucks)
Winblo
Ernie’s choice
Tired of taking pics, so I’ll stop here. Like I said they could be all frosted off anyway.
You have a lot of nice trees
If anyone has some specific questions on what a particular peach bloom looks like or when it blooms relative to others. Let me know today and I’ll try to get a pic.
Thanks for posting. It doesn’t look like a lot of blossoms yet, other than the 'cot, which is expected. Are they blooming at their normal times this year?
I was just out to get the mail and saw my wild plum has several blooms opened up, along a few on my Juliet cherry bush. None of the four peaches have a lot of blooms open yet. The Contender has a couple, but the Blushingstar is just showing some leaves. Same with Coralstar and Redhaven. Do peaches typically bloom out at the same time or is it spread out over a week or more?
Are you expecting any fruit from your Challenger trees, or are they still too young to bear?
Hi Mark, nice trees. How old is that Zard apricot, and how productive on the years you dodge frost?
Bob,
I’ve always recorded first bloom. Without looking at my notes I believe the earliest peach bloom I’ve seen in any year is March 12th. The latest is about April 15th.
Challengers have a lot of flowers this year. We harvested some last year. They were a beautiful peach and flavor packed.
Duane,
I put in a couple Zards in 2014, so I guess this would be their 6th season. I think they flowered a very little bit the last couple years, but this year is the first year they flowered good.
I had one or two fruits which made it last year, but that’s it. So I can’t really evaluate the productivity yet, other than to say it’s been slow to come into any kind of decent flowering.
Mark,
Thank you for posting these pictures. You would be the person with extensive peach experience. We should use this thread to compare our peach flowers and, when possible, verify if we grow a correct variety. Showy vs non-showy is a good example.
Also, people could post pictures of flowers of peach varieties that are less common such as Black Boy, Shui Mai Tao, Sanguine Tardive, Rio Oso Gem, etc. So, we will know what their flowers look like.
@scottfsmith probably has the largest collection of unusual peach varieties among us.
That’s a great idea Tippy. I hope others post pics of their peach flowers on this thread.
Jon,
I no longer have Gold Dust. It just wasn’t productive enough for me. Sorry.
I hope people post close up pictures of the flowers, too.
There is a lot of conflicting info on the details of Reliance peach blooms. But the preponderance of testimony is that the blooms are non-showy.
I’ve grown reliance. As I recall, the blooms were non-showy. @alan has also mentioned the blooms are non-showy in the past. Most of the later blooming stuff is non-showy. That’s just the way it goes with peaches.
Hi Olpea,
I always assumed that bloom size was a major indicator of showy vs non-showy blooms. From a Virginia Tech Bulletin:
Blossom types – Most commercial varieties have showy blossoms , which are flowers with large pink petals. Non - showy blossoms have smaller redder petals. … These varieties often have fibrous flesh. Most early-season peach and nectarine varieties are clingstones.
The USDA Peach ands Nectarine Guide describes Reliance Bloom as nonshowy: large size.
So if I read this correctly you can have non-showy large peach blooms? I am curious now what blooms my Reliance has on it, they are definitely larger.
Spud
There seems to be slightly different definitions of showy vs. non showy. This is probably responsible for some of the confusion in bloom descriptions of various cultivars.
Most of the blooms are fairly straightforward on being either showy or non showy. That is, a typical non showy bloom will have smaller redder petals which don’t lay flat. Or a typical showy bloom will have large pinkish petals which lay flat.
I may have made a mistake on correctly identifying the blooms on busch83’s Reliance peach above because it’s not a close up photo. It’s hard to see from the pic, but it looks to me the the petals are big and pink (i.e. showy), which wouldn’t match Reliance.
I disagree with part of the Virginia Tech bulletin. Namely, I think it goes a bit far to say most commercial varieties have showy blooms. That may be true for some southern commercial growers, and perhaps CA varieties, but in the northern part of the nation (i.e. MI, NJ, etc.) it’s probably a pretty even split of showy vs. non showy, with perhaps a little more non showy.
For me, the non showy blooms tend to be more productive trees than showy ones.
I may have mixed up the Reliance and Majestic. I have the tree tagged but was labeling off of memory. One certainly is less “showy” than the others. The blooms have a less stunning color with stubby, more conical, flowers.
Some pics of some stone fruit blooms.
Wild plum, transplanted a couple years ago. The tree was buzzing with activity, although not a lot of honey bees, mostly bumblebees and smaller insects. The tree is quite fragrant, no wonder it’s attracting pollinators.
Juliet bush cherry, not a lot of blooms yet, but a few anyways.
Speaking of pollinators…
Ok.
There seems to be enough interest in types of peach blossoms, I thought I’d try to take some close ups this evening.
I think I’ve sorted out all mislabels sent me over the years, so the pics should be pretty accurate. Everything bloomed out here real quick with the very quick warmup.
The pic follows the variety listed
Earlystar
Risingstar
Surecrop
Garnet Beauty
Early Redhaven
Glenglo
PF eight ball
PF 9a-007
Saturn
Harken
Mark,
This is helpful. Thank you.
Your trees are at least a week ahead of mine. We have several cold, cloudy and rainy days. Even my daffodil blooms have not yet opened due to lack of sun.
