We have lots of Honeybees, small bumbles and large bumbles, and other pollinators flying around. Walked into the open greenhouse where my citrus trees are and the buzzing sound was almost deafening. I love it!!.
TFN
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When our big maple blooms it gets swarmed by honeybees and the hum is delightful!
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My multi bud plum is usually the first the flower of all of my non citrus trees. Satsuma is out in full force with Santa Rosa and Shiro coming in too. Italian Prune usually blooms a month later (never gotten fruit off that one, not sure if it needs a pollinator).
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Can you tell me more about what Green Gage tastes like?
Its showing up in my local nurseries and currently I only asian plums and am itching to try a european plum even if I dont have space for it.
I’m not great at describing flavor, but it is my favorite. It has a rich, fruity flavor and is a medium to large plum with no bitterness in the skin as some plums do. It is great at several stages of ripeness. When mature green it is sour, crunchy, and oh-so-good, especially with a little salt. Later, they lighten in color and start to have a sour-sweet flavor, and more chewy and later still, they begin to turn greenish yellow and soften up and get juicy with a sweet-sour flavor. If you let them ripen enough, they turn almost yellow and are almost bags of sweet lip smackin’ plum juice. Any time I have more than I need, the neighbors will gladly take the rest. I call one and they all come…one of my neighbors makes jelly from them. I hope this helps. I think there are more than one “greengage” plums out there and I have no idea which one I have. It came from a big box store many years ago.
TFN
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When I was a kid, we had a big basswood tree in front of the house, and the hum of the bees when that thing was in bloom was like a roaring surf
Never see such a thing anymore. Either the trees are gone, or the bees, or both.
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Those are very handsome trees. We see a few of them around here, but they’re not native this far west. They seem to do well, though.
We have a number of them here in Northeast TN. My grandfather had numerous honeybee hives and considered “Lin” honey about the best there was. Lin I presume was his name for Linden, aka Basswood.
I can very well imagine someone from the southeast US saying “lin’” for linden. I know a man whose last name is Williams, and he pronounces it “Weems”. (And I grew up with a Weems family). My neighbor from Georgia used "e’en (pronounced “een”, with a little pause between the e’s) for evening.
A very interesting subject! Well, to me at least.
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I shoveled out back this evening and caught a glimps of my Indian Free (in the background) it’s not very far along…
In the foreground, on the right, is one of the bare root trees that delivered earlier this month. Obviously, I was WAY too optimistic about this year’s weather. Everything is frozen, I can’t put them in the ground. Decided to pot them. Too warm in the garage, too cold outside. Moving them in when it’s in the teens or lower. Moving them out when in the 20’s or higher. Not smart…
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Peach pushing set of leaves out
Lime tree flowering
Mulberry fruits, perhaps some one can tell me what type of mulberry do I have?
The new tree are doing great Asian pear and Stella cherrys
Apple tree drop all the damage leaves and producing new leaves
Santa Rosa plum is still k.o
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Looks like a snow storm moving in.
I would rather have the snow. We have tornado warnings in our area.
TFN
Most of my newly planted stone fruit are starting to leaf out with the exception of my Babcock peach and 2 cherries. I even got a flower on my arctic star nectarine:
I hope Raintree sends my santa rosa weeping plum soon. It is getting late to plant it for my area.
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Everything is slightly earlier than last year which may be a problem with two 20 degree days coming next week. Here are the Carored peaches
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Such a pretty orchard! I’m not far and have to come visit this year.
I have your forecast, too. My Not-Reliance that had incredible peaches last year is really blooming. Last year 2 non-consecutive low 20s nights didn’t hurt like I thought, so fingers crossed.
One of my J plums in full bloom won’t work out probably.
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Blue,
Just wonder if you ever want to contact those wedding photographers or wedding planners to have brides and grooms pose for pics in your orchard during bloom time. Extra income. I would pay to have my pics taken in such a beautiful orchard like yours.
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Yep. Didn’t end up bad though. Only a couple inches snow, but temps in single digits, wind gusting to 30mph. Brrrrrrr…
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Still fully dormant here.
Thank you for the compliment.
Several friends have used the orchard as a backdrop for wedding photos at no cost.
We get inquiries from professional photographers about using the orchard for photo shoots but so far the money offered for its use has been too small.
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