I’m trying Court Pendu Rose (even later than Court Pendu Plat by 3 or 4 days, although lighter crops; seemingly the better tree out West) Hunt Russet, Goldrush and Keepsake as pollen sources for Medaille d’Or.
Of the lot, only Hunt Russet is in the ground. The rest are still scions waiting in the 'fridge.
Keepsake is the one I wonder about most because the literature is so random. It will keep into May or longer and be welcome here, even if it cannot extend its bloom to the beginning of that of Médaille d’Or.
I am seeing normal budding on my J. plums- healthy and green. Best of all, the bud swell seems to be occurring at the appropriate time. April 1st last year they were in full bloom and we got 17 degrees that early morn. mourn.
It seems like this spring the further south the worse it was. Alan is all fine, I lost Japanese plums and cots but peaches are all fine, and in South Carolina it was a disaster on all counts. It is particularly nice to see all my peaches in bloom now after several weeks of having nothing to stare at but fried blooms.
They got a double dose of nasty…the high chill types didn’t get enough cold…so no bloom…and the low chill bloomed in Feb and got fried.
Everything showing some movement here now…After this coming weekend i think some cots should be ready to pop. Peaches still probably 2 weeks off…i need to get some copper on them.
I’m far from sanguine at this point. Apricots are showing a lot of flower damage- at my site I’m not sure if any not near walls of my house are viable. At other sites it’s hit and miss. J. plums seem normal but, strangely, I’m not at all sure about E. plums- maybe I’m just jumpy but it seems like a lot of buds are fried. Peaches and apples appear normal and if we get a good crop of those I won’t complain about any other disappointments.
Wow. FD was my first bloomer. February 26th if I remember correctly. It promptly got frozen out. Probably not worth me having. Luckily it’s only a single graft.
Apricots and J Plums/pluots all seem hit or miss for me. I was checking them out today and it looks like most have at least some live flowers (as best as I can tell). Autumn Glo, a late season, low chill apricot looks to have lost all it’s flowers. But everything else seems at least partially OK. Maybe just a bit less thinning will be needed.
Here’s an example which shows some dead blooms, right next to some which are swelling up with white.
The apricot bloom seems a bit spread out- the following trees are within 15 feet of each other:
Mirsanjeli Late- almost done flowering
Gold Cot- mid-bloom
Montrose- almost ready to open first flower
What cots are you growing that got toasted? Reason why I ask is that I’m only around 100mi. or so due east of you give or take and thought that we have similar climates. Today I just recorded first bloom for Harglow, Tomcot and Hesse Plumcot.
My Tomcot doesn’t look great either. A few flower buds on it…while Puget Gold (which its grafted to) is loaded. Could be the location on the tree (south side of the tree)…not sure.
