Snow just moving into the area…looks like it will be here for awhile…showing 5-7 inches. Sitting right around freezing.
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I immediately thought about being in my pool, and with it still frozen and how cold it is here I suddenly got a shiver. I had goosebumps run down my arms! I still love our seasons here in Michigan, that is when they come at the right time of the year, Lol!!
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I’m sorry for your loss and your story really made me think. I’ve always been told that I’ll never get any apricots here on the KY/TN border and it was a waste to even try, But try I did- I have 4 trees. Last year was the first year they were old enough to fruit and they DID! So I’ve spent a year thinking apricots aren’t so hard here, and I’ll be getting them most years. Hearing your story really cuts me deep! I may very well have just had my one freak year last year like you did the one year you mention. I may not get them for another 10 years. This year they were blooming in EARLY February. Realistically we will ALWAYS get freezes here in February and March, so I bet I’m screwed for the future and certainly this year (predicted 21 Tueday night). How many years have you had your apricots?
Do you know what apricot that is? My latest bloomer seems to be Moorepark, which is NOT what all the charts I’ve seen say. Just wondering what your late one is. Is it late enough that you have got fruit from it some or even most years? Thanks
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Oh brother, Clark. Sorry to see your apricots are lost again, this year 
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No worries on the apricots I grow them more for fun than a crop. If I was real concerned I would top work them with a really late apricot. Bob Purvis mentioned he has later varieties. I’ve grown apricots over 20 years. The trunks of some of them are the largest I’ve ever seen.
I think the whites are suppose to be later… Cots are the earliest in my yard, but by the time the heat shows up here, everything is in bloom at almost the same time.
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The Har series is supposed to be late blooming. At least that’s why I bought Harglow
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Zard is the one Scott has that bloomed latest. That pretty much concurred with what Bob Purvis said. I ended up buying a couple Zard trees from Purvis. Scott sent me some wood a couple years He said there was another which bloomed as late as Zard, but I can’t remember what it was now. For some reason I wasn’t as interested in the other cot.
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Location also matters for apricots. I’ve read it somewhere and planted my two apricots on the northern side of the house. They do not see sun most of winter. The ground stays frozen there longer than in the other places. This is really helps to delay blooms on them, although I still have not much experience with them producing, they are quite young. Last summer my very modest apricot crop from Chinese sweet pit was about 2 weeks later than on Tony’s apricot of the same variety.
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Well, I got back home yesterday here in NE KY, and today I went out and inspected my trees. As mentioned before, none of my new trees will be producing anything this year, but I wanted to check them out anyways. The temps are supposed to be around 16 Tue and Wed nights for lows.
The apples appear to be in silver tip, so barely waking up. The old apple trees are not even at silver tip.
The pears are at swollen bud stage, so about same state as apples.
The peaches, however, are at first pink, and some buds are at first bloom. My in-laws’ peach tree is at first pink as well.
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I have 3 cots and an Aprium. Flavor Delight bloomed earliest, then Robada, Orangered and Goldcot.
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FD is always first!
Maria,
I multi-grafted several more varieties to the Chinese sweet pit last year like Montrose, Bill’s Nectar peachcot, Early Blush, sugar pearl , and Monique cot. The Amodiocot did not take. Most of the new grafts are full of flower buds. I will try to write the bloom time of each one. BTW,. Did anyone successful grafting Amodiocot?
Tony
Tony,
I also have many varieties grafted like Orangered, Tomcot, Harcot, Robada, Brookcot and I also have Pixie as a separate tree. If they survive this cold, I’ll write bloom time for all of them.
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Yes, if I had known that I’d probably have not grafted it. Buy like many other have said I’m not going to starve if it freezes out 4 out of 5 years. But it would be smart of me to grow later blooming fruit in general.
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I haven’t found Elberta an exceptional freeze survivor here. Nor are its blossoms showy. Of older peaches, Loring is the showy one and known for fragility. However when Loring has failed to fruit here, so has most everything else, so the margin between best and worst is pretty small. Apples have a much wider range of bloom timing.
I grafted Zard onto a Chinese / Mormon apricot that is in a container last year. It has been in an unheated garage all winter. The Chinese/Mormon fully bloomed a few weeks ago but the Zard was noticeably later. Right now only the first few Zard blooms have opened and the rest are pushing but still closed. The difference might not be so pronounced if they were in real conditions, but at least it is some kind of observed comparison .
That’s right Alan. Here’s a description from VA Extension:
“An open-pollinated seedling of ‘Chinese Cling’, introduced in 1889 by Samuel Rumph, Marshallville, GA. The tree has non-showy blossoms.”
https://pubs.ext.vt.edu/422/422-762/422-762_pdf.pdf
I shouldn’t try to quote peach minutia from memory, but I’m sure I’ll continue to do it. 
;
Sun already out here… melting some of this garbage. Lake effect bands are setting up over the Milwaukee area (due to an east wind over the “warm” waters of L Mich)…some areas could get up to 15 inches…
you can see the low pretty good southwest of Chicago
http://hint.fm/wind/
We didn’t expect any snow last night but we got ice and about an inch of snow. I saw a few cars in the ditch on my way to work. Thursday will in the 60’s.
Tony