Happy side effect of the bad winter

[Nature's Babe]

I have noticed after the hard winter it looks like we are in for a bumper fruit crop, the cherries apple and pear are laden with blossom, it looks like some thinning may be necessary on apple and pear, does one need to thin cherries? they were newly planted last year, lots on the red and black currants too.

[Elaine]

Hi Nature's Babe. It's the same here too. The blackcurrant bushes are laden, as are the gooseberries. I have one red currant which I ruthlessly pruned (hacked back, to be honest!) as it was over shadowing one of the gooseberry shrubs and needs moving really. I had intended to move it last year but the extremes of weather put paid to that.

I wouldn't have been too worried if the thing had died on me but ye gods!....it is positively festooned with blossom and tiny berries. Talk about murphy's law???
Cheers.

[glallotments]

Same here - except for plums which had a bumper crop last year and I guess are having a rest.

Just hope any frosts don't scupper our chances.

Even our kiwi has lots of flowers buds - only five last year and no fruit!

[madasafish]

Same here. And the rasps look as though the early ones will be great.

[alan refail]

Same here - except for plums which had a bumper crop last year and I guess are having a rest.

Not much plum blossom here either

[Nature's Babe]

We have local wild plums so have not planted those in the garden, but everything else is doing well, the greenhouse grape is really early. Lets keep our fingers crossed we don't get a hard frost.

[Monika]

Just out of interest (we can't grow fruit successfully here): how will you fruit growers fare about pollinating insects? Has it been warm enough for them? Because, although we have plenty of wild blossom like bird cherries, there seem to be very few insects about here in this cold weather.

[madasafish]

We rarely see many honey bees here before June as we are 200 metres above sea level. Lots of bumble bees (about 20-30 at a time) and smaller insects which act as pollinators. As we have fields on 2 sides, and a marsh about 300 metres away, always lots of insects.

Never had pollination problems even with damsons and pears which bloom earliest in our garden. By the time the rasps are in blossom we start to see honey bees.

[Elaine]

We have been amazed at how many Bumble Bees there have been visiting our fruit cage, even on colder days. ...some really huge ones too. I was working on the plot next to it one day and the sound of the bees was lovely....reminded me of summer!

[Mike Vogel]

I've also been surprised by the plethora of flowers on my strawberries..

[glallotments]

We have lots of bumble bees too - the queens in search of somehwere to nest at the moment.

[alan refail]

I'm waiting to see what the effect of the frosts has been on the prolific apple blossom

[glallotments]

So am I our apple trees are loaded as was the cherry earlier. Bush fruit seems to have set well.

[madasafish]

Our outdoor strawberries have just started to flower. Lots of gooseberries, and white/red/black current fruit set.

Damson prolific ditto apples , and pears. Unless they are frosted or we have a dreadful summer, looks like a bumper year (crosses fingers)

[PLUMPUDDING]

The blossom here has been wonderful this year, but the frosts this week have been down to -5C. The apple blossom hasn't quite opened yet and the strawberries are still buds, so I'm hoping they won't have been damaged. Its fingers crossed for the rest of the fruit though, although the blueberries look fine with lots of big fat berries on already.

I've left the kiwi fruit swathed in fleece all week as the buds on that are almost ready for opening.

It is amazing how resilient plants are though, this morning the brassicas and sweetpeas were actually frozen stiff and crunchy and this afternoon they look quite normal. Even the cosmos look unscathed.