In Bloom

Don’t ask me why this gets me so excited, but we have a crab-apple tree in our front yard that is beginning to bloom. I’ve been watching it since spring began and was pretty stoked to see that there buds aplenty. Now the reason this speaks to me is because the tree was planted (very nicely done, BTW) by the previous owners, and MG told me that for as long as it was there, it had never bloomed. Kind of a drag.

Now I may be getting the timing a bit wrong on this one, but we moved into this house in June, and I think by our second year, or our first complete year, it actually bloomed. I could be deluding myself, but if it’s actually true, that’s kind of cool, isn’t it? Either way, it bloomed and then we had crab-apples all over the place, but fruit trees look beautiful when they flower, especially crab-apples.

Now the details sometimes get clouded, especially in my old and aching head, but I seem to recall for the past two years, the tree hasn’t bloomed. It was kind of sad, but nothing, sort of like our blueberries. That’s why this year, when I saw buds starting to form, I kept a close eye on them to see if they’d flower or just form leaves. Sure enough, they’re flower buds, and lots of them. This should be good.

One last note, because of our crazy weather, we had a very early spring, which sort of fooled all the plants and trees to bud, and then a cold snap later, which jeopardized the flowers. A cold front like that can destroy an entire orchard, with temps dropping below the 20s. Either way, I was tempted to cover the tree and blueberries, but I’d heard that it was safe if the flowers were still in their bud phase, which was the case. Time will tell, but so far, so good.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.