Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Loosing one´s cherry

"See the tree, how big it's grown
but friend it hasn't been too long
it wasn't big...

The first day that she planted,
it was just a twig"


Bobby Russell

Loosing my cherry would I think be a traumatic experience. The tiny red seedling we found two years ago and subsequently planted behind the lavenders at the the front of the house has now reached 6´in height. It has a nice open shape almost espalier like though it will need pruning soon. In mid March the tree produced a series of single white flowers which appeared at the same time as a cold spell occurred which threatened the local cherry producers´ crop. At a commercial level cherries are very important to the local economy, and the growers response to the weather, was to spray the plants with a waxy foam to protect the newly set fruit buds.
Our plant being red, looks to be an ornamental variety and did not appear to have set fruit. Cherry fruit buds are popular with the finches and it is possible that they could account for any fruit that did set.

A few days ago I found a single fruit bud had formed, already bright red though it is not much bigger than a large pea. And so it is that each morning I check the development of the solitary cherry, if it turns out to be an edible variety it will be the tastiest cherry in the world. Though with so many birds around it may not be us doing the tasting!


4 comments:

  1. wow that is a very large garden, I do not want to think of weeding it. Of what I read you seem to know much more about gardening than we do and things are going well. We are way down in South Africa just above Cpae Town. Please drop in on my blog when you have time. I heard our aloes do well in your climate - here is our aloe garden

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  2. It's been ages since I've heard that song. Good luck with your cherry tree. How neat that you grew it from a little seedling. 6' in two years seems great progress to me. Well done!

    Dawn

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  3. Perhaps your cherry tree is lonely and needs another cherry? Most cherry trees need another for pollination to set fruit :)

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  4. Ericat - We are still learning by trial and error and a little knowledge passed on by those that have tried failed before. Aloes do do well in this climate on the edge of the village there are two aloe patches that dominate the roadside. I have been reading your blog to pick your brains about suitable plants for our slowly developing plot.

    Dawn - I think that with short winters tree growth here is quite striking as long as we get sufficient rainfall. I like to combine music and gardening too.

    Nickie - I think you could be right about the cherry. We do have an ornamental cherry in the garden, and several people have cherry trees on their land.

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