This is really to provide a snapshot of the state of out plot fruit as of Tuesday this week. Things are moving quickly as some fruit trees are playing catch up and other just carrying on with their normal timetable.
The plums and greengages are particularly late to flower this year. As it is one tree was pruned quite hard last year and as a consequence had no blossom on the pruned branches.
At this rate trees that blossom at differing time could all flower together and produce a spectacular display.
The thornless blackberry - Loch Ness and the very thorny tay berry are just leafing up. The tayberry will produce fruit first although Lock Ness does fruit early for a blackberry.
The cane fruit is leafing well now. Above is the purple raspberry - Glencoe. This produces canes more like a blackberry than a raspberry.
The autumn fruiting raspberries have been cut down and tidied. I removed at least three large bucket loads of bindweed root from around them. This is a real nuisance and no doubt there will be plenty left to regrow and attempt to strangle the raspberries come summer.
The summer fruiting canes were newly planted last year. All but the odd cane have made it and we are hoping for a decent harvest of summer raspberries this year.
Some fruits such as the jostaberry, gooseberry and currants have quite insignificant looking flowers but the bees just love them. The jostaberries in particular are loaded with flowers this year. Unfortunately the wood pigeons are partial to their fruit and also damage some branches when they land. Netting which may help isn't really an option.
Honeyberry flowers are quite attractive but the bushes are fairly new and haven't produced much yet. Rumour had it that they could be a disappointment. Blueberries too have attractive flowers but the only disappointment here is that they don't usually provide a decent crop..
The vines are just beginning to break. They were the source of another disappointment last year. Lots of bunches of grapes were produced which were growing well until the poor August weather slowed things down and consequently the grapes stopped growing.
The kiwi vine, that I forgot to take a photo of, is producing leaves. I wonder whether the male kiwi will deign to flower this year and give us some chance of fruit.
Many people compare the start of their rhubarb harvest with ours and wonder why we are picking much earlier than they are. The photo below shows just how varieties can make a huge difference. The earliest variety is far more advance than the others.
One fruit that didn't disappoint last year was the quince. The fruit stopped growing in August but it is a late cropping fruit which picked up again in late summer and went on to produce a bumper crop.
As I said this is just a snapshot in time and no doubt on my next plot visit things will have moved on a pace - at least I hope that will be the case.
Can you guess which of our fruits I haven't mentioned - it's one that will have a post all to itself.