Fruit Blossom At The National Fruit Collection

Nana, sour cherry

This year, again, we are very grateful to Lorinda Jewsbury for the flowering dates for the apples, pears, cherries and plums growing in the National Fruit Collections at Brogdale in Kent, UK

27^th April 2023

The cool spring weather has produced a bit of a slow start to the flowering at Brogdale this year, with a touch of frost damage seen on the early plum varieties. However, flowering in the orchards is now underway (the plums are mostly over) and, with the temperatures on the rise for the coming Bank Holiday weekend, it will be a busy time out there in early May.

Early-flowering plums may be further impacted by the cool weather as a lack of pollinators in early spring is likely to affect fruit numbers on these varieties. To add to this, the past winter at Brogdale was relatively mild and this has led to high levels of SWD (spotted wing drosphila) now being seen in the orchards. This small fly targets soft fruit (cherry and plum at Brogdale), laying eggs in developing fruit and damaging the crop. Hopefully we won’t see too much damage from them this year, but we will continue to monitor its numbers in the orchards.

On a good note, flowering in the pears has been a great improvement on last year (which saw very light flowering on a number of varieties) and the hope is for a better crop in 2023.

27 April 2023

PLUM

Cambridge Gage: 4^th April (10% open); 7^th April (full flower); 21^st April (90% petal fall)

Czar: 5^th April (10% open); 7^th April (full flower); 19^th April (90% petal fall)

Denniston’s Superb (Imperial Gage): 31^st March (10% open); 2^nd April (full flower); 12^th April (90% petal fall)

Farleigh Damson: 6^th April (10% open); 8^th April (full flower); 18^th April (90% petal fall)

Marjorie’s Seedling: 10^th April (10% open); 13^th April (full flower); 23^rd April (90% petal fall)

Oullins Gage: 3^rd April (10% open); 7^th April (full flower); 16^th April (90% petal fall)

Pershore Yellow Egg: 6^th April (10% open); 8^th April (full flower); 21^st April (90% petal fall)

Victoria: 7^th April (10% open); 9^th April (full flower); 20^th April (90% petal fall)

PEAR

Concorde: 22^nd April (10% open); 25^th April (full flower);

Conference: 18^th April (10% open); 22^nd April (full flower);

Doyenne du Comice: 24^th April (10% open); 27^th April (full flower);

Louise Bonne of Jersey: 8^th April (10% open); 11^th April (full flower); 23^rd April (90% petal fall)

CHERRY

Early Rivers: 16^th April (10% open); 20^th April (full flower);

Hertford: 26^th April (10% open);

Lapins: 15^th April (10% open); 19^th April (full flower);

Merchant: 26^th April (10% open);

Stella:

Sunburst:

APPLE

Blenheim Orange:

Bramley’s Seedling:

Cox’s Orange Pippin:

Crawley Beauty:

Discovery:

Egremont Russet:

Falstaff:

Feuillemorte:

Fiesta/Red Pippin:

Gala:

James Grieve:

Jonagold:

Meridian:

Red Astrachan: 17^th April (10% open); 20^th April (full flower);

St. Edmund’s Pippin: 25^th April (10% open);

Worcester Pearmain:

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4 May 2023