Okay. So I'm out in the garden yesterday harvesting the last tomatoes and other produce...The tomato bed was located next to the Pippin apple tree that hasn't fared well because it doesn't belong in our climate. The apples all fell off long before they were edible (always do). The raccoons and other critters eat the bounty because they obviously don't get a sour stomach from unripe apples. I've been tempted to remove it so many times, but then I feel bad and leave it because I can't bring myself to cut it down.
Anyway... as I moved around the tree, I didn't pay much attention to the fact that the leaves aren't turning like the rest of the trees around here, like the liquid amber just across the garden from it. It really didn't register that the apple tree's leaves are a deep, lush and vibrant green in stead of the usual crispy brown that they usually are this time of year from being zapped by our August heatwaves.
I was too focused on harvesting the tomatoes for it to register. But...
Then something caught my eye. I thought I was seeing things in the late afternoon autumn light. Is that what I think it is?
I moved closer. What the heck?
Okay, did someone switch hemispheres on me while I wasn't looking? There are apple blossoms on my Pippin... and it's the 14th of October! And last I checked, California was in the United States in the northern hemisphere! What in the world?????It was too late to photograph the blossoms yesterday, so I waited until today to go back out and get shots of them. As I was shooting the blossom cluster I discovered yesterday, I realized that there's another cluster of blossoms higher up. This is insane!
The tree still has an apple hanging on the north side, and on the south side it's got apple blossoms--in OCTOBER!!!!I've got friends and family that have just had their first frosts and snowfalls. They all live in the northern hemisphere (where I thought I was).
Seriously, did someone relocate California when I wasn't paying attention?
Okay, I'm officially freaked out now. The wisteria blooming in September was explained by my pruning it in August and encouraging a second bloom, but this??? Somebody explain this one for me.
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Something must be stressing out the tree. That's what would send the signal to reproduce. Has it been pruned recently? Or a change in watering? Try talking to someone at your County Extension office, or someone at the CA Rare Fruit Growers Association. They may have some ideas.
ReplyDeleteYou gotta hand it to plants--they're never boring!
What the chicken? Very strange! I never do know what to think about plants that get so confused. Auntie P has iris that bloom ever December! AND they are on the north side of the house. I never could figure that one out!
ReplyDeleteGreat silliness is all I have to say!
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Well I would not question it! I would snip those sweet smelling blooms off and bring then into the house and put them right into a vase!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Penny! But it IS strange... here I have rhododendron in bloom as usually blooms in june... and honeysuckle... and soon it is winter!
ReplyDeleteHugs to you Cindy - Annie in Sweden
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Laura
Maybe it just wants another shot at making apples. Enjoy the blooms they are very pretty.
ReplyDeleteROFL! My guess is that it tried to things in the right season and was thwarted so it's trying again as soon as it got over producing the first crop. Hey if it works, your tree may have adapted to your particular micro climate. :-)
ReplyDeleteNice one it had me laughing Cindy.