Frosty Flowers

The dwarf Liberty apple tree at the edge of my garden, planted in 2009.

Sunday, April 11, was beautiful -- warm and sunny. This lovely little apple tree was in full bloom, with tiny bees visiting its flowers. But I stood near it, not paying attention, focused on cilantro seedlings in a bed nearby.

And then the little tree reached out and grabbed me by the nose, the fragrance of the blossoms released by the sun and warm temperature, enticing bees and me to Pay Attention. I stood by the little tree inhaling its rejuvenating fragrance, dreaming of juicy apples come fall. I did not know until then how fragrant apple blossoms are.

Fragrant apple blossoms. Take a whiff.....

Now, today I look at the forecast for next week -- rain mixed with snow. Tuesday morning's low 32 degrees F. Wednesday morning's low, 28 degrees F.

Time to pull out sheets and blankets to cover young vegetable plants -- lettuce and leeks, kale and collard seedlings, cabbages -- and snuggle the pea seedlings and asparagus shoots with hay.

But what about the apple, cherry and pear blossoms? I cannot do much there.

However, I have a list -- provided by K-State Research and Extension -- of tree fruits and the temperatures at which flowers and new fruits will be killed. According to this after petal fall blossoms-soon-to-be-fruit for each of these will be killed at a rate of 10 percent with a temperature of 28 degrees. The percentage of kill increases with each degree downward, until you get 90 percent kill at 25 degrees F. Pears are a tiny bit more hardy, being 90 percent killed at 24 degrees. 

I feel a little better having checked this, but am keeping my fingers crossed that we won't drop below 28 degrees. My heart goes out to all of the local fruit farmers.