Friday, April 25, 2008

Any Master Gardeners in the House?

I have some beautiful flowering trees in my yard that my grandmother planted years ago. There are a few trees that I know what they are. There is one that I know is an apple tree, but I don't know what kind. Although it produces little green apples. (Granny Smith, perhaps?) There are one or two trees that I am positive about. Those are the bing cherry and peach trees.


The funny story about the peach tree is this:

When I was little, we had three peach trees in the center of the yard, bordering our garden. My brother, Eric, and I used to throw the peach seeds, pits, whatever you call them, at one another. My grandparents would fuss, saying, "Don't you do that! We'll have peach trees growing up in the middle of the yard one day!" We'd laugh and as soon as their backs were turned, we'd be at it again.

Eventually, the peach trees began to do poorly and had to be taken down.

About ten years ago, my grandmother stopped putting out a garden, due to failing health. After she passed, a little tree sprouted right in the middle of the yard where the garden used to be.

Out of curiosity, and since it wasn't in the way, I let the tree grow.

Guess what? It grew to be a lovely peach tree! It gives off some wonderful fruit!

Was that Grandma's way of saying, "I told you not to throw peach seeds at your brother!?" :)
Or was it her way of saying, "I'm still with you, and I still have a sense of humor?" Who can say? :)

Here is one of the blossoms from that peach tree:




In retrospect, I wish I had inquired of Grandma while she was living as to what these trees are. However, the acre is filled with trees, and unless I wrote everything down, I wouldn't trust my memory, anyway.

If I can't get any answers here, I'm going to consult a friend of mine who is a master gardener. From there, I guess internet research is my best guess.

Please feel free to comment and tell me if you have a clue what these trees might be:

This one is brilliant with color, and some of the blossoms grow directly out of the bark, as shown here:


Another view of same tree:



This is a shrub of some sort. It is nestled amongst pine trees in a shady part of our yard. It seems to be thriving, though there is virtually no sunlight in this portion of the property. I think these photos are going to look lovely in my scrapbook at some point!





This is the apple tree blossom. This tree produces little greenish yellow apples. I'm not sure exactly what kind of apple tree it is.


This tree is also in a very shady part of the yard. I have no clue as to what it is, but I don't believe it bears any fruit.



This tree has blossoms that are so muted in color that you have to get up really close to notice them at all. Also not a fruit bearing tree to my knowledge.


I also don't know what this tree is, but it looks suspiciously like the apple tree blossoms shown above. It's just that it has never produced fruit of any kind. It is in a very sunny part of the yard.

That's it for now. You may not be able to help me indentify these trees....but at the very least you got a peak at the spring colors I'm enjoying in my yard this month!

Have yourself a great weekend!

2 comments:

Patricia Marie said...

As a gardener myself, these are lovely trees.I would love to have them in my yard.

neicybelle said...

oh kristi! they're beautiful! i don't know what they are, but they are just gorgeous!