Apple Blossom Time In New England

Apple blossom time in New England is beautiful. I love looking out the windows at the  orchard that surrounds our home. Once outside, it is such a pleasure to view the apple and pear trees in all their glory. Walking under the canopy of blossoms, smelling the subtle fragrance of the flowers, hearing the buzz of the bees as they go from blossom to blossom gathering pollen for their hives while pollinating the flowers…it is enjoying nature at its best.

Apple Blossom Time In New England

During a normal spring, the pear trees in our orchard are the first to bloom, usually a full week before the apples during the first week of May. By mid May, the orchard is in full bloom. Last year, spring was too warm and the trees bloomed in April which was too early for our area. We had a hard frost in early May which killed almost all the newly forming fruit.

Warm dry days have been perfect for the orchard this year. The flower buds on the pear trees opened right on time, with clusters of tiny white blossoms enveloping the whole tree.

Opening buds On A Pear Tree

Delicate Blossoms Of A Pear Tree

Pear Tree In Full Bloom

The buds on the apple trees have gone from deep pink tight buds to pink tinged with white blossoms beginning to open then slowly fading to a creamy white.

Deep Pink Apple Buds

Pink Apple Blossoms Tinged With White

Apple Orchard In Bloom

Pink Blossoms Turn To A Creamy White

The time from tight buds to petal fall is about ten to fourteen days. Three to four weeks after the blossoms have opened, small fruit will have formed. Thank goodness that not every blossom gets pollinated…as it is, there will be hundreds of apples on each tree.

With one hundred different varieties of apples in our orchard, they do not all bloom at one time. Normally I would have waited a few more days to take photos when almost all the trees would be in bloom. We are having much needed rain for the next several days and it will cause a lot of petals to fall. Since it is near peak, I thought I would share photos of what the orchard looks like now with most of the trees totally covered in sweet smelling flowers.

Over the next week or two, the orchard will look like it is snowing as petals begin fluttering down from the trees and carpeting the grass with white spent petals mingling with yellow dandelions.

Apple Trees Surrounded By A Carpet Of Grass And Dandelions

Forsythia Adds Bright Color To The Orchard

I know that dandelions are an unwanted weed that seems to pop up in everyone’s yard and garden but I enjoy their bright yellow flowers and light as air puff balls that float in the gentle breeze. They grow among the apple trees…during spring, they are enjoyed as much as the green grass and bright yellow flowers of the forsythia.

Bright Yellow Dandelions

Apple blossom time is lovely.  I hope that someday you get a chance experience the sights and fragrance of an orchard in bloom…if not in New England, then in one of the areas in the world where they grow.