Went to check on my apple trees and discovered that they have blooms on them. Oh how that brought back memories of New Jersey! There were lots of orchards in my area there.....apple, peach, pear, nectarine. Those apples were great.
I find the apples grown in Hawaii are acceptable but nothing to write home about. And unless they're grown high on the slopes of Mauna Loa or Mauna Kea, gardeners here are limited to low chill varieties only. I've only found two types being offered for sale here, and I've got one of each.
Photo above, these are flowers on my Anna tree. This tree is still quite young, so I only let it produce one apple last year....just so I could say that I got an apple. Yup, a silly ego thing, I'm sure. This year I'll let it keep 3 apples and see what happens.
Growing apples at lower elevations (I'm at 2400', which is a lot lower than the orchards on Mauna area), is quite difficult due to the Chinese rose beetle. Those beetles can destroy the leaves practically overnight. I haven't yet found a real effective way of controlling them. I truly wish there was a bt product that targeted them.
One of the nicest scents in nature is that of the apple blossom. You may need to get your nose up close to the bloom. I had good crops from my Anna apple tree in Orange County, CA, but it took 5 seasons to really get going. The first few years gave only a couple of fruits, but once it got going, those were excellent fruits, only occasionally making the trip to the house!
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