Spring treasures in my garden

Blueberry blossom

I had a lot of fun taking close-up Springtime photos of blossoms, buds and leaves using my cell-phone camera this week. I was hoping to photograph the many honeybees on the blueberry blossom, but they were too fast for me, and it was rather windy. I'm surprised my photos didn't come out all blurry! 

I love the pink blush on the blueberry flower petals and their light blue-grey frosted sepals. 

Most of the blueberry blossom has been pollinated now. The flowers are already starting to drop off the bushes, leaving behind tiny, newly-formed berries.

Spring fig leaves

The fig trees are quickly coming to life with gorgeous, fresh green leaves. Such a nice change from seeing bare twigs. The trees are quite prehistoric looking.

Thornless berry blossom

I've yet to discover which type of berry these thornless plants will produce. The blossom looks like it may be blackberry or boysenberry, but I have no idea really. Any guesses?

Dad cut out all the dead and damaged berry canes yesterday and I tied up the new fresh ones along a system of wires and posts. This really should have been done before the new canes sprouted leaves. Hopefully no damage has been done by doing this now.   

  

Yellow cherry guava buds

The yellow cherry guava tree is covered in little flower buds waiting to open. There are also some small cherry guavas on the tree still to ripen from last season.

Naval orange blossom

We finished harvesting the last of the naval oranges for the season a couple of weeks ago. Mum enjoyed eating the last one that was sitting in the fruit bowl today. They were very juicy, full of flavour and smelt delicious.

The orange blossom was opening on the tree while the oranges were ripening. There are hundreds of flowers waiting to be pollinated! It will be almost a year before we'll get more oranges from this tree. 

We need to continue to feed the tree with citrus tree food, and make sure that the soil doesn't dry out over Summer, so that the fruit will be juicy when it's time to pick them.

 

Feijoa buds and new leaves

The feijoa (pineapple guava) tree looks promising, it is full of flower buds waiting to open and there are lots of new leaves. I'm hoping that the tui birds that visit our garden will find the feijoa flowers to pollinate them. Tuis love to drink the nectar that the feijoa flowers produce.

 

Yellow wild strawberry flower

I discovered some wild strawberry clumps growing in the garden near the quince tree. Amazingly they have yellow flowers instead of white. I didn't realise, until I looked it up on the internet, that there are yellow-flowered wild strawberries as well as white ones. 

There was one tiny red strawberry on one plant which had been partly eaten by something. It didn't look appealing at all and hasn't been included in my list of fruit in my garden. I will let the blackbirds enjoy them if that's what they like :)

Plum blossom

The plum blossom is starting to open up and it smells lovely. There are quite a few buds on the tree :) The previous owner said that the tree is a Black Doris plum. We should hopefully get some plums from it around Christmas time.

The plum tree branches are covered in lichen, which I read is a sign of healthy air. I read that lichen doesn't harm the trees that it grows on. However, dad thinks that this tree is dying. I hope not. 

  

New quince leaves

This little cluster of leaves is the only sign of life on the quince tree so far. I'm hoping that there will be a lot more new growth to follow. 

We discovered the quince tree when we were tidying up some overgrown bushes. The tree was right in the middle and looking very sorry for itself. Dad gave the tree some fertilizer and we tidied up the weeds that were growing at its base.

I hope that the tree recovers as I've never tried quinces before, nor have I seen them for sale in the shops.

I'm having fun checking the fruit trees and bushes for new growth. I love the surprises I get each time I go out into our new garden, and there are so many good things to look forward to!

See you again soon. 

Hugs, Rose xxx