Plums and bees

Our plum tree is just starting to bloom, which always makes me wonder if city folks understand how baby fruit comes into the world. The flowers must be pollinated by insects under the right conditions. If the weather is too cold, the bees are inactive and the unfertilized flowers drop off. On that sad day, you won't see the tiny green fruit bud-- it's no bigger than a dew drop. If it isn't there, enjoy looking at your ornamental tree, because that's that for another year.

Under natural circumstances, apple pollen cannot fertilize plum blossoms, which sounds pretty obvious if you know a bit of biology. So if you think about the pesticides and sterile trees of suburbia (fruit trees are few and far between) you appreciate the miracle of bees traveling those distances. We have an apple tree (Sparta) and a plum (Italian prune) in the yard. Tom's brother (Amanda's brother-in-law) lives a few houses down from us, and has some old plum trees in his yard, too. There might be other plums tucked away in the neighborhood, but probably the reason Bill and I have fruit is because the bees easily make their way across the street every spring. Not far to travel-- I like the thought of that.

In these enlightened days, I'm always distressed to see the "Chem Lawn" truck in the neighborhood. Never mind the "environmentally friendly" line on the side of the tanker; spewing anything around the landscape willy-nilly with a fire hose must decimate many tiny innocents. Wish me luck this year. Here's a picture of the plum bounty from a few years ago: