Sugar Tyme Crabapple Espalier Tree Buds - Zone 5B - January 2023
A couple of days ago, I posted a photo of the Magnolia tree fuzzy flower bud that I spotted on the tree this Winter and talked about how observing tree buds has really shifted my mental gardening model from a Spring start and Winter finish --> Early Winter start and Fall Dormancy finish. That means, after the trees shed the leaves, they start to set next-year's buds. And, *that's* when the season starts (for me, now). On the same day that I took the photo of the Saucer Magnolia tree, I wandered by the pair of early-espalier Sugar Tyme Crabapple trees that are planted on the south wall of our house. I planted the pair of these trees in September of 2021 , so this was the first FULL growing season. They bloomed white flowers this Spring - for their first set of flowers . And set their first fruit (for us) this Fall . I've begun to train and prune these trees this season into an (eventual) Palmette Verrier espalier shape with ...