May 26, 2011

The Russian honeyberries and Canadian haskaps started blooming the week of May 15^th, and reached maximum blossoms by the 23^rd to the 26^th.  I would say that the Russian varieties are about 5 days ahead of the Canadian varieties that they need to pollinate, but they are mostly flowering at the same time.  The Russians flower ‘more’, so they cover each other.  I have been trying to estimate the percent of blossoms open on the plants on different days this year.  It’s really just a good guess as there are ‘secret’ flower buds hidden in those leaves.  The currants are more honest and show all of their buds at once for me to count.

We also have pure Japanese strains of haskap from Dr. Maxine Thompson in Oregon.  They seem to be about 10 days behind the others and I think they may be having bad luck this year.  I estimated their blossoms at 10-15% open today and the weather is taking a turn for the worse this coming 4 to 5 days over Memorial weekend.  They may not pollinate well.  Or else the weather will be so cool and dark that flowering will be delayed until the clouds lift next week.  I hope so.

I’ve already said that the currants had excellent weather in which to set their fruit this year.  On the right are some bitty ‘Swedish Black’ fruits –they’re the earliest.