Fruit blossom and teeny-weeny figs

Our pears are into their third year fan trained along the back fence. They have flowered and produced a small amount of fruit from the first year although the quality was poor. We discovered (thank you Monty Don) that pears have to be picked and ripened in the house. We are growing two types (both of which are fairly readily available in the shops) Comice and Conferance.

The latter was bred by Thomas Francis Rivers at his family nursery at Sawbridgeworth in Hertfordshire.

He first announced it to the public at a 'Pear Congress' in 1885, which had been advertised as a 'Pear Conference', and which is the name he chose  -  although it seems our best-known pear could just as easily have been called Congress.

The Conferance pear tree is in flower again thanks to a burst of warm weather. The buds start out as pink/white and open into white flowers.

The Victoria plum is also covered in blossom. The Egremont Russet Apple will soon follow.

To protect the blossom from frost we erect home made structures covered in fleece or similar.

 

The Victoria Plum was laden with fruit the first year and although we thinned it out it was still a heavy crop. Last year we paid the price with one small clump of plums. I guess the tree was exhausted. Hopefully this year we will get a lot of fruit without it being too much for the tree

The quince is in leaf and may give us a few more quinces than last year. I believe that they take some time to establish and give a decent crop.I would love enough  for quince jam or membrillo reminiscent of holidays abroad.

The Greengage has grown well but shows no sign of fruit. Other people in the are have been unsuccessful with them. One piece of advice we were given was to bang a rusty nail into the trunk. This causes the tree stress and it then wants to reproduce. Anyone had success with this method? It seems a bit drastic to me.

The fig tree is in the green house in a large pot. It has tiny figs on it and the leaves are starting to appear. It's not a big tree but the crop has always been sweet and delicious.

We're hoping for a bumper crops this year.