Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Japanese Flowering Apricot



The weirdly warm weather over Christmas brought out a lot of the buds on the Japanese apricot and winter honeysuckle.




The flowers are all along even the main branches, even the interior of the tree, and the trunk, like a redbud. The cool pink of the flowers is closest to the color in real life. The golden light of late afternoon lights up the flowers and can make them look coral on camera, even though they really aren't.


The warm temperatures brought out the honeybees too. To get the full effect of the apricot and winter honeysuckle have to be shown with bees! There was buzzing all around the flowers, with the bees moving around so quickly it was hard to capture them with a camera.



This summer I really must remember to try to take cuttings from this tree. It's 15 years old, and Elizabeth Lawrence wrote that these trees are good for about 20 years, and I LOVE this tree.



I have remarked on here that I find witch hazel to be a combination of Fruit Loops and a crisp clean smell, and that winter honeysuckle has a strong sweet lemony edge. This year I found that the winter honeysuckle smelled like Fruit Loops too. The cold blast this week will likely finish off the witch hazel and apricot, but probably not the honeysuckle. It's the longest blooming shrub in my garden, typically blooming from December through April.


14 comments:

  1. It's nice to look at pretty flowering shrubs, as with us through the windows of snow. I feel like spring already. Regards.

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  2. Just wonderful ! All those pink flowers ... Happy gardening, Sweetbay !

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  3. I have MISSED your wonderful, flower filled posts!!!

    I love this Japanese flowering apricot. The blooms are so pretty. Yes, you better take cuttings before it's too late to do so.

    Hope you are doing well ~ Love & hugs ~ FlowerLady

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  4. Lovely photos which make me feel almost spring like ... especially the one against a clear blue sky.
    Your honeysuckle sounds as if it earns its keep, i have just been given one as a present and can't wait to see it flower.

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  5. Oh, it'll be a shame to lose all those apricot flowers to a cold snap. At least you captured them in photographs!

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  6. I have a flowering apricot too, which bloomed in December. Looking back at my photos it normally blooms in February. Yours is huge and very striking!

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    1. That one is about 10 feet tall. A couple of the apricots I gave my MIL and some of the trees at the JC Raulston Arboretum are 2-4 feet taller than that one. Mine is more like a small tree with somewhat of a shrub shape.

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  7. How beautiful...I'm a bit jealous...here in Finland -27 C today, the spring seems to be far faraway...

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  8. So beautiful these flowers of the Jap. apricot and so springlike....., love it.

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  9. Oh how I love this tree, too! I hope the storm doesn't wipe out the flowers.

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  10. Hello Sweetbay, and happy 2016! A lot of shrubs started to bloom during that warm spell we had, only to have their premature blooms get frosted when the temperature fell. Your Japanese apricot is gorgeous! I don't have one, but there are some at a local public garden and I am surprised at how well their blooms take cold temperatures. I am going to search out a winter honeysuckle. I have heard so many good things about it!

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  11. What a gorgeous tree! I can see why you would want to take cuttings and start some new seedlings while you can. Your photos of bees are beautiful as always, Sweetbay. I suspect the scene at your place looks quite different now, judging by all the pictures I've seen on the news about the snow out East.

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  12. I find both of these plants a bit nondescript in the summer, but so worth growing for what they give us in winter. I also think the honeysuckle smells of Fruit Loops.

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  13. I totally see why you LOVE this tree ~ I would too!!! I can't even imagine blooms like that in January. I guess they were all killed in that brutal ice storm??? Ice is something we don't get often and I'm glad. It can really do damage. Hope your garden recovers quickly.

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