May Blossom North Fife

May Blossom, the season is late this year and hawthorn is only now coming into flower, dusting patches of white across the landscape.

Cherry Plum Tree Newburgh

Cherry Plum Tree Whitecraigs Rd, Newburgh, every year there is this wonderful display and today I noticed pollinating insects so perhaps fruit will be in abundance later this year.
Cherry plum (Prunus cerasifera, syn. P. divaricata), also called Myrobalan (plum), is a species of plum native to central and eastern Europe, southwest and central Asia.
It is a large shrub or small tree reaching 6-15 m tall, with deciduous leaves 4-6 cm long. It is one of the first European trees to flower in spring, often starting in mid February; the flowers are white, 1.5-2 cm across, with five petals. The fruit is a drupe 2-3 cm in diameter and yellow or red colour; it is edible, and reaches maturity from mid-August to mid-September.
The fruit can be eaten fresh in some forms, being sweet with a good flavour, while others are sour, but excellent for jam making.
Cherry Plum is a very popular ornamental tree in gardens, grown for its very early flowering. Numerous cultivars have been developed, many of them selected for purple foliage and pink flowers, such as Prunus cerasifera 'Pissardii' and 'Nigra'. These purple-foliage forms also have dark purple fruit, which make an attractive, intensely coloured jam. Others, such as 'Lindsayae', have pale pink flowers and green foliage.
I have a stand in my garden which provide red and yellow fruit, originally grown as rootstock for other plum grafts but left to mature providing profuse yields.

Cherry plum blossom closer in on the same tree.


Ornamental Cherry Blossom in a Newburgh garden.