THE EXCITEMENT IS BUILDING AT GARDEN – WITH TOM PATTINSON

Anticipation is running high at The Alnwick Garden where flower buds of the great white cherry (Prunus Taihaku, pictured) are swelling.

One day soon, all 320 standard trees that form the stunning display will burst into glorious bloom.

Do not miss this opportunity. Walking the pathway that winds its way downhill beneath a stunning canopy of bloom, is an experience that will live in the mind’s eye forever.

Flowers of course, were never intended for our entertainment, they are key to the sexual reproduction process, dispersal, and survival of plant species that produce them.

It follows that a basic understanding of the modus operandi relating to individual types we grow should lead to successful crops.

Take a self-fertile fruit tree for example. The pollen on the anther will fertilise the ovary so, a standalone specimen will bear some fruit, the amount depending on a pollinating agent.

A peach tree in our greenhouse is self-fertile but there is little air movement within and no pollinating insects. I assist by gently shaking the tree and covering each bloom with a fine artist’s brush. Result, a huge annual crop.

A ‘Bramley’s Seedling’ apple is classed as triploid, needing pollen from two different cultivars to bear fruit. If there are several varieties in a nearby garden that helps.

Why do I daily tap the canes that support a summer tomato crop? Because the movement transfers pollen from stamen to stigma.

When the runner bean flowers are failing to set fruits in the dry heat of summer, a fine hand spray can save the day.

And if a mature holly tree never produces a single berry, examine the April/May flowers with a hand lens. The chances are they only bear stamens and have no female (pistil) part.