"Jaques d'Alltrades" wrote in
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The message
from Malcolm contains these words:

Much more likely that late frosts in the spring didn't kill a lot
of the
blooms or retard activity of pollinating insects.

But they are just secondary factors. The plant has to have been
able to
produce the blooms in the first place, i.e. from its reserves of
energy,
before there is anything for frosts or insects to affect.

Not so. When a plant/tree/shrub is badly stressed and 'thinks' it's
dying, it often produces an abundance of bloom.

Why then do we water and feed our plants so assiduously?
Why don't we just garden exclusively with plants which give their best
only when they are neglected to the point of dying?

Franz