"storm" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi there
I have a very new pair of dwarf peach trees - I bought them about 3
weeks ago form the same nursery, and they're identical. They're called
Terrace Diamond I think!
One of them is going great guns, many flowers and new leaves sprouting.
The other? Nada, nothing, zip. It sits there, dormant maybe, maybe
dying, I dunno! When I very lightly scraped a little of the bark away
on a branch it was still green, but a couple of the lower branches
appear to be dead at the very tips only. It has many closed buds, but
there are no obvious signs of life.
I rang the nursery who were a little brusque with me, telling me that
this was perfectly normal, and that if nothing had happened in a
month's time then I could take it back, but I was being impatient to
worry about it now.
It seems odd to me that 2 identical trees should blossom up at
differing times, so I'm asking you good people to offer an opinion!
What do you think? worrying unnecessarily, or justified concern.
Symmetry is important to me on my terrace so I shall be cross if I have
one tree a couple of months behind the other!
Many thanks
lynne


In nature, individual plants within each species will often
start earlier or later than others, for a number of reasons.

First, there are only so many pollinating insects to go around.
So that if all the flowers matured on precisely the same day, much
of the pollen would go to waste and not be transferred by feeding
insects. Second, a species where all the individuals plants flowered
at exactly the same time, would be at a disadvantge whenever weather
conditions affected the life cycle of pollinating insects. Or
whenever weather conditions such as a late frost, might possibly
destroy an emerging bud. In all such cases a whole year's crop of
fruit and thus seed might be lost.

Species with a broader range will thus have a selective advantage
which will increase over generations to within the limits imposed
by the prevailing weather conditions. Both in nature, and in cultivation
so long as plants are primarily selected for flower, fruit, general
appearence, size, or whatever.

For trees which flower at exactly the same moment, you should maybe
have selected trees which were already in flower from among a broad
selection.


michael adams

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