I know you have had a rough winter this year and living in NW PA most of my life I know what that is like.  Just want you to know spring is on the way.

The blueberries are just about in full bloom.  I have almost 200 bushes (soon will have) so this is a time to enjoy their beauty before the hard work of harvesting starts.






The peaches are also approaching full bloom.

Even caught a honeybee getting a taste.





Even some small peaches already.







This is also the best orange juice season....

Blood orange juice.  The absolute best there is.





Have also been busy clearing some land for another bunch of figs.  This set will be 10' spacing and 15' between rows, probably enough spots for 40 or so more bushes.  



And lastly the first 32 figs of this years cuttings in gallon pots hardening off under some bamboo.  

Lol, you like to rub it in don't you Bam! Looking good man. My blues are just about in full bloom as well and my Dads peach is electric pink right now, it's a stunner! Looks like we are about in the same place this year.

Looks great Wills!  Being in the "zero-lot-line" part of Florida, I'm envious of all that land!

Expecting about 8”-10” of snow tomorrow!

I left FL a couple decades ago thinking I missed Ohio. If I knew then....

Let us know how it's going down there in June...

"Hurricane season begins on June 1 and lasts until November 30 each year, right in the center of one of the most popular travel seasons for families planning a vacation to Orlando. During this time period, there are also peak times when hurricanes have typically been more likely to occur. The months of August through October are considered to have more potential than May or June, and early September through mid-month is considered the most potentially active time for hurricanes or tropical storms."

http://voices.yahoo.com/should-travel-orlando-florida-during-hurricane-1716915.html?cat=16

My blueberries are buried in a foot of snow. I'm jealous

Willis, you don't have to go all the way to PA for crappy weather. I am not that far from you and we are expecting anywhere from 2-9 inches of snow
and 1/4 to 3/4" of ice over the next 36 hours here in central and north Georgia.

Well, you have convinced me to get a few blood orange trees.  That juice looks yummy!

Suzi

Rich,

We have not had a hurricane/tropical storm here of any force since 2004.  Even then other than 14 inches of rain and no power for a few days it was no biggie here.  I did not loose a single tree just a few limbs came down.  The hurricanes are more a problem for the coast....I am 17 miles inland from the gulf of Mexico and that buffer of land helps a lot.



Blue,

Not rubbing it in at all.  I remember those cold winters way to well.  About now the cabin fever sets in, you leaf through seed catalogs......you plan.  Just letting the northern folks know that spring is coming....it starts here and spreads north.....it is on its way:)   It is funny though because up north the return of the robins is a sign of spring...here it is a sign of spring when they leave.  They are still here but will start moving north soon as thankfully they are long gone before my blueberries start to ripen.  The robins were such a pest of the blueberries when I grew them up in PA.  

I live not far from Mike and I just brought my greehouse babies into the laundry room because we are expecting power outages.  This is the second time I brought them in this winter.  I just cant loose them this far into the game.  IDK what's the status of the 3 gallon guys in the garage. The temps in there fluctuate like crazy,  24F - 60F  that must be hard on them.  Some in the garage are still flexible.  I hope that means "life"  LOL  I now have 2 rooms consumed with my hobby.   The fig cups and seeds took over a bathroom
 
 

 

The blood orange juice looks amazing.

I haven't seen Robins here in years! When I was a kid I used shot them with my pellet gun and eat them just like dove. They were here by the thousands. Must be global warming or some thing. Now we have white wing dove here and used to they were only in far south Texas. Things are changing

What variety of blood orange is that?  I had some fresh one in Valencia (Spain) several years back and actually had a hint of raspberry to them.  

Frank,

It is good:)  I wait till the oranges start to fall on their own and then you know it is time to pick.  Before that I juice the Valencia, Navels and tangelos, have a lot of citrus.  The blood oranges are good to eat in December but then the juice is orange, looks like regular orange juice and about as sweet as normal OJ.   When the cold weather arrives they turn more and more red inside and get sweeter.  I like my juice full pulp, if you screen out the pulp the juice looks just like cherry koolaid:)   

Wills,  I see now what you had told me before about pruning to make so many BB branches.  Mine look lanky compared to yours.  After blueberry harvest time I'll work on better pruning.  With so many temperate fruit trees blooming now we will be in trouble if we get a freeze now.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  We don't want a repeat of last winter with that March freeze.

I had a blood orange tree once.  It never got more than a few speckles of red inside.  Maybe I didn't wait long enough or it was a different variety. Yours looks delicious.

It must be such a space saver to get those potted up figs outside.  I'm going to wait a little longer to put my one gal pots outside.  Just want to make sure that they take the transplant okay.  With the weather getting warmer now, and the sun stronger, they should start growing nicely.  I can't wait to get my new varieties in the ground. 

Christine

Central FL, zone 9a

I got one Blood orange  from my Moro this year. It tasted more like a grapefruit to me then the reported Berry taste.

I also have tried to grow a blood orange. It was not very successful. I think it was variety Torocco, but that was a long time ago. There were very few fruits produced and they just did not turn red. It was a large, rank tree and a disappointment. Perhaps it does not get cold enough here for them to turn red. I recently drove by the old house and years later, the tree is still there, twice as tall as the other citrus - and still no fruit in sight.

As for blueberries, I 'only' have about 50 plants. And I'm eating some right now. :):) I've been able to pick about 1-2 quarts about every week or two. I picked 1 quart on Christmas day. The quality is very good - sweet and flavorful. This is extremely early for picking significant numbers of fruits, and there are many bunches of green ones not that far off from ripe. Our harvest usually does not begin until April. My plants (scraggly but evergreen over the winter) are also blooming, setting even more fruit, and many are putting out new leaves. It's going to be a very long season. Excellent!

WillsC,

What are you best figs during the humid raining days of summer?

Mike,

Yep we have been lucky so far as most of the cold has stayed north of us.  We had one freezing night so far, we always get at least one.  



Christine,

Yep pinching out the terminal bud really makes a difference.  You can see on those canes closest to the camera where I pinched it and the results were 5 shoots with flowers instead of just 1 if I had not pinched it.   You really have to wait on the blood oranges...the later in the season the better they are.  A lot of people pick citrus way too early because it looks ripe.  Take grapefruit most don't reach their peak sweetness till March.   I had no choice but to get the figs out.was out of room.  Only have room for so many and it is completely filled again and this time the next set is not really ready to go outside but regardless that is where they are heading lol.  



Gina,

Mine is a Torocco also.  It could be that it was not cold enough or didn't wait long enough.  Like I said when these are ripe they start to fall.   You are just that much warmer than I so your bushes tend more toward evergreen.  I pick the berries off that form in November as here they just don't sweeten up.    


Frank,

If you are curious this is what they look like inside.    They are a royal pain to peel so I juice them.  I have 13 varieties of citrus but I like the tangerines the best for out of hand eating and the Limequats for the juice to add to water, so much better than lemons. 

Our limes are about the size of an orange, and it takes 4 limes to make one cup of juice.  They fall when ripe and they are yellow when ripe.  Green inside.  Bearrs (I can never spell that).  Grocery store limes are hard to juice because they pick them green.  So far I have 3 gallons of frozen lime juice from one tree.

We have plans for a row of dwarf citrus mixed between roses along our frontage.  Since we already have 2 ruby red grapefruit, 2 lemons, a mandarin, 2 valencia oranges, we may go for all blood orange in that row.  I'd like figs in that row, but hubby wants evergreen.  He missed the part where roses go dormant..... :-)) 

So, how many blood oranges do you squeeze to get a cup?  I'm hoping 4 dwarfs will be enough, but we might have to sneak a standard tree elsewhere on the property.

Suzi

wow is that actual ground i can see thats not white ?

Suzi,

Ok I juiced that orange that is on my cutting board in the earlier post just to see.  It would be an average size for the tree and it yielded 1/4 cup plus a Tablespoon.  So 4 oranges to a cup.  The blood oranges are pretty small, tennis ball size.  


Gina,

As you know some citrus that does great in CA is a flop here and vice versa.  Like I said if you cut those oranges in December they would be pure orange.....in January they start to color up inside with flecks of red and get sweeter and in February they are at their peak.  I have seen pictures of them where they are pure blood red, can't see any orange color at all but here they don't do that....perhaps in a bit colder spot they would?   I am actually pretty north for citrus but I have a great micro climate as we are on a lake and there are miles of lakes to my north which tames the cold.  

Dieseler,

Our sand is white as snow if that counts:)  You guys have definitely had a winter to remember this year.