Bees: let's get this fruit on the road!

Almond blossom, Apr 2018

So many flowers on my fruit trees and bushes!  Though we've had a cold, wet and snowy winter, the trees are done with it (hopefully the cold is done with it too).  The bees are out in force, including a lot more honeybees than the past few years.  Normally our prevalent bees are bumblebees.  I'm not fussy:  I'll take both, please!  Though honeybees are best for pollination as they'll focus on one type of flower--hopefully getting my Williams pear pollinated this year (simply covered in blossom).

Last month I hand-pollinated both my almond tree and my young peach tree (first flowering this year).  The almond has put out its second flush this month and I've let the bees take over pollination duties:  too many blossoms!  I'm also letting them deal with the rest of the fruit trees which currently includes the pears, cherries and plum.

I have other non-fruiting flowers out now too:  gorse, daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, honesty, flowering currant, berberis.  Actually flowering currant and berberis both form tiny fruits;  the former is dry and tasteless while the latter, though seedy, is quite nice but we generally let the birds help themselves.  I like flowers as well as fruit, and anything to tempt the bees into the garden this time of year is valuable.