Flowering Apple Follows Nature’s Law
QUESTION: My 5-year-old “Anna” apple tree is already flowering, while half the leaves are still on the tree. Should I pluck the leaves by hand?
J.S., West Hills
ANSWER: “Anna” is one of the better apples for Southern California because it requires little winter chilling. Most apple varieties need a series of cold nights during winter to make fruit, so they do better in places like the Willamette Valley in Washington.
Some will fruit in our mild climate, and “Anna” will even fruit right on the coast, where nights are seldom cold. But many of the so-called “low-chill” varieties frequently flower at different times than they should or in multiple seasons. One neighbor of mine in West Los Angeles gets two crops a year, one in spring and one in fall. And the trees are frequently full of leaves when they flower.
Although plucking the leaves would seem to make sense, as is often done on roses at pruning time, it isn’t necessary. The tree will flower and fruit with leaves or without. I’d leave them alone.
Bougainvilleas Need Significant Sunlight
Q: I have two potted bougainvillea plants that were in bloom when I bought them but haven’t bloomed since. They’re on my patio outside my apartment and are growing quite nicely. The patio faces north, and I get sun in the early morning, but it will be in shade for the winter months. Will they ever bloom?
A.N., Los Angeles
A: Bougainvilleas need a lot more sun than that. Tough plants like bougainvillea will grow in poor light, but they will not flower. That’s one reason shady gardens are full of foliage but bereft of flowers.
If you have no sunny place to move them to, I’d replace them with something that does well on the north side of a building. You’ll find that no shade plants bloom as heavily as a bougainvillea, or for as long, but at least they will flower.
At this time of the year, you should investigate camellias, which will do very well for a number of years in a pot and are soon to bloom. A friend of mine has several on his north-facing balcony, and they look elegant in any season, though they flower for only a month or so in winter or spring.
Abutilons, or flowering maples as they are sometimes called, will outgrow a container in a few years, but they flower for a much longer time--for most of the year in fact--and are easy to restart from cuttings.
Hydrangeas will work, but they are dormant at this time of the year, or nearly so. Upright fuchsias are great container plants and bloom for most of summer, but they too are going dormant at this time and need to be cut back by about a third in late winter.
Other than these, there are very few large plants that flower well on the north side, though there are several annual flowers, such as primroses and some perennials, that will flower with a northern exposure. Plants grown in shade, or on the north side of a building--palms or Fatsia japonica, for instance--are grown mostly for their foliage, not their flowers.
