Horticulture News From Around the World
1. England: Celebrating the Oak
May 29 is oak apple day, which commemorates the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The oak apple was chosen to represent the oak that Charles II hid in after his defeat at the Battle of Worcester. Many of the customs that take place on this day have their origins in ancient rituals. Villagers from Great Wishford in Wiltshire carry armfuls of green oak, cut at dawn in nearby Grovely Forest, to Salisbury Cathedral. Here they dance in the Close, before entering the cathedral to make their claim of common rights to gather firewood in the forest.
Despite the name, oak apples are not fruit. They are galls caused by insects. The true fruit of the oak is the oak corn, now called the acorn.
2. Canada: Apple Orchards:
Orchard owners don’t like dandelions because they believe they compete with fruit tree blossom for the attentions of all-important bee pollinators. But entomologists at the University of Western Ontario say that mowing them is an expensive waste of time.
When they let the dandelions bloom under apple trees, they found that less than three percent of pollen collected by bees came from dandelion flowers, even when these outnumbered apple flowers by twenty-eight to one. If fruit growers follow the expert’s advice, orchards could be carpeted with gold under the apple blossom in spring.
3. USA: Passion Flowers:
Plant breeders at Cornell University in New York believe that Passiflora incarnata, a species of passion flower currently considered to be a weed in the south-eastern United States, could form the basis of a new fruit crop. Its seed pulp contains a tasty juice, but its weedy nature has deterred breeders from working with it in case it becomes a problem in the wild.
The way forward, say the Cornell scientists, is to cross it with the commercial passion fruit, P. edulis, with the aim of generating a new range of useful and non-invasive hybrids.