Peach Blossoms

Last month I spent an insanely gorgeous day in the Eastern part of Switzerland. There had been something on my spring bucket list... To see blossoming apricot and peach trees.

In Switzerland, there's one area is especially famous for apricots, and that's in Valais. It's a long drive, and if you want to make it in one day, you have to get up very early to beat southbound traffic, and return late. This wasn't in the books for me. 

Coincidence had it that I came across apricot trees last spring when I was on a mission to see apple trees. As it turned out back then, I was way too early, and the apple trees were a long way from blossoming. Instead, just upon randomly cruising through the area, I spotted a few pink blooming trees, and I stopped to check them out. 

Then it downed on me. I had read about that apricot farm. They use "foil tunnels" to protect their apricot trees against extreme or fluctuating cold, and therefore minimize the risk of delayed blooming, frost damage, reduced pollination and stunted growth or even dieback. 

So apparently 99% of their apricot trees are covered by this protective tent, but 1% is out in the open for us to enjoy! 

They were so pretty, I couldn't believe my luck! I was stupid enough not to do research on whether the apple trees were ready, and hadn't I come across these apricot trees, I would have driven roughly three hours for absolutely nothing. 

This year I wanted to do better. And remember the title of this post is "peach blossoms". Where do they come in?

That's why I mentioned research ;-)

I kept googling and I found an article about a farmer who's also situated in the Eastern part of Switzerland, who grows peach trees. Immediately my interest was sparked. 

Peaches are native to Northwest China, where they have been cultivated for thousands of years. Growing up in Switzerland, we always had our peaches from our Southern neighbors like France or Italy. Never had I heard about them successfully growing in my own country!

So I sent an e-mail to the farmer, outing me as a greenhorn and asking when he expected the blooms to develop, and whether I was welcome to check them out. Mind you, it was only February when I contacted him. He said, give it at least another eight or so weeks.

However, when I discovered the first magnolia blossoms in my area in mid-March, I wrote to him again and asked how far along his peach trees were.

"The first peach and nectarine blossoms are opening; I expect full bloom around the end of the week." he wrote on March 22.

I was excited. My road trip was about to happen! The weather forecast for the end of the week didn't look promising, plus I had to work, so I had to make a choice: Go there on Monday, which might be a little too early, but which was going to be a sunny, blue sky kind of day, or wait until the other week and potentially miss the full bloom?!

You know me by now, I couldn't wait and went there on Monday, March 25. 

I realized what he meant by "they are opening". Depending on how much sunlight the trees are exposed to, they had already developed more flowers. 

Upon getting closer though, they looked mighty pretty! This sight made me so happy!

Distinguishing between blooms on apricot and peach 🍑 trees is tricky. While both apricot and peach trees have five petals and a similar overall shape, the colors can differ slightly. Apricot blossoms typically have pinkish or pinkish-white petals, while peach blossoms tend to have more intense pink 🌸 hues. So much for the theory. You'll see some apricot blossoms below that look exactly like the peach blooms are described.

Since I was in the general area, I wanted to check out another apricot orchard I had read about. 

This view was part of my journey:

The apricot farm was a bit out of the way and I had to drive through a residential area where people stood in the garden and asked me what I was doing here. But they were very friendly and explained the way to me. I have a navigation system that knew the way, but thanks anyway. 

"But the apricots aren't ripe yet", they called after me. There are probably not many people who can understand why someone would drive over 100 km  (60 miles) just to see blossoming trees. 

I didn't regret doing it! Just like their friends, the peaches, they weren't fully there yet, but I didn't mind. I think they're fabulous!

For those who are like "yeah, blooms, boring, give me a recipe", here are some:

Peach Sheet Cake

Apricot Muffins

As I'm typing this, it's mid-April, and - no thanks to the Böögg that didn't burn, and therefore didn't ban winter - we are experiencing some ugly weather. Gone are the warms temps and blue sky. It's barely 8C (46F) and rainy. 

Update: it's 3C (37F), and we've got a dusting of snow this morning. 

So looking at these peach tree pictures is literally spring therapy!! 

Can you understand my bloom obsession? Would you go above and beyond to see them?