New desk delivered
Who knew the old one (gone) held
So much useless stuff.
I bought a new desk and filing cabinet. When I cleaned out file folders in the process of moving them to the new drawers, I found the receipt for the Dorsett Golden apple tree I bought in 2001 to be a pollinizer for the previously established Anna apple in the back yard.
Most apples need cold winters. The Dorsett Golden and the Anna are exceptions. Low-chill apples bred to grow and produce in warm-weather areas, the Dorsett Golden was developed in the Bahamas and the Anna in Israel.
A little technical talk for the non-gardeners: some apple species are self-fertile. They can share pollen with others of their same species and produce apples. The Anna and the Dorsett Golden are not self-fertile. They must cross-pollinate with another species, and they happen to make good partners.
The Anna grew to about 15 feet high and, over the years, produced thousands of wonderful apples, in spite of being planted where it was in the shade of a 60-foot pine tree in the middle portion of the day. Last year, at the height of our drought, that apple tree succumbed, probably because of the competition for water.
And what was the Dorsett doing all that time. When I bought it, it was about four-and-a- half feet high. Now, 16-years later, it is about five-feet high, it has one scrawny branch, and has produced maybe 10 edible apples over the years. I talked to an advisor at the nursery. He wasn’t very helpful. He said, “I have one, and it’s doing the exact same thing. Let me know if you find out anything.”
What do I do now, Mother?
A wise person once said to me, “Never keep a plant that embarrasses you.”
I’m still thinking.
Here’s a website with a little history of the Dorsett Golden.
