Which fruiting perennials can flower again after a frost kills the blossoms?

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My city has now had two years in a row with an extremely late snow that has killed off 95% of all the blossoms or young fruits on 1) my fruit trees, 2) my neighbors’ fruit trees, 3) the nearby commercial orchards, and 4) on the wild fruit trees by the river and up the mountains. That is not a good sign.

So I think, from a food security perspective, I should look for fruiting perennials that can still produce an abundant harvest, even if a late snow shows up and freezes off all their first round of blossoms. I bet a lot of us would benefit from making sure to add things like that to our orchards.

Here’s what I can think of so far:

  1. Everbearing or day neutral strawberries. Leaves are edible, but not great.

  2. Bramble berries. Leaves are edible, but not great.

  3. Mulberries. Leaves are edible, and quite good.

  4. Figs: Some cultivars have a breba crop as well as a main crop, and most leaf out extremely late anyway. Leaves are edible, and delicious.

  5. Jujubes: Maybe? I’ve read they have a long flowering window. Leaves are apparently edible but don’t sound desirable to me (they block the taste receptors for sweetness!).

  6. Roses: It’s common for gardeners to chop flowers off before they make fruit and then get another flush of flowers, so I suspect that means many roses could make another flush of flowers that turn into hips if the weather kills their first flush of flowers. Some species have nice-tasting rose hip fruits, some meh. Leaves aren’t edible.

Do any of you guys have more ideas to add?

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How has your climate changed in the past sixty years?
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In our Bulgarian garden, we’ve had two difficult springs in a row.

2025 had a very late snowfall which froze all the blossoms and killed a lot of branches, too. Our garden was blessed with a good grape harvest, but only because I was later than everyone else pruning them, so they hadn’t formed flower buds when the hard freeze and snow hit. Everyone who pruned on the traditional “correct” date had no grapes. So grapes and goji berries were our only fruit crops.

This spring we didn’t get a late freeze, but right through to May was unusually wet and cold, with minimal pollinator activity, so the fruiting crops considered reliable in our region like cherries and plums are providing far less fruit than usual.

I think “usual” doesn’t exist anymore!

I’m trying jujubes from seed in the wilder section but haven’t succeeded in getting any growing yet. I’m encouraging the local weedy goji berry/ wolfberry – fruits are almost inedible raw but delicious after being dehydrated. I’ve planted an Ebbings Silverberry but it’s been slow establishing and as it’s a cutting from a UK grown plant may not be well adapted to Bulgarian conditions.

Though many UK grown plants aren’t well adapted to UK conditions anymore, either. The drought has killed a huge elderberry in our UK garden this summer!

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Goji does bloom all summer.

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Now, that’s an interesting thought: if pruning grape vines “too late” can lead to them flowering later and thus being safer from late frosts, that may be something people can try on purpose.

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Yes, anything late flowering like goji or some of the other berries should still fruit despite a late cold snap.

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The trick with grapes, I think, is catching them late enough there won’t be a freeze, but before it starts warming up and the sap rises, meaning the cuts bleed sap badly. It was accidental on my part last year, but I deliberately left pruning late this year, too!

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I had one grape that would just continue to fruit. Gather the grapes mid July, trim the plant back, and it would put out more blossoms until frost. I discovered this because I planted it right along the stairs and I had to keep it trimmed or the stairs weren’t usable. I think this was an Interlaken, but not sure. It was a white grape.

I may be wrong, but I think the bleeding problem comes in when the sap is rising in the spring.

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Nice! Is this a typical trait for grapes, or was that grape vine special?

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I have no idea. I’ve never seen another grape vine do that, but I’ve never trimmed another one that way either.

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Soem Eleagnus species flower in autumn, which bees love and then set fruit in spring. They fix nitrogen and are droughtresistant, they grow on the shittiest soils imaginable. Great windbreaks, hedges for nosey neighbors.

The downfall however is that it spreads easily in time. The birds love to snack on the seeds. So then people see it popping up and start hating on it. They say it’s an invasive exotic that is threatening the endangered local flora.

I observed that if you plant trees dense, much denser than recommended microclimates appear that will save some flowers and peach fruits are abundant there where other trees only carry sparsely after this years unseasonaly hot period and a late frost.

There are apple varieties that have apples hanging in Christmas. My neighbor has a very late flowering variety i grafted. He claims he always has apples from that variety his father planted. With apples watch the cold/chill hours. They need a certain amount of them otherwise there will be no hormone that tells the tree to set flower. Winters are getting less heavy, so that is another thing we have to think about. Get varieties from Florida and so on.

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I have noticed that most of the fruit trees in my neighborhood that have fruit on them this year have fruit on the bottom, and the top branches are bare of fruit. So I think the tops of those trees protected the lower branches from the very late snow.

If my theory’s correct, that offers a strong implication that there may be solid advantages to having tall fruit trees, rather than pruning them to keep them short. I really prefer the idea of being able to pick all my fruit standing on the ground, but . . . if those twenty-feet-tall trees are fruiting and the short-pruned trees aren’t, that may be a very good reason to let them grow that tall.

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Another reason to add to why I am encouraging a bush form for my trees. Insulation from cold above, radiation from warmer ground.

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That’s really smart! I like that idea.

I’ve been thinking that I want to keep my fruit trees small, not by cutting off branches, but by bending them down to become fruiting branches. That way, it will encourage the trees to put their energy into fruiting rather than into growing taller, and that means they get what they want of not having bits cut off and I get what I want by getting more fruit. I’m hoping that will work.

Now that you’ve mentioned that about bush forms, I’m wondering . . . do you think that what I’m hoping to do may work in a similar way to insulate the center of the tree a bit, and maybe protect some blossoms from freezing?

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About apple trees: At Uni, I made a synthesis of historical sources which apple trees may be reccomended for higher altitudes. In one of these old books, I found some other interesting lists. Since it is a german book, most of these varieties are probably unknown in the US and therefore of no use to @UnicornEmily, but I will post them anyway, someone else may profit.

(The book is called Klima, Boden und Obstbau: Die deutschen Klima- und Bodenverhältnisse, ihr Einfluss und ihre Wechselwirkung auf die Obstpflanzen: Nach den neuesten Forschungen gemeinfasslich für Obstzüchter dargestellt (Bechtle, 1908) and it is awailable in the library of ETH, if somebody in Switzerland is interested)

I have written in parenthesis the english name or other name of the varietiy under which it may be internationally known, if I did’nt have to think too long about it. Therefore, the list is not finished, with enough research more synonyms could be found.

I have bolded the varieties that I feel are internationally reasonably well known and therefore of possible use to more people.

Late flowering:

  • Baumann (Baumanns Renette)
  • Blenheim (Blenheim Orange)
  • Brauner Matapfel
  • Boikenapfel
  • Borsdorfer
  • Champagner Renette
  • Danziger Kantapfel
  • Deutscher Goldpepping
  • Damason (Reinette de Macon)
  • Eiserapfel
  • Edelapfel (Golden Noble)
  • Gelbe Sommer-Reinette
  • Gelber Richard
  • Grosse Kasseler
  • Gloria Mundi
  • Glanzreinette
  • Grahams Jubilée (grahams Royal Jubilee)
  • Grüner Stettiner
  • Goldparmäne (king of the Pippins)
  • Karmeliterreinette (Reinette des Carmes)
  • Königlicher Kurzstiel (Court Pendu Plat)
  • Kleiner Langstiel
  • Luxemburger Reinette
  • Lebel (Jakob Lebel, Jaques Lebel)
  • London Pepping (London Pippin)
  • Prinzenapfel
  • Luiken
  • Peasgood (Peasgood Nonsuch)
  • Roter Stettiner
  • Roter Bellefleur (Siebenschläfer)
  • Schöner von Nordhausen,
  • Sommerreinette,
  • Schafsnase
  • Spätblühender Taffetapfel,
  • Trierscher Weinapfel,
  • Winterrambour,
  • Weisser Wintertaffetapfel
  • Weisser Astrachan (White Astrachan)

Long flowering

  • Aderslebener
  • Boikenapfel
  • Boskop (Boskoop)
  • Cox (Cox Orange Pippin)
  • Grosser Bohnapfel
  • Kanada (Reinette du Canada)
  • Kasseler
  • Prinzenapfel
  • Ribston (Ribston Pippin)
  • Roter Bellefleur
  • Schafnase

Bloom not very susceptible to frost

  • Baumann
  • Bohnapfel
  • Boskop (Boskoop)
  • Champagner Reinette
  • Charlamowsky (Duchess of Oldenburg)
  • Danziger Kantapfel
  • Doberaner Reinette
  • Fraas Sommerkalvill
  • Goldparmäne (King of the Pippins)
  • Graue französische Reinette
  • Graue Herbstreinette (Reinette Grise d´Angleterre, Reinette Grise d´Automne)
  • Grüner Fürstenapfel
  • Hohenheimer Riesling
  • Jakob Lebel (Jaques Lebel)
  • Kanada (Reinette du Canada)
  • Karmeliterreinette (Reinette de Carmes)
  • Kasseler,
  • Kurzstiel (Court Pendu plat)
  • Landsberger Reinette
  • Lane’s Prinz Albert (Lanes Prince Albert)
  • Langton’s (Lantons Nonsuch)
  • Muskatreinette (Margil)
  • Orleansreinette (Reinette d’Orleans)
  • Parkers Pepping (Parkers Pippin)
  • Prinzenapfel,
  • Ribston (Ribston Pippin)
  • Roter Bellefleur,
  • Roter Eiserapfel,
  • Sommergewürzapfel,
  • Sommer-Reinette,
  • Virginischer Rosenapfel (Hvitgylling, Vitgylling in Sweden)
  • Weisser Astrachan (White Astrachan)

Varieties with frost-hardy wood

  • Baumann,
  • Bohnapfel,
  • Boiken,
  • Boskop (Boskoop)
  • Brauner Matapfel,
  • Charlamowsky (Duchess of Oldenburg)
  • Coulon,
  • Cousinot,
  • Eiserapfel,
  • Eveapfel,
  • Grosse Kasseler,
  • Grüner Stettiner,
  • Kaiser Alexander (Emperor Alexander, Possarts Nalivia)
  • Kurzstiel (Court Pendu Plat)
  • Landsberger,
  • Luiken,
  • Parker (Parkers Pippin)
  • Pfirsichroter Sommerapfel,
  • Prinzenapfel,
  • Ribston,
  • Roter Herbstkalvill,
  • Roter Trierischer,
  • Sommer-Reinette,
  • Transparent (maybe White Transparent, in german speaking Countries Klarapfel)
  • Weisser Astrachan,
  • Wintertaffet,

So, this is not exactly what you asked about Emily, but it may be of use, still.

And about grapes, I found this in my schoolbook about wine grape growing (translated with Mistral AI), which may be of interst to @Lauren

"Between the shoot and the leaf stem, the water shoots (Geiztriebe, or lateral shoots) grow. Their growth is minimal until flowering. After topping (Obenabnehmen), the growth of these water shoots is promoted because the apical dominance of the shoot tip is broken. Under drought conditions, the growth of water shoots is weaker. […]

The water shoots (Geiztriebe) on fertile (or fruitful, not clear in the context) varieties produce flowers, which then develop into so-called water clusters (Geiztrauben) or winter clusters (Wintertroller). Due to their significantly later flowering, these clusters lag behind in ripening and should not be harvested together with the clusters from the main shoot. In warm years with early ripening, it would be possible to pick these clusters in a second harvest pass. However, the effort of a second harvest is usually too great in relation to the benefit."

So, theoretically, it should be possible to top the main shoot if frost has destroyed its flowers to force the water shoots, which then flower in turn. Of course, this only works, if the season is long enough. To clear up if it’s fertile or fruitful, I’ve sent a mail to my ex-prof, since this is his own text.

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That’s very useful! I’ll have to go down that list and see if any of those cultivars sound like they have the kinds of flavors I’m looking to collect.

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Hugo,

thanks for the inspiration!

Such an edible windbreak is exactly what I need for my specific conditions.

I plan to buy one certified plant and propagate it through cuttings to get enough of them for the whole windbreak.

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I love your advice to plant trees densely together – that seems like a really good idea to create microclimates to help some blossoms survive dense frosts. (Especially since I was planning to do that anyway! :stuck_out_tongue:)

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