Apricot

Value to bees

Nectar

High

Pollen

High

As a honey crop

Minor honey crop — a surplus only locally or occasionally

Which bees, and why

Mason bees fly at lower temperatures than honey bees and carry a disproportionate share of apricot pollination in a cold February. In Central Asia and Turkey the crop is genuinely dependent on early-flying solitary bees.

Worth knowing

A good early nectar and pollen source, and valuable disproportionately for its timing.

Flowering

In flower

February to April (northern hemisphere)

Very early, and correspondingly vulnerable — frost during bloom is the commonest cause of complete crop failure.

Growing it

Conditions

Full sun in a sheltered frost-free position on free-draining soil. It needs heat to ripen and shelter to flower without losing the blossom.

Size

4-8 m tall, and readily trained flat against a wall.

Native range

Central Asia and northern China. Grown across the Mediterranean, Central Asia, Turkey and warm temperate regions worldwide.

Suits

Small gardens, Orchard, Walls and fences, Containers and window boxes

• Train flat against a warm south wall in cool climates — it is the difference between fruit and no fruit.
• Mostly self-fertile, so a single tree will crop where the blossom survives.
• Hand-pollinate with a soft brush in February if no insects are flying, which in a cold spring is common.

What it looks like

A small spreading tree with rounded leaves and pale pink to white five-petalled flowers borne singly or in pairs directly on the bare branches, well before the leaves.