Springtime: Avocado Flowers, Hummingbirds, and Baby Avocados

 

April is the month when everything happens at once in the avocado grove. Farmers  begin to harvest  the crop that has been growing for the past year on the trees.   The avocado trees are in full bloom and baby avocados are beginning to appear.  The constant humming of bees in the trees as they pollenate the flowers can be loud,  and humming birds are flitting around too!  See the little guy sitting high up in the tree?

The avocado flowers are beautiful little stars…clusters of optimism…nature’s little smiley faces.

And after a while,  baby avocados appear … little green B-B’s that grow so quickly you can almost see them change before your eyes.   New red leaves in the spring  turn to green as they mature,  ready to shade the new avocados from the hot summer sun.

The flowers eventually drop onto the ground,  tiny reminders of the leaves that fall on the ground in New England.  In the road are the signs that a lucky squirrel  feasted on an  avocado that fell and ripened under the trees, probably due to the winds two weeks ago.   Fresh Hass avocados take up to  two weeks to soften at this time of year.  Need a ripe avocado?  Look under the trees, and hope you beat the squirrels to the soft ones.  Pick some every week and keep them on the kitchen counter if you want to be sure to have beautiful avocados to eat every day.

As the weather warms up,  the colorful new avocado foliage becomes lush and green.  Spring is the most exciting  time to visit an avocado grove.

If you live in California,  watch the avocado trees in your neighborhood.  Have you noticed the flowers?  The beautiful new foliage?  Have you seen the flowers on the ground under the trees?  Have you ever found an avocado that an animal has eaten?   It’s springtime…let’s live in the moment!   Let’s stop to smell the roses!