Springtime in the Santa Clara Valley was famously spectacular decades ago, when vast orchards occupied what is now only urban sprawl. Tourists came to see it like some still go to see foliar color of autumn in New England. Most of the orchards were for stone fruits. Only a few in cooler spots were for apples and pears. Only orchards of English walnuts did not bloom colorfully.
Cherry and almond trees typically bloomed first. Prune trees bloomed immediately afterward. Apricot trees were only a few days later. Of course, the schedule of bloom was variable. Prune trees often bloomed just after apricot trees. Various cultivars of cherry started to bloom at slightly different times, even though those that needed to pollinate each other managed to do so.
After the main bloom of all the stone fruits, and after the tourists were gone, the few apple and pear orchards in cooler spots and surrounding hillsides continued the process. Mulberry trees that grew sporadically on roadsides around the orchards bloomed no more colorfully than English walnuts, but somehow produced enough fruit to distract birds from developing stone fruits.
Feral plum trees are a group that was not easy to categorize even before the demise of the orchards. They were not intentionally grown in orchards, or even in home gardens. They just sort of grew wild along creeks or from the roots of grafted stone fruit trees that had been cut down. They were originally grown as understock cultivars, but had naturalized to become truly feral.
Because their fruit was not used for much, they did not get much consideration. We tend to forget that some types bloomed before any of the other stone fruits. To those who do not expect fruit, feral plum trees are as spectacular as productive stone fruit trees.
Tony Tomeo 
I can only imagine how spectacular this must have been. We have a few orchards here but they’re becoming fewer by the moment. One of our last is for sale, in fact. It’s tough work.
Karla
LikeLiked by 1 person
I can only remember remnants of the formerly vast orchards. They were exquisite. I can not imagine the Santa Clara Valley filled with them. My Pa remembers more of the orchards, when there were not much more than 3,000 living in Sunnyvale, and there were less than 100,000 living in San Jose.
LikeLike
My friend who used to live in that area decades ago has talked about how beautiful it was.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is still an excellent place. I can imagine that it must be appealing to those who are not familiar with how it was. However, as a native, I can not forget how it was, and will never be able to appreciate all of what it is now.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We still have those orchards on the outer edges of town. Mostly almonds, peaches, plums, apricots, and nectarines. Some cherries, now that there are more cultivars that need fewer chill hours. There’s even a designated road tour called the “Fresno County Blossom Trail” that people will drive or bike. It’s absolutely spectacular in color and profusion. Since I grow so many of these in my yard, I get my own mini-blossom trail just walking in the yard!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Peaches, nectarines and plums are three that I have not seen in orchards. Cling peaches for canning use to grow in my former neighborhood, but they were gone before my time. I remember mostly apricots, even though they were the second most common of fruits. Prunes were the most common, but they were in regions that were developed earlier.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s interesting. There’s a wild plum, Prunus americana, which I’ve been tempted to grow, except that it tends to make dense shrubby thickets and has nasty sharp spurs that stick up out of the ground.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is what most of the feral plums were descendants from. They are not native, but were imported for rootstock. Some are probably the real species. Some might by hybrids with other plums that were grown for fruit production.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reblogged this on Tony Tomeo and commented:
The tree that bloomed for these pictures may get removed after bloom this year. It is pretty in bloom, but is a bit redundant to its landscape. That is a problem with such healthy growth and maturation of trees.
LikeLike
Enjoyed this as can relate as we enjoy the “process” of the fruiting trees flowering in sequence. Where we live used to be apple orchards I believe. We have cherry, macadamia, plum, nectarines and apple trees. Generally flower in that order.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The simple production orchards that I remember were mostly homogenous, to produce an abundance of the same fruit all at the same time. They were a lot of work, particularly when all the fruit needed to be harvested and processed all at the same time. Some cherry orchards contained two different cultivars in alternating rows, for pollination. However, smaller farm orchards contained a few different cultivars of each type of fruit, so provide fruit for a longer season, as well as some types for canning and storing in the cellar. There were about nine cultivars of apple on the farm, including some sort of ‘Pippin’, which were not the best, but were likely grown because they lasted through winter. Horticulture was taken more seriously decades ago.
LikeLiked by 1 person