kek: 8-10 feet is not small for a peach tree that was planted only last spring. The tree must have been pretty big when you put it in. You had better begin to think about keeping the altitude of that baby down or it is going to get away from you. This summer would not be too early to do some summer pruing, especially in the center of the tree if it is crowded. I would reduce the overall height on such a young tree to no more than 6 feet. If you take off the top, new branches will grow in below. Peach trees need sunlight on the branches to promote fruiting bud formation, and it may be that the upper branches are shading the lower ones to such an extent that this cannot happen. With a peach tree, you want a spreading shape, open in the center to allow light to penetrate to all the branches, especially the lower ones that should be your best bearing branches. This is especially true for a tree that has such a small trunk diameter. Such a tree could easily break and blow over in the wind. Keep the top growth balanced with the size of the trunk and the age of the tree, and prune, prune, prune. The blooms you see up on top will probably not produce peaches this year, but maybe the tree will produce next year if you begin to do something soon. If your surviving tree is a Belle of Georgia, that is an older, white-fleshed variety. Very good, but subject to brown rots and extremely attractive to plum curculio and the oriental fruit moth. At some point, you may have to learn to deal with these insects if you are to have any ripe peaches. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

I would also be interested, because I had the same thing happen to a Contender peach tree. Half the branches have leaved out and the other half look like they could leaf out, but have not. I also had another Contender peach tree beside it and it has leaved out almost fully. I also see some flower buds on the second one. I believe the temperatures got even colder here in North Dakota when it started budding!

Belle grows well in the north but your tree doesn't look like Belle. I have belle of Georgia and mine are round on botton and Belle peaches stay light yellow color while your peach already has red color. Your HD tree has probably been mislabeled. When does your peach ripen? Does it taste like a peach. What color flesh yellow or white. Thinning lets the peaches grow to a large size. Too many peaches break branches. Peaches on thin branches snap later. Too many fruit stresses the tree so it gets sick.

Mine too, it's not as sweet as advertised: "The Belle of Georgia peach tree in Georgia history was named after Mrs. Belle Hall of Ft. Valley, Georgia, following the Civil War, after it was developed from a peach seedling of Chinese cling-peach seed origin. The legendary Belle of Georgia peach has also been called the Georgia Belle peach and is classified as a white pulp peach, pleasantly fragrant and of intense sweetness and spicy flavor. Belle of Georgia is a reliable producer of large, aromatic fruit unsurpassed in sweetness. Pink-blushed freestones with deliciously pale and juicy flesh ripen in August." It IS kind of floral.. with a hint of sweet and juice galore. I didn't spray my trees this year, but the skin has a bitter note to it. I asked because they looked and felt ripe, but when eaten the sweetness left me disappointed (and I'm not a huge fan of super sweet fruit).