My ornamental, purple-foliaged Prunus flowers and fruits all the time; and the fruit's pretty good. I don't know why.

Cross pollination, perhaps. It is well known that the previously advertised as sterile 'Bradford' pear becomes fertile when other cultivars (not 'Bradford' clones) are planted nearby.

So I wonder if your trees got a chance to be cross pollinated by something else this year (same for your friend's).

Rebelling against the unethical war on fruitfulness??

;-)

Thanks for the reponses.

I never knew that ornamentals could be pollinated. wonder why my first ornamental peach fruited last year but the fruits only grew to pea sized, and this year they grew to golf ball and larger sizes.

Wonder where the bees got the pollen or what ever it took to produce the preaches. I know that this year the tree was nearly covered in big fluffy looking almost pure pink colored blooms, which certainly must have enticed the bees.

My newest three trees of the same cultivar I planted this spring were almost finished blooming when I picked them up from the nursery, and could have been exposed to pollen from compatable peach trees at the nursery, but I still am wondering how my tree planted last year got pollenated. The male tree must be very far away, since I have not seen any in the neighborhood.

I have even wondered if the Prunus persica 'Corinthian Pink' cultivar is self-fertile like what my Lapin Cherry tree is reported.

After typing the comments in my last post, I began to wonder about the fruiting aspects of peach trees, and found the statement that I typed into the subject of Posting: above.

Sorry, that I did not think to check that before making the uninformed comments in my most recent previous post.

In fact they said that mostly, only some older cultivar peach trees were not self-fertile.

I did further research and found that this cultivar of ornamental peach tree was developed by Dr. Dennis J. Werner a Professor - Horticultural Science department at NC State University.

Guess I will need to email him directly with my question about how this ornamental Corinthan Pink peach tree is fruiting this year.

katrina,
As a species, peaches are predominantly self-fertile, though there are some varieties(the old standard J.H. Hale is one) that are self-sterile or pollen-sterile.
So...most peaches fruit just fine with no other pollen source available, but your CP may be one of those that does indeed require cross-pollenation. If anyone else in the neighborhood has a fruiting peach variety, 'Bonfire', or any other 'ornamental' selection, the neighborhood bees may have readily performed the deed. Or, you may find, from Dr. Werner, that CP is self-fertile, like most other peaches. It seems that double-flowered selections set diminished fruit crops or none at all - but sometimes, when conditions are right - bingo! You get a nice crop of fruit anyway.
If these fruit mature and ripen, and you've got room to grow 'em, you could plant the pits and see what the offspring turn out to be - in most cases(with stonefruits, not pomefruits), 75% or more of the seedlings will be all but indistinguishable from the parent variety.

Thanks for the advice Lucky_P.

I never thought of planting the pits to see what type of tree will grow. That is a good idea.

Professor Werner did email me back and confirmed that this cultivar of peach usually does not set many fruit and any it does set usually stay very small in size. He added that some years fruit can be more abundant and grow larger on these trees, and said that it typically is not enough to be a problem.

He also added, " These trees must really like Oklahoma!!!!!"

I have read that peach trees like good drainage, but also like frequently watered soil. Well with then being planted in well draining soil, along with our unsually frequent rains this Spring, which occured along with enough interspersed sunny days must have greatly contributed to making my Corinthian peach trees happy enough for producing larger and more abundant than normal fruit set.

Guess I need to begin seeing all this as a good thing. After all, abundant states of fruitfulness are more often considered a good thing than not, and if that is what my ornamental tree is representing, than maybe I should be doing more celebrating about it, instead of the stressing I have been doing over the litter that fruit could create on the driveway next to where my first ornamental, Corinthian peach I planted is growing.

Katrina, the peaches, despite being from an ornamental cultivar, may be quite tasty.

As well, if you have Japanese beetles in any quantity, they may well take care of your problem for you - they certainly love my peaches, so I rarely get many, esp. unblemished ones. In addition to the JB's, most other wildlife like peaches, so between the birds, squirrels, 'coons, possums and deer, you might have little to pick up!

Thanks dibbit, I guess we will see what we end up with in the coming weeks. I have not sprayed to keep insects or fungus away. So no telling what will happen to the fruit.

I would enjoy harvesting some to eat fresh, but that might be asking too much if I have not done any of what I just mentioned.

Prof. Werner suggested that, next late Winter or early Spring just about at bud break time, I should prune some of the inner branches out to give this tight columnar tree a little better air circulation.

I also saw that planting Garlic beneath the tree will help prevent leaf wilt problems that are so commonly seen in some peach trees.

Both those ideas seem good to me, but that is likely the most I want to do with these trees. Of course time will tell, if I change my mind and later am motivated to begin spraying lime/sulfer treatments just after leaf drop in the fall, and just prior to bud break in the following late winters or early springs for preventing fungus infestations.

After all, we, like many others in the country have had lots of excessive rain periods this Spring, we also have received so much over the the expected during periods of rainfall we have encountered, so that as of today, we are only 5 inches away from receiving a normally expected year's worth of rainfall for our local area.

With all that moisture in the air and short durations of sunny days in between, It possibly could take a miracle for my peach trees to not begin showing the need for the anti-fungal treatments in the fall and again in the late winter.