The tree seems vigorous and mature enough to just thin to decent spacing. I would do it as soon as the apples have fattened out enough to know they are set- usually by 10 days after petal fall. I am going to thin my Goldrush trees today. Goldrush usually has a clear king in the center of the cluster once it is ready to thin and you can safely remove all other apples in the cluster if you protect the tree adequately- if you fear insect damage leave a couple apples per cluster. Remove all the apples from clusters where they are less than 4" from another one- this is what most assures a crop next year, IMO. Those empty spurs will produce fruit next year. Come back in 2 or 3 weeks and finish the job to one fruit every 6-8"- you will likely find more apples than there should be given how well you thought you thinned previously. The fruit elves are always sticking back fruit in the night. Not sure if they pick up discarded fruit from the ground or just use elf magic to make new ones appear out of thin air. Someone should do a study.

Now I am very glad to be wrong on this topic - it's very good news to hear that breeders are actually focusing on taste. Jonagold is quite delicious. I read "The Fruit Hunters" and the author interviewed the Zeigers of Zeiger genetics. They admitted that most of the focus of their stone fruits has been on shippability, but they claim to now have changed their focus, and they are trying to improve on taste - the goal is to have a peach that tastes as good as the old heirlooms, but also ships well and stays good for weeks at a time. Yes, I am not sure I would even know how to grow apples on the East coast. I feel very fortunate to live in the Santa Cruz mountains, we have about the best climate one could ever ask for when it comes to apples. They are so tasty in my orchard, that is what got me so enthusiastic about apples. I spent years trying to grow all sorts of things from subtropicals like macademias to citrus and stone fruits. None rival the perfection of the apples in my orchard. We even get outstanding Summer apples because our Summers here (upper 60's to mid 70's daytime, mid 40's to low 50's night time in the middle of July and August) are equivalent to East Coast Fall weather. Our first apple to ripen is Anna around late May, and the last apple to ripen is Williams Pride in late January. Feb through April is covered primarily by storage apples. But we do get seasonal fluctuations here too that shift which apples end up tasting good. We get a period of hot Fall weather that - if it shows up too early tends to ruin the early Fall apples which seem not to like much heat. If the heat doesn't show up until October, then we get nearly perfect apples on all the varieties. Last Fall the Cox orange pippin harvest was ruined because the hot weather showed up at the end of August. They went mealy very quickly.

Becky, I'll chime in here with a few suggestions. First get the book 'The Flower Farmer' by Lynn Byzinski, I may have spelled her name wrong but she lays out everything very clearly. My favorite fillers are bupleurum, cerinthe, (harvest into hydrating solution), misty, statice, ferns and New Zealand flax. You wont go wrong with suns and zinnias. Try some asters for later in the season, they are easy. Good luck. Kat

Sorry- I will try to get some pictures next week- it has been really busy here. So far, no fruit on the PB fruit bush. A few new jackfruits.... we shall see if they make it. The flowers on the Cabedula are open, hopefully getting pollinated..... I am eating the Mutingia daily, I will take a picture before I eat!