Winter cherries in Serbia

It looks like fresh Prunus fruits will appear on the Serbian Christmas table this year. And this is not an exotic fruit, but an ordinary stone fruit plant, the cherry. Only the time of its flowering is unusual - due to the abnormally warm autumn, cherry trees bloomed at the end of October in several villages of Serbia. White inflorescences suddenly appeared on the already bare branches.

But this picture does not please the local peasants. According to local beliefs, the re-blooming of fruit trees foretells a harsh, long winter. Villagers also fear that the prolonged cold will scare away the storks, a symbol of prosperity in Serbia.

Gardening specialists are not happy about the out-of-season revival of fruit trees either. In their opinion, this leads to disruption of plant physiology. Farmers are generally alarmed by the climate changes characteristic of recent years: sudden temperature changes, sudden storms and downpours, followed by prolonged periods of drought. Deceived by changeable weather, trees begin to bloom twice, which weakens them, creating the preconditions for crop failure and even the possible death of fruit plants.