Sometimes it’s easy to forget why the almond flowers are so beautiful.  Their sole purpose is to attract bees to bring pollen and fertilize them.  If the bees never visited the flowers and deposited pollen onto the pistil, there would be no almond.

The pictures below are a great visual representation of the birth of the almond crop.  If you look closely, you can see the “baby” almond emerging from the base of the flower.  Some almonds are larger than others which most likely is because they germinated sooner and have had more time to mature.  This orchard was not affected by the freezing temperatures because it bloomed after the cold had passed so almost all of the fruiting sites are fertilized.  Now I’ve just got to give the tree the nutrients and water it needs to hold the crop!