Look how orange those apricots are from the mother tree (no filter on the photo)! These are our seedlings from a very tasty, 40 year old tree growing in Missoula. These seedlings have been bred for cold hardiness through Luke’s “Antifreeze Protein Selection” of selecting for cold hardiness whereby he deliberately freezes and thaws seeds during cold stratification, plants out what survives, and the next year before winter selects for anti-freeze protein secretion in plants by not protecting the trees (while in pots) from freezing and thawing, something all of the native trees we grow, i.e. chokecherry, serviceberry, etc., have resistance to. After culling everything at the seed and 1 year juvenile state, these apricots, which are going on their third year, have been the strong survivors. Roots that experience -25F+ without any protection should theoretically be much hardier. Therefore, we are listing these as zone 3 apricots. Mother plant has nice mellow flavor that comes on later. Sweet-tart flavor good for fresh eating, drying, canning, and more. Fruit is also good size, 1 3/4” fruit and the color turns very dark orange, another bonus.

More on Luke’s antifreeze protein selection: We’re in Missoula, which the books say is zone 5 (although we can get down to close to -30F from advective freezes) but we often get insane cold snaps (-10 in October some years) because of the orographic influences on our diverse landscapes. We don’t do any controlled crosses but “weed” out the ones that die after critical freezes where we leave them unprotected in their seed state (let them freeze and thaw during stratification) and their first year juvenile state, leaving the roots unprotected and selecting for root resistance to recrystallization. We refer to this as “antifreeze selection” as this method selects for antifreeze proteins found in a wide range of overwintering plants where they inhibit the growth and recrystallization of ice that forms in intercellular spaces.

The trees that we have in stock for Spring 2025 are 1-2 ft. seedlings.