"Sometimes, as is the case of peach and plum trees, which are often dwarfed, the plants are thrown into a flowering states, and then, as they flower freely year after year, they have little inclination to make vigorous growth"
About this Quote
The intent tracks with Fortune's world. As a 19th-century plant hunter moving between British gardens and Asian landscapes, he worked in a culture obsessed with acclimatizing exotics, improving fruit yields, and making nature legible to empire and commerce. His phrasing "thrown into a flowering state" is tellingly forceful, like the plant is being pushed into performance. The reward is predictable, even addictive - "they flower freely year after year" - and so is the cost: diminished "inclination" for vigorous growth. That choice of word anthropomorphizes the tree just enough to make the consequence feel like character, not chemistry, a gentle rebuke to the grower's impatience.
What makes the line work is its moral geometry without moralizing. It frames cultivation as management of energy and desire: you can optimize for blossoms, but you can't pretend there's no bill. In an age of industrial acceleration, Fortune sketches a natural limit that reads, now, like a broader critique of systems that demand perpetual output at the expense of durability.
Quote Details
| Topic | Nature |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Fortune, Robert. (2026, January 16). Sometimes, as is the case of peach and plum trees, which are often dwarfed, the plants are thrown into a flowering states, and then, as they flower freely year after year, they have little inclination to make vigorous growth. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/sometimes-as-is-the-case-of-peach-and-plum-trees-83290/
Chicago Style
Fortune, Robert. "Sometimes, as is the case of peach and plum trees, which are often dwarfed, the plants are thrown into a flowering states, and then, as they flower freely year after year, they have little inclination to make vigorous growth." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/sometimes-as-is-the-case-of-peach-and-plum-trees-83290/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Sometimes, as is the case of peach and plum trees, which are often dwarfed, the plants are thrown into a flowering states, and then, as they flower freely year after year, they have little inclination to make vigorous growth." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/sometimes-as-is-the-case-of-peach-and-plum-trees-83290/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.
