Garden and balcony

Il melo è in fiore is four words in Italian and a small decision in English, because in fiore covers ground that English has divided three ways. « In blossom » belongs to trees and shrubs that will go on to make fruit — the apple, the cherry, the plum — and it is the one that sentence wants. « In bloom » belongs to the flower kept for its own sake and to the garden as a whole: the roses are in bloom, and so is a whole border. « In flower » is the neutral one, the wording of a label, correct everywhere and warm nowhere. The split runs on past the phrase. « Blossom » works as a mass noun — « apple blossom », a lane full of blossom — which « bloom » will not do; and said of a person, « to blossom » is to come into one’s own, while « to bloom » is about looking well. Italian asks none of this. One phrase serves the apple tree, the roses and the label alike, and the plant named in front of it settles what English would have made you choose.