It's a combination of things. The screen image shows how I set up the  replicator. I turn off "align to normals. 

For the correct placement under the branches, I create a Distribution Shader who's color channel uses Natural Function > Snow but I invert it with DCG's Shader Ops so the distribution white is on the bottom of the branch. 

Of course the fruits Hot Point needs to be at the "top" of the  fruit.

It's like  a magician's trick. Once you know how it's done, it's obvious - and less fun! ;-)

Mark