Jim, I’ve been hand pollinating them for the last 5 days. There’s probably another week left before they’re done. I’ve never seen them flower so early before.
Take a Q-tip and swab around the center of pollen bearing flowers into a bowl to take to the other tree. Then collect the pollen in your bowl with the same Q-tip and touch the center of receptive flowers. This seems like a very effective method to collect and transfer pollen.
Thanks bud. I’ll get on that tonight. I was looking into the flower yesterday, poking around, and no pollen seemed to be coming off, so I thought I should wait, but I’ll Qtip it up as soon as I get home.
Looks like the Shin Li grafts are pushing already!
Yes, mine produce more flowers and fruitlets than they could ever mature into ripe fruit. Thinning is necessary unless a late frost decimates them. Smaller trees just have proportionally fewer flowers.
The brush has accumulated a mixture of pollen from Duke, Joey, Aravaipa, and Walter Hole, so who knows which one will win the race. You can see the yellow smudge on the stigma in the “after” photo, though, so hopefully that’ll be a successful one!
This is a volunteer seedling of Japanese Andromeda first time flowering. It has larger flower heads than others I have and also more narrow growing. If it looks this good next year I’ll try rooting cuttings.
Thanks, Drew. My paw paws have lots of flowers, too, this year. And one little cluster of baby fruit. I’m going to try Qtip pollenating - as you describe.
I so wish I could. The south of France is a little too hot and dry for azaleas. You see an occasional rhodie and potted azaleas for mothers day, but they are quickly tossed. Your are so pretty too. I settle for fruit blossoms and jasmine.
Sunny sky for a change, my Bleinheim apricot is loaded, but the fruit maybe sun scalded eventually, I may need to plant something taller to shade the fruit.
mode. Here’s one just before it got brushed:
