Thanks for the reply. I have the opposite problem, honeycrisp blooms way later. Second year happening, so figured I should try and address sooner rather than later.
Tha ks for the reply. I seen that but cummings also lists grannysmith and golden delicious as parterners. Maybe I should just graft a golden delicious onto the honeycrisp rootstock? Thoughts being perhaps the rootstock may be the main contribution to the late start? Its a starkbro semi dwarf so i dont know the actual rootstock they grafted onto.
That’s not likely. What does alter bloom date of apples is chilling. In areas with insufficient chilling certain varieties bloom much later than with high chilling. Down here Honeycrisp growth and bloom are severely delayed by lack of chilling. Our apple bloom over all varieties is spread out from March into June.
In southern Illinois you shouldn’t be that severely delayed. But hey, s IL isn’t MN or another cold winter area where HC was bred.
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Your HC is probably more self-fertile than you realize. Have you ever got a really poor crop from your HC? I have but I don’t blame the pollination. I really think it’s the insufficient chill hours when it has a light crop.
I have Honeycrisp, Gravenstein, Winesap, Stayman, and supposedly Braeburn. Varmints are my biggest problems.
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Thanks for the reply. I checked chill hours
Honeycrisp 800~1000
Granny Smith 400
Golden Delicious 800-1500
Got very good flower on GS & GD, HC just now breaking bud. Maybe I just have a lazy tree?
Thanks for the reply
I havnt got a single apple off my honey crisp. Last year it flowered after all the other apple had finished flowering and it didn’t set a single apple.
No ornamental crabs around?
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Thanks for the reply
I grafted two brandywine crabs onto MM111 last month my wife wanted them. Otherwise there are no crabs nearby that i’m aware of. Thats another option I hadnt thought of, put in a few crabs for pollination.
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I’ve got a few dozen seedling (Prairie Fire) ornamental crabs scattered about, as well as a bunch of wild crabs. They overlap all of my edible crab and apple bloom times.
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I had one Honeycrisp apple last year, that I topworked on a already established tree (~10 years old). This year we had a very very mild winter and Honeycrisp is barely starting to break bud, while all other apple varieties are already in bloom.
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Those chill hours mean nothing. GD and Granny Smith are fine with our on and off warm/cool/cold in winter. They are blooming now. Honeycrisp on the other hand won’t start blooming or growing until May. And even then, it doesn’t grow normally.
How far south are you in Illinois?
Sounds similar to west Texas. And Romania may be similar winter to S IL.
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Plant a Northern Spy to pollinate. I HAD many apple trees and the latest to bloom was Northern Spy.
Most of my varieties at petal fall when Northern Spy was in full bloom. This problem led to a low yield on the Northern Spy for its size (huge tree!). But after I planted 2 Honeycrisp nearby, the yield on my Northern Spy went way up after the Honeycrisp started blooming in their 7th season (on M7).
After that the giant Northern spy had more bushels of apples on it than I could use. We never even picked them all most years unless I was running a late batch of cider and used them in the mix.
The 2 honeycrisp despite biennial bearing seemed to have plenty of fruit on them too. Big crop one year and smaller crop the next. At least I had less apple thinning to do on them every other year.
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I am located about 1hr 30mins Southeast of St. Louis. We have 1200+ chill hours in a winter. We generally see below freezing nights into late March and Early April. We were just changed to Zone7a from zone 6b.
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Thanks again for the reply and taking intrest in my question.
Without getting specific… I’m east and slightly north of the I57, I24 split on the northern outskirts of the shawnee national forest.
I think your knowledge is showing, it’s much appreciated. These are pictures from this morning. Although wind ravaged from the nearby tornado Tuesday at 5:04 Am. Both were planted fall of 2020, the same day right next to eachother, both have grown spurs. Golden delicious has obviously grown more.
Golden delicious
Honeycrisp
Thanks again 
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That area gets pretty good chilling. So I’m a bit surprised that your HC is that delayed. But I do think that’s what’s going on. In Amarillo with chilling about like southern Illinois, Rome was a late bloomer. Perhaps that would help.
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I’ve got some great feedback to consider from everyone who has replied.
Thank you all!
Us also USDA zone changed from 6B to 7a. But in all honesty… I knew this years before the USDA made it “offical”.
Your immature HC is not lazy, it’s just inconsistent. My HC tree certainly was inconsistent when it was young. Along about its sixth year it had apples, The next year it didn’t. Bud times varied. Give your HC tree time.
Here is a thread that I posted back in 2016 expressing my thoughts with my HC tree.
Jury still out on the Honeycrisp apple for me - General Fruit Growing - Growing Fruit
Here is my HC tree today in full bloom in its 13th season. We had snow on the ground for 8 straight days in the middle of this past January. The chill hours should have helped it. BTW, I think the jury is still out. 
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I grafted Rome in hopes it would cross pollinate Court Pendu Plat. Rome hasn’t bloomed yet, but my Prairie Spy now covers CPP for me
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Crimson Crisp seems a good pollinator. I had a decent crop of both last year.