The yellow fruited died. Its replacement died. My first and second graft attempts didn’t take. I think that was largely due to the size of the tree not having a lot of material to work with I was to conservative.
My Cornus max have not done well either. Have planted three total over about 7 years. One was barely alive last fall. They get runoff from a cornfield, so I wonder if pesticides might be stunting them.
My Medjool date tree is going to be lonely and barren unless I do the unthinkable: engage in interstate trafficking of a sex partner. Yikes, that could be a Federal offense…!!
I had a lonesome Cornus mas, too. It was actually self-pollinating after a bunch of years, though. You probably maybe already know too that they tend to make only male flowers at first. I get a decent yield off mine now though, and I now have seedlings grown out to maturity so that they’ll soon provide pollen too. Last year was the first time several of them flowered. Only male flowers though, again, so no fruit on the little ones.
Yeah, the stamenate flowers are the yellow ones at the branch tips. The pistillate flowers are further in the canopy, where you’ll eventually find the fruit. The pistillate buds have a similar appearance to the fruit, actually. Not sure I can picture what they look like when they actually open.
Well I walked by my patch of Cornus mas. Have to say, I was speaking off the top of my head about differentiating the flowers, and I missed the mark. There aren’t 2 types, or at least you can’t tell by glancing at them. I plucked a few from old vs young trees to compare. The parts are not fully visible yet, but the appear exactly the same. I think they are perfect flowers now. I’d read years ago (and heard reiterated) that mas means ‘male’ and that it has a strong tendency to only make male flowers when young. Perhaps the pistils are present but undeveloped. Here’s a couple pics. I’ll try and follow up when the petals open.
