FINALLY! The male flowers on my pumpkins are opening to advertise to the local honeybees that they're open for business -Sadly, I've not seen many bees (I saw two a few days ago, but not anywhere near my pumpkins.). I may have to resort to manual pollenation when the females start blossoming.
Same flower, farther away. The white specks you see on the leaves are just petals from the tiny flowers of the plant that the pumpkin is climbing. looks like some kind of weird....sort of bamboo or something. It's a terrible shot, as I lost my balance just as I hit the button and was in the process of falling on my ass when the picture was taken
Another Male - this one will be opened tomorrow morning. Pumpkin flowers open for precisely one day, one morning, then in the afternoon, they close up, and two or three days later they fall off. Sad but necessary, I suppose. These male flowers are showing up quite a bit - but a new batch is coming in, and this time they will be accompanied by females as well. I estimate another two weeks before we see females/male combinations
For scale.
They're coming to get you, Barbara! I am training this vine to climb our wall. Eventually, it will encircle our doorway and continue down the sidewalk toward the yard - believe it or not, the tendrils are locking into tiny spaces between the stucco. smart little buggers, I've only had to help them find a handhold once or twice.
More tendrils, different angle. Was trying for an "Action" shot - like the plant was reaching out to grab you or something. Sadly I know nothing about photography and don't know the difference between F stop and...something...else. and I have no photo editing software. (Note the cigarettes in the dirt from my nasty neighbors upstairs - had I editing software, they'd be gone.)
At any rate, I'll be continuing to chronicle the progress of these plants, as they're really the first things I've ever really tried to grow with any success. It's amazing to think that just 2 months ago these beasties were seeds no bigger than my thumbnail, and now they're just taking over. I'm really excited to see what sort of pumpkins I can get - and Ricky is just beside himself with glee. He always wants to "Check on the pumpkins!!"
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