MORE BLOOMING

A few days after the squash plant began blooming, I went out to my garden and discovered a second bright yellow flower growing on the second squash plant.


This is obviously very exciting, but it's also very odd. For one, I didn't realize that squash plants grow flowers. I expected that one day the plant would simply start popping out squash babies. I guess that goes to show my ignorance when it comes to gardening. Second, I've been desperately trying to get the flower seeds I've planted to get past the seedling stage, but so far they've been pretty insistent on dying (the wacky weather is partly to blame for this). So the unexpected flowers from the squash plants is simultaneously a small victory but with a tinge of embarrassment.

As for the first flower, after a few days from blossoming it has started to shrivel up. At first I wasn't sure what that meant, but one helpful reader alerted me to the fact that the flower indicates the actual squash is on its way. First the flower blossoms (or is it blooms?? is there a difference?) then it shrivels up, falls off the plant, and finally it is followed by squash.



As you can see from the picture above, next to the shriveling flower there are a few other buds that are very close to blossoming. The more flowers, the better the crop yield. At this point however, I will consider even a single edible squash a great victory.

IN BLOOM

This morning I walked out to my patio and found that my squash plant is in bloom! For the past week or so I had noticed a rather large bud that I assumed was a baby squash in the early stages. That was clearly not the case as it was a flower all along:






The flower is cool, but now I am really puzzled as to where the squash will form (or if they will at all). There are various other buds along the stems, which I think will all eventually turn into flowers but what I really want is squash. I'm hoping that the flowers are indicators that the squash is coming.