Waiting for the Ladies!

In the pumpkin world the boys come first! That is, the boy flowers appear on the vine before the female flowers do. That's just the way it is and on my pumpkin vines there a lot of dudes hangin' on the vines!

Like many vegetables, pumpkins produce male and female flowers and just like you and I, the guys and gals must get together to make a baby...(baby pumpkin in this case). But unlike you and I, those flowers can't hop over to one another and start "doin' it on the vine". They need a little help and there's a couple different ways this can happen... 1) Bees can take the pollen from the guy and drop it off with the gal....or 2) You can take the guy flower and swirl him around inside the girl flower, but only with their mutual consent!

You can see one of my pumpkin male flowers blooming in the picture below, all ready to go and waiting for his lady!!