I have the same problem with my zucchinis -- the female flowers come on first with tiny zucchinis attached, but they never open and there are no male flowers. The plants are healthy (planted from seed from a local reputable seed company) and have no powdery mildew or insect damage that I can see. My question: Should I pinch off at least a few of the too many female flowers to lessen that stress on the plant to see if it might help more male flowers catch up? Also, I read somewhere that pinching out some of the outside stems that have no flowers, to sort of force new growth of stems that supposedly will tend to have the opposite gender of flowers. Any truth to this?

It had been in a bigger pot since I got it as a band in Sept, 2007. I planted it in Jan, 2008, and this photo was taken on 2/8/08. So it was pretty little but not a band. A month later it had a flower bud on it. Interestingly, with the same clusters of leaves and a bud at the end of the cane. I guess that's just how it gets going. It still has these short thin canes. It put out 2 or 3 big basal canes last year and several thin laterals in the top third. The posts are 8' tall, so I'd say her growth is about 11' at this point. I'm going to have to put a couple brackets on those posts toward the garage for her to climb on. Sherry

Hi Planto, Sounds like you have a plant that is not the one some of us were suggesting. Could be, it is from another grower, not Optimara. Diana, I have Little Hopi Girl II, it is definitely a mini and came from a florist locally who gets them from O and only sells minis. Were you going to order one for yourself? I bought three of them. It is a very strong plant. One died because the florist did not take care of it. After the other two finished blooming, I put them into larger pots, not knowing that is not recommended for a mini. Each of the other two promptly developed three crowns, so I separated them. I gave three to my club members and sent one away to a new home. I kept the other two, which are now blooming again. The club liked it and ordered some for themselves, but one had solid purple blooms on one side and the deep pink with fantasy on the other side. Anyway, I would recommend it, as a strong plant. If mine develop multiple crowns again, will let you know. It looks much better as a single crown plant and was not blooming when it had three heads. My theory is that because the two separated crowns are from the same plant, they have the exact same bloom cycle. The blooms when closed are dark purple, but when they open, the pink is dominant. By the way, regarding the photo that you i.d. for Planto, could it be another O, such as Rebecca, that has a deeper color? The photo on my monitor is a darker blue. Or do you know if it is only Manitoba that has the little dent at the top? Interesting about the little notches, will have to notice more on one I have that I think is Manitoba when it blooms again. Joanne This post was edited by fortyseven on Sun, Apr 6, 14 at 22:58

Thank you everyone for your input. I will share some of my experiences. When I moved into my home 5 years ago and first got into gardening, I heard about this main garden tour that is run here through the local newspaper, free to the public, anyone can be listed in it - you just write your description and indicate the times and days you are open within the allocated time period. I thought, why not? The good. It was probably one of the most nerve-wracking thing I have ever done, but everyone was so genuinely appreciative as soon as they stepped in the gate, and expressed it. People were astounded at how many gardens in the afore thought 'lower city' were actual gems. I met some truly interesting people along the way, and some became close friends or people I would see regularly during the year throughout the city (one worked at Lowes, and I would make a point of chatting with him whenever I went there). And many people would come up to me out of the blue and tell me they had been to my garden. There was also a woman who responded to my description (I didn't write a straight forward description; it was very artistic). She was the only person who asked me directly what it meant, and then we had a very intimate discussion where we both shared some of the pains and losses we had gone through - it was amazing to connect on that level. The bad. One of the visitors to my garden was a young couple who were quite smitten by these large flexi-glass cones I had placed in my garden, which I had gotten from my former workplace. They went on and on about them, and literally insisted I sell them two, they wouldn't leave unless I did. This was when there were already a large number of people coming, going and asking me other questions, and I was on my own, felt a bit overwhelmed. I more or less said why don't you just take them now, and you could come back another day and give me some money for them. Oh yeah, they were giddy, they would definitely do that they said, I could trust them...never saw them again. Honestly, I had more than enough of those cones and they weren't a cost to me; it was the principle above all else. It was disappointing to come up against low brows when everyone else was so respectful. The ugly. Sadly, I found from the get-go the organization of the event to be a mess, with no support for you as a person who is volunteering your garden. When I first did it, I had absolutely no idea what i was doing - so I asked a few questions via email to the person coordinating it. No response. After a few emails, I phoned and left a few messages. No response. Ended up winging it as best I could. Found out later that I was not unique in this; many people experienced the same thing. Even the regulars would be trying to get answers to questions - like what the dates might be for the year so they can plan around it - no response. Some people were sympathetic, because "it's just that one person coordinating". And I appreciate the difficulties of organization, I have lived and worked it! But I found out that over the years, people were very interested in helping out, but the person coordinating - no response. So I'm calling BS on that. And that's just the tip of the iceberg, but you get the picture.