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Distinguishing flower buds from spent flowers forming fruit

Rick (zone 6b, MA)

8 years ago

last modified: 8 years ago

I wasn't sure where to put this discussion as it applies just as well to perennials.

As a fairly new flower gardener, as I walk around the garden to perform my deadheading tasks, I often struggle to distinguish a flower bud from a spent flower head where the fruit has begun forming. The structure of a developing fruit/ripening ovary can look similar to the structure of a bud. On those plants which I'm well acquainted with, I can fairly easily distinguish them as I've learned from experience. But with others I struggle. Two examples from my garden come to mind: hibiscus and bachelor's button. Yes, there are some clues: the buds look fresher and lighter, whereas the ripening fruits have more brown and are less delicate. But there are many visual similarities as well.

It would be interesting to create a web page where a newcomer can see close-up shots of BEFORE and AFTER of many common flowers.

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Comments (5)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
8 years ago
in spring they are flower buds... moving into fall.. the are seed heads ...

one of the problems.. with both of your examples .. is that there are multiple plants under those common names ... i suspect.. if you get the latin ID and use it in google images... you will get pix of seed heads ...

i dont understand your example.. of not telling an apple bloom from an apple???

i am not focused yet ... but i am going to have to figure out.. an annual hibiscus .... i am thinking annual and tropical right now ....

ken
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
8 years ago
ok rick.. i think i got it... an hour later.. lol ...

are you wanting to harvest seeds???

if so ... seed pods need to mature.. and open naturally ... before harvest ...

if you are trying to harvest early ... then you may not be getting mature seed ...

so you keep observing.. until you start to see them browning.. usually... and starting to open ... and then you harvest ...

and if what you are seeing is opening to a flower ... well ... lol

long ago.. and far away ... i was learning... like you.. the power of observation was all i had.. as there was no web to look all these things up.. and i wasnt running to the library everyday ...

keep on learning dude!

ken
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arlene_82 (zone 6 OH)
8 years ago
As Ken mentioned, there are a few types of plants that can be commonly referred to as Bachelor Buttons, so I have no idea if this is the same as the one you're asking about, and I don't have the genus and species of this one.

Here is a flower just recently blown. It leaves a small and slightly elongated brown tip.

Blown flower without petals:

Blown flower side by side with about-to-open bud (please forgive the macro shot of my wrinkly white knuckles). Tough to tell without blown up photos, but the trick is to look right at the tip I would say. I have no hibiscus; perhaps someone else can post examples of that one.
Rick (zone 6b, MA) thanked arlene_82 (zone 6 OH)
Rick (zone 6b, MA)
Original Author
8 years ago
[a week later...] Arlene_82, THANK YOU for this. This is exactly what I'm talking about. When deadheading, it's so important to have a sharp eye for this, and your placing the bachelor button bud side by side with the blown flower in this photo here is exactly what I need. (Yes: it's this Centaurea cyanus that I'm talking about.) The bud and the blown flower or ripening fruit can look remarkably similar, but the browning on the tip of the blown bachelor button here is the giveaway. I wish there were a website database of exactly these kinds of pairs.

Another one I struggled with is "Brights Lights Cosmos” (Cosmos sulphureus). Here's the opened flower, with the composite head clearly evident:

This is clearly a bud just beginning to open:

Opening a bit more, the sepals opening and giving way to the petals:

But what about this from the same plant? Is it a flower opening or closing? Cosmos is of course a member of the composite family with multiple flowers per head, so are these protruding pistils coming out as the flower is about to open or are they remnants as the flower is closing? I'd say it's just opening, and the individual flowers inside the head seem to open before the petals of the larger flower open.

Ditto with this. I used to think this was a spent bloom, the petals already spun off, but now I suspect it may
be a halfway stage between bud and opened flower, the pistils of each
individual flower of the composite head protruding before the outside petals
arrive.

I'm sure I just need to study this more. Maybe I should put a rubber band over a stem where I see an obvious bud and then come back to it every day from start to finish and see what they all look like.

Frustrating, but mostly fun.
Rick (zone 6b, MA)
Original Author
8 years ago
I think Hibiscus is the one I was struggling most with. I'm pretty sure now that this is a bud:

Clearly an opening bud, a few days later:

and this is the fruit:

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