I might be interested in trading with you. I had 1 each, male and female, hardy kiwi at my last home. I never got any fruit either, though the variegated leaf on the male was beautiful! Is yours variegated? I don't have any fruit trees or blueberry bushes. I DO have Zebra grass (Miscanthus Zebrinus), Maiden Grass (Graziella), Northern Sea oats, Red Switch Grass (Panicum virgatum Rotstrahlbusch) and Fountain Grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides) I could get nice starts from all of these but some of them are much younger grasses than others. The Maiden and Zebra are limited only by what I can dig/ship. Thanks, Pat

Let me start by saying I live near Florida's panhandle where it seldom gets below freezing more than a week or two each year. I've recently bought kiwi purchased from Lowe's for a second time.. The first time, the kiwi grew quickly and had fruit after the 3rd year.. The vines are very robust and will quickly consume a trellis or fence area and after about 5 years they actually got to the point that they were too large and in the way so I had to remove them. I never bothered separating the vines, but made sure the majority of them had room to run. A couple of sturdy poles with wire, rope or clothes line placed 15 to 20 ft apart makes a satisfactory home for the vines. Our soil here isn't the best (mostly clay) so I kept the young plants watered well until they were established and let Mother Nature take care of the watering after that. They are a hardy and fast growing vine in the summer so give some thought to where you plant them. I recently bought more plants and planted them where they won't be in the way this time.

It's normal for males to dominate before females start to bloom. Even then you will see pretty much one female to every ten males. To the poster who thinks his male flowers are dying off: all pumpkin flowers bloom for only a few hours every morning before they die off. As for not cutting the male flowers, I disagree. I've been growing pumpkins going on ten years now and if there are no female flowers to pollinate, then I will cut the male flowers just before they start to shrivel. I've yet to get a diseased plant doing this. I cut the male flowers because they are delicious to eat. So if you don't get pumpkins, you can enjoy cooking and eating the male flowers throughout the growing season. I cut off the stem, gently rinse them under cold water and saute them after dredging through a thin whole-wheat pancake batter - yum! BTW. I should mention that pumpkins are very difficult to hand pollinate. You'r e better off putting out bee loving flowers early in the season in order to get your location established on the honey bees routes. Ants do a pretty good job also, so if you see ants around your pumpkin vines, then do not try to exterminate them. If you do want to hand pollinate, then use a very soft artists brush and lightly stroke the pistol of a male plant (you should not see tons of pollen - in this case a little is too much), then lightly stroke the stamen of the female plant (again a little is too much). Even then you are not likely to succeed with hand pollination.

They aren't mine - they grow on the campus where I work. As you can see the "fruit" is tiny and it's a dry capsule I believe, so doesn't seem to create any visible mess, just changes the look of the bare branches in winter. Until I took a good look at them one day when they were leafless, they were indistinguishable. In fall the color and scent are lovely, and they are attractive trees but not spectacular the rest of the year. I am more fond of the weeping forms and would choose one of them for my own yard. I prefer the clean look of the males, but if you prefer the female winter look, check to see if any of the smaller forms are female. I don't think it should be as important as the size and form, however.