you do not need 2 trees to get blooms ,,,, when the stars are right and they feel like it ,,they just begin ,,the older they get the more they bloom ... they bloom better after a little drougth stress ,, too much water and fertilizer makes rampant leaf growth at the expense of flowerbuds ,,, they bloom on older wood, rather than the young strong growth or right after pruning in drier places they tend to bloom before the leaves appear ( California ) in Florida and Texas , they bloom after the leaves come out

Diane, I have seen similar behavior two years in a row. The first time was 2 years ago. My original female had successfully fledged two broods and had four chicks six days old when a new female appeared, stalked her and actually fought with her until the original female left. The new female then followed Papa around, wing-waving and going wherever he went. He rebuffed her and even attacked her for three days. She tried repeatedly to get into the nestbox but Papa wouldn't permit it. Then, he accepted her and she proceeded to kill the chicks. Several were pecked to death and I found one alive in the grass, about 25 feet from the nestbox. I put it back but they refused to feed it and the next day the nest was empty. The new female then built a nest and successfully fledged four chicks. This new female stayed with Papa over the winter and the last year they successfully raised two more broods. Then, when she had five eggs in her third nest, a new female showed up and chased her off. Papa reacted much as he had before. I watched and waited for several days to see if the first one would return. When Papa finally accepted her she began building a new nest on top of the five eggs. The prior brood was still hanging around and they would beg from the new female the same as they would from Papa. When they did she would ignore them. If they persisted, she would fly up in their face and as soon as they were weaned, they were chased away. Dave

Hello, Pictures would really help to narrow this down. You are saying it looks like they are being bitten off and then you mention discoloration and the presence of ants. You may have many things going on here. Discoloration inside blossoms can be due to insects like thrips. Thrips are so small that you could easily miss them. To me they appear to be moving splinters. But, the only pests aside from birds and small mammals that can eat something as big as a melon blossom would seem to be slugs/snails/worms/beetles. I encourage you to put out yellow sticky cards to catch the perpetrator or try to catch them in a spot-light at night. Without a proper ID, it is hard to tell someone what to do about the problem. Because, even if you try to use a remay.....at this point you could just be trapping the pest in with the crop. I also encourage you to research cucumber beetles. Here, They are very destructive pests and are often found inside squash blossoms/cucurbitaceae.

I don't have any experience with estrogen but vaginal ointments would be for dryness, I would think. If it was prescribed for osteoporosis you would think it was be in a low dose oral medication. I always discuss the why and how does it relate to me with doctors. I don't understand how so many just do whatever they are told without questions and understanding exactly why. I'd be concerned that maybe something else happened to you and the estrogen isn't involved. Correlation doesn't mean causation. Did you doctor think the estrogen was involved? It sounds like your primary just brushed off your concerns and kicked the problem down to the gyno. I would be looking for a new doctor. I haven't a had a gyno in years. I'm 73. Just my primary who sends us to a specialist if necessary.