I wouldn't try growing Butternut so far north. They require more warmth than the Peops or Maximas. I can grown them down here in Western Oregon and have a fine tasty crop. But I cannot fully ripen them with a hard shell needed for long term storage. Freezing only. I would think it would be worse for your climate, but maybe you get more warmth and less clouds, I don't know. I would recommend growing Delicatas. They're a Pepo and ripen in a quite timely manner up north. I have found that they do store quite well too, just not quite as long as a well-finished Maxima.

Sorry Karyn. The first pic is a male flower. If you use a magnifying glass, you'll see there is a yellow "powdery" material on the ends of the anthers. The male flower will begin with, usually, yellow ball-like structures which will mature and become fuzzy or powdery; sometimes they don't mature and just fall off as small yellow balls. OK, let's not allow our minds to get off topic, here, this is a "G-rated" site!!!! The second pic is a female and is typical of Euphorbia female flowers in that it has 3 stigma to its pistil. The third pic is a very immature female flower.

fawnridge, very funny! I agree with Mike Jaramillo. Shake them both, and you can see the pollen fall from the males. The same thing applies to Mediterranean Fan Palms. I have a male and female Med. palm I have pollinated by hand, and had lots of babies!

i have had a few papaya with no seeds, or just a couple of seeds. it happens on occassion, usually the first 2-3 fruit from the tree. Papaya sex is a strange thing. it depends a lot on the variety, but, some trees can have male, female and hermaphrodite flowers all at the same time. i have grown over 2 dozen trees to maturity, and have never seen a male tree... i have seen several male flowers, but, on trees that also had herm and/or female flowers i have never had a tree that did not produce fruit due to not having a pollinator. They always seem to have at least one or more HERM flowers. But, like i said, that is dependent on the variety. Most of mine are from store bought fruit, or, my fruit. (Caribbean red) a few are Red Lady if you really need to, you can "stress" the plant chopping the top 2 inches off, or driving a small nail in the trunk often with change the sex (usually to a herm)