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?

wangshan - those are beautiful lilacs!!!! Yes, it may take some time but your little babies should bloom one day. Sometimes they end up blooming earlier than if you tried starting a plant from seed. All of you in the MW have been under the influence of some chilly weather lately and I think a few days of warm will pop the buds - and if not that, they will gradually open and you'll actually have a longer bloom period out of them. My Miss Kim came out all at once last week, literally overnight, for the first time since I've had her (about 7 years). Usually she's slow to open flowers, with one or two fully opening a day. But we had a bunch of very sunny dry days in the upper 70° Fs and that popped her fully open in a day. Since both of my lilacs are permanently in containers and not in full sun, they have come out a bit later than the ones in the ground. But even then, my Miss Kim is at least a week ahead of her usual bloom schedule due to the mild winter and no late frosts. My James McFarlane hasn't fully opened buds yet, although I noticed 1 panicle opening now. Wow that wafting fragrance is great though!!!!

Hi guys thanks for all your help- I am not going to repost in the other forum at this time b/c I think I got some very good information here. I went to walmart today and they were out of cactus mix. Sigh. They did have a bag of perlite tho- but I wanted to check with you guys first if this is the correct thing to buy, and if so- what do I do with it. I have a bag of miracle grow potting soil- I am assuming I need to mix these two together. I also have some small gravel- about bean sized. I plan to put him in a terra cotta pot since plastic holds the water and doesn't breath. I could use some instructions on the dirt mix tho- and as an aside- I purchased a succulent that needs to be repotted- do I use the same type of soil for him? I also have two lemon trees I grew from seed that I wanted to put into citrus mix, however they didn't even carry that this year. No they don't ever grow lemons, sometimes they flower but that's ok- the leaves smell really nice.

I agree with Brooke.. that was my first thought.. I bet you are going to come out tomorrow to see a beautiful, nicely opened bloom. I have several that start the opening process - seem to go into a holding pattern for the rest of the day, only to be fully open when I go out at the break of dawn. Be sure to post another picture of it.. looks pinkish Shelly