Just the back yard!? Nah, I want the front and side yards landscaped in natives too.



Sunday, April 17, 2011

Helping Nature Along

The other day I was walking--visiting the various trees and shrubs I've put in over the years. Our first spring here, I added three hazelnut seedlings. Last year, the one produced one cluster of nuts that something ate before they ripened and I could get to them. I had only noticed the catkins last year, but this year, while checking out the hazelnut closest to the house (about 50 ft away from the back door), I noticed tiny red flowers--and realized they must be the female flower and the catkin, the male. (I really hadn't thought much about it until that point.)

The shrub in our back yard has only two female flowers, so I decided to grab a catkin from the other shrub to try to see if I could help pollinate the two (this is normally done by the wind for this shrub). We'll see if I was successful or not later in the season. :)


female flower


female flower and male catkin (right)

2 comments:

PlantsofChicagoRegion said...

Amazing I love this shrub
I sort of wish i'd taken a frag of that remnant one I collected that still had a male catkin...
hopefully they come in later on though

David said...

I noticed the hazelnut on your blog. I'm sure they will produce flowers soon...maybe next year.

Last year, mine did produce a couple nuts...self-pollinated, I believe. The other two hazelnuts hadn't made any flowers. So, your lone shrub should be able to self-pollinate. I think.