Hazelnuts

I took this photo at the end of September, but never got around to posting it.  After stumbling across it today, I remembered Rebecca's question about an earlier picture and decided I'd put off posting this long enough.  

I finally was able to harvest some hazelnuts and see what they look like when they are mature.  Last year, a deer munched on the immature, developing husk and nut...long before it would've ripened.  So, this year, I harvested several early, and then came across these mature ones.  I tasted some and left the rest for wildlife.  Next year, there should be a lot more!

I believe these are the male catkins...I don't have photos of the female flower buds, but I'd like to assume with so many male catkins ready to overwinter, there must be a lot of the female flower buds that will bloom come spring.  Time will tell.

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)

Hazelnuts

I had another pleasant surprise today. It was a comfortably cool evening and while walking my paths, I stopped at the hazelnut shrub. This is its third summer in the ground here--but was probably a 3 year old seedling when I put it in (if memory serves). As I was checking out the new growth where the deer had trimmed it back a little, I notice what I quickly realized seem to be the nuts starting to form! I knew that it bloomed in the spring, but I only saw the male catkins and no female flowers, so I was shocked to see the nuts! I'm thrilled. I hope I get to taste them before the wildlife gets them, but if they get them first it is okay, that is one big reason why I planted them anyway.



Sorry for the dark pictures, the sun had just about set.

More Flowers

After the snails, bugs, and slugs post, I thought I'd post some things that are more traditionally considered beautiful: