Pawpaws' Progress

I've been busy with work but I've wanted to post some pictures of how the pawpaws are doing, as they're flowering. (These pics are from today.) Soon I'll want to go out there and use a paint brush to help them all get good and pollinated. Meantime, take a look at the blossoms. The Wells blooms first and has the most blossoms (it's older than the rest). And then the Shenandoah and KSU-Atwood follow the Wells, And then the unimproved pawpaw lags behind. It's clock is slower. It wakes up later in the spring and stays up later in the autumn. I think the only way to get it pollinated by the others will be to take a paint brush to the three cultivars, get the paint brush good and polliny, and then save the polliny paint brush for a few weeks until the late blooming pawpaw's flowers open. And then, well, use the polliny paint brush on the late blooming flowers.

If I were to make a song about this cultivar with all its flowers on it, I would title the song "Well's Bells," with apologies to the band AC/DC (which just announced today that Axl Rose will become its lead singer for awhile; whut?)

It wasn't a bright day today, so the color of the flowers isn't very intense. But even when it's a bright day, the color isn't very intense from several feet away. The tree looks like it's covered in black  bells.

But you get a little closer and the colors brighten up.

A really nice green and purple.

Still looking at the Wells.

Here's the Shenandoah blossoming. Strange how crepey the petals look, which isn't how the Wells or the KSU-Atwood petals look.

Here's the KSU-Atwood.

And then the last two shots are of the tardy sticks and incipient blooms of the unnamed pawpaw.