On a warm July morning, a tomato flower can look too small for the job ahead of it. Five yellow petals bend backward around a pointed center. The flower hangs from a hairy green stem, facing slightly down, while the plant puts most of its visual effort into leaves and swelling fruit. Then a bumblebee arrives, grips the yellow cone,…
hand pollination
A squash blossom is not a flower that lingers. It opens like a little lantern in the cool part of the morning, spends its best hours in the company of bees, and by afternoon begins to fold, soften, and give itself back to the plant. If you walk the vegetable garden at breakfast, the flowers look generous. If you wait…

