They have come up in two places in my big rose garden at work, grrrrrr. I pull and I pull, and I spray roundup, they will not die.....Not my favorite plant at all.
You do make me laugh.. Well, now we just wait for 6 months as the two beans grow longer and fatter, and I keep looking for more flower pods to grow. Planted two more and ordered one more to grow.
OK, update....
Out of five flowers, I ended up with two that will turn into vanilla beans. Now the long wait, they stay on the vine for at least 6 months before I get to start the long harvesting process. Also waiting to see if more flower pods come out.
Too funny.....Well, the second flower I thought I did good on, fell off, stem and all, so no good. Did the 3rd one very easy, so fingers crossed. Two more coming up so far.
No, thats what all the videos say, the flower is only open for a few hours in the morning, then its done. So you only have a small window to pollinate, and you have to get inside it to do it.
I use a toothpick to slowly lift up a little flap, then fold it back down over the pollen. I watched videos to see how to do it. Had to rip open the flower to get to the inner parts.
Well, happy and sad news.....two flowers opened, and I broke the first one trying to pollinate it(grrrrr, I need a drink), and think I got the second one done. Two more to come, then the long wait till I can harvest and start the next long process, but still fun.
YES!!! It takes 3 years to get flowers, then many months for the pods to cure into usable vanilla, haven't really looked at the part yet, grew 4 plants, one didn't make it, and one is very thin, not doing as good as the other two. Grew up and down on trellises, have only one pod so far.