Flowering took place several weeks later this year than last year. Not sure why, but there is a strong possibility it is due to a very dry winter here. Meteorologists are calling it a drought, although it wouldn’t resemble what most of the world calls such a thing.
Last week, the rains returned, lucky us, and spring weather is back to it’s soggy normal here. For us, these flowers mark the beginning of typically eight weeks of early-morning trips to the vines to do the pollination. Flowering in the vanillery was slow to get started, but it looks like it’s going to be good. This is the first year we expect to get a decent harvest out of it, and it’s going get better every year for several years.