Here is a close-up of the blossom.

One last image: This is the shriveled crooked neck. Can you tell by looking, whether it has been visited by my bees?

Do you have both male and female flowers in bloom? Without both your plant will not produce mature zucchini fruits. To tell the difference between the two flowers; female flowers grow a small zucchini immediately behind the flower. Male flowers do not (just a slender stem). If you have both flowers in bloom just take a cotton swab and transfer pollen from one male flower to a female flower. Simple process that guarantees fertilization.

It looks like it's too late if the flowers fall off

This post was edited by ann_in_houston on Tue, Jun 11, 13 at 0:42

Agree. You have to have both male and female flowers for the bees pollinate the females. The picture doe not show female flowers. Maybe it is the angle of the camera.

Female flowers have a small fruit attaché to the flower but males do not have one.

I'll just have to look, tomorrow. Thank you. I just trusted the bees. I don't know why they wouldn't do it. Don't all the plants have both male and female flowers?

Many plants in the home garden do not have separate male and female flowers (tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers, eggplants, potatoes, beans, okra). They have both sex organs (or whatever you call it) on each flower. So they're pretty much self-pollinating.

Squash, cucumbers, watermelons, etc. have separate flowers, as stated. I didn't see any female flowers in your picture. Might be that they haven't come in yet. I usually see many male flowers before I see my first female flower.

Here is a link that might be useful: How to tell the difference between male and female flowers

There's no way to tell if the flower was pollinated by looking at the blossom. The ones that fell off were probably from the male flowers. There's a photo here of the two different blossoms. You can also tell the difference by looking at the stem end. The female squash plant will have a little fruit already formed before being pollinated. If it's not pollinated, the fruit will remain tiny. If it is pollinated, it will get large very quickly.

Here is a link that might be useful: Zucchini blossoms

I agree with what was said above...I only see male flowers in your pictures. I have crookneck squash plants too and even my first pollinated female flower (I know it was pollinated because I did it myself) fail to grow into a fruit. I was disappointed but as long as that isn't the case every time, I'm assuming it's normal. When you see a female flower, you'll know!

Thanks so much. I'm starting to get the full picture now. I also saw a pic elsewhere on the web, that makes the female with the fruit on it more plain. I feel like I know now what to look for. Thank goodness for you folks on GW