In article , Steve
Harris writes
I'm growing:

Courgette: "Zucchini"
Butternut Squash: (from Argentina via Tesco)
Cobnut

There have been very few flowers and all(?) of them male. The female
bits get to about an inch and wither.

They are in nice composty ground, fed, watered and sunny.

I don't think it's just the lousy summer as I've seen huge courgettes on
the allotments about 1/4 mile away.

Male flowers - just a flower
Female flowers - like the male, but they have an embryo squash on the
back. And presumably the sexual bits are different - I haven't looked
that closely.

To encourage cross pollination, they tend to produce males flowers
earlier and female flowers later (though overlapping).

a) Patience
b) when you have an undoubted female flower, take a male flower which
has abundant pollen, and stuff it nose down into the female flower.
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"