Dice,
Many thanks for the advice. I am a day late, but I think I will try one more go at the pollination today on this first attempt. I'm a little concerned that I may have chosen blossoms which are a bit too immature.
There's no sign of any swelling yet. I did lose the pistil on one of them, which I guess is toast. I did two flowers for each female parent, but as a complete novice it's pretty clear that the delicate pistil is easy to damage in the process. (The pistils on Fiaschetto are most delicate of all - really long and as thin as thread!)
Maybe my choice to cross the most mature flower on a new cluster was not the best. Only one of those clusters has matured and opened a second blossom, the others are still immature. So I may have misjudged the readiness of the first flower, if what I read is correct (they say the flowers will open one day after another.. I should pay more attention! as I should know if this is really true or not). I did two from the same cluster on MD and STU, and clipped and tagged them. Next time I'll follow your lead and look for a cluster with three nearly mature, that might be a better indicator that the right stage is present in at least one of em.
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