Potato flowers question

[Digeroo]

My main crops Desiree and Mayan Gold are now flowering, but not my earlies.  Do I need to wait for my earlies to flower before I start digging?

My earlies are Annabelle, I cannot remember whether they flowered last year.  I think they simply got the blight and keeled over.  It was something of a surprise when I found I had a good crop.  It was sometime later when I dug the area that I found the spuds safe and sound.

I also have Elizabeth ordered Annabelle but they were unavailable, got the real Annabelle later from a different source.  They are not flowering either. 

[Digeroo]

[cornykev]

My earlies have only just started to flower in the last few days and they were planted very early March, my Charlottes are in full bloom and planted 5 weeks later. Not all earlies flower Digeroo, I'm not sure which do and which don't. They are ready to dig after about 15 weeks when they flower but if your not sure have a firlke around and see if they're ready. I had my first taster Saturday, very nice they were to.     

[Digeroo]

I cannot remember when I planted them.  Sometime in April it was so cold in March.  Some were badly frosted while I was on hols, so expecting them to be late, but over by the hedge things were slightly warmer.   So seems that I should not be expecting them until at least mid July. 

I have just started a packet of boughten ones so I shall leave them until that is finished.

I had not realized that some potatoes did not produce flowers or produced them later.  It seems so odd that the main crops are flowering so much.

[galina]

Yes Annabelle do flower.  Here is some information:
http://varieties.potato.org.uk/display_description.php?variety_name=Annabelle

[antipodes]

I find that most earlies do not flower. My Belle de Fontenay are ready but not flowering, while the red potatoes I put in as seconds are already in Flower. They were all planted in March, so your earlies may not yet be ready.

[Digeroo]

It was very cold here in March so I am fairly sure I did not get the spuds in until April.  We had a very hard frost on 15th May so they all got something of a setback.  I was on hols, so I was not there to rush down with newspaper,  fleece or plastic etc or earth them up.

Annabelle do flower

But it will be a race to see if the blight gets there first.

I thought that flowers were a sign the potatoes were ready, so looks like I need to have a quick dig and see if there is anything ready to eat yet.