Journal February 4, 2016 - Olive trees budding

In September of 2014 a cutting was struck from the Ascolano olive tree, this turned out to be the very first olive cutting that I had taken that actually rooted.  The photo above shows the mother plant and the cutting in 2014.  At that time I named the little plant El Primo, Italian for first, as it is an Italian variety and it was my first successful cutting.

The above photo, taken this morning, shows El Primo 17 months after being struck.  While examining the plants this morning I was absolutely dumbfounded to see flower buds forming on the cutting.  

The mother plant, also shown above, is one of my most developed plants, yet it has never flowered.  

It is a mystery to me why the cutting would flower while the parent did not, considering that they are growing side by side,  under the same growing conditions in the same soil mixture.

Go figure.