Frustrated by a plant that won't bloom?
Below are some reasons why plants and trees do not bloom for you. Check them out to see if there is something you can do before you lose patience and dig them up.
Water Stress
A plant that is consistently and repeatedly under watered is going to have a hard time producing flowers. Flowers consist mostly of water and if water is in short supply that could cause few, if any flowers.
A plant can get adequate water and still not bloom. Bougainvillea is one of those plants. If it stays moist it will grow foliage but not bloom. This particular plant needs water stress to bloom!
Shrubs and Trees Grown From Seed
Plants or trees grown from seed will not bloom as early as those grown from cuttings. This tends to be the problem with magnolia trees. If the magnolia tree is grown from a cutting it will produce flowers from a fairly early age. If grown from seed it will take a much longer time to bloom. This also occurs with other trees and shrubs. This is really not an issue with annuals.
You can't know when you purchase your trees and shrubs if they are grown from a cutting or seed but it it would be unusual, today, to buy nursery grown trees and shrubs grown from seed.
Insects
Insects such as aphids, red spider, mealy bugs, lacebugs and borers can put a plant or tree in such a stressful situation that it would not be able to produce flowers.
Disease
Disease is a stress factor that can inhibit a plant from blooming. Diseases such as powdery mildew can destroy new growth which would not leave the plant or tree with the ability to produce flowers until the disease is under control. That happens to crepe myrtles quite often.
Lack of Proper Light
If a plant is in a situation where it is not getting enough light it will produce fewer flowers than it is capable of. It takes a lot of energy to produce flowers. Sunlight is an important factor in that process and if the proper light requirements are not being met the plant will not meet it's it's full flowering potential.
Overfertilization
If the soil nitrogen content is high a plant may stay in a vegetative state and not produce flowers which is it's reproductive state. That sometimes happens to tomatoes that are newly planted and heavily fertilized. They sometimes grow rapidly and will not produce flowers. It is better to wait until the tomato is flowering to start feeding it.
Improper Pruning
Many plants bloom on the new growth. If they bloom in only one season and they are pruned just before their bloom period you would not see any blooms that year. A good example would be azaleas. Most azaleas bloom in Spring and if you prune in Fall and the plant does not have a chance to establish new growth and have time to initiate bud development you would miss those Spring flowers.
Perennials can get crowded and every few years will need to be divided and replanted. If you do not divide they tend to flower sporadically.
Varietal Differences
Every plant species has a multitude of varieties. There can be flowering differences of weeks or months between varieties in the same family of plants.
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