{"id":34,"date":"2010-09-08T14:21:30","date_gmt":"2010-09-08T18:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=34"},"modified":"2010-09-08T15:23:54","modified_gmt":"2010-09-08T19:23:54","slug":"failure-of-shrubs-and-trees-to-bloom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2010\/09\/08\/failure-of-shrubs-and-trees-to-bloom\/","title":{"rendered":"Failure of Shrubs and Trees to Bloom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It is usually quite difficult to determine why a shrub or tree fails to bloom. Most often the problem is the plant\u2019s health, related to weather or environmental factors. Sometimes, the gardener has grown the plant poorly. Here are the seven leading causes:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>High much nitrogen?<\/strong> The nitrogen to      carbohydrate ratio (C:N) is a common fault. Too much nitrogen fertilizer      encourages vegetative growth at the expense of flower production. Withholding      nitrogen (particularly lawn fertilizer) application prior to bloom is the remedy.      Root pruning around the shrub or tree\u2019s drip line maybe another      alternative.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Soil nutrition?<\/strong> A deficiency of      phosphorus in the soil will inhibit blooming. To correct, dig a shallow      trench around the plant. For each 3 feet of soil removed from the ditch,      thoroughly mix a cupful of super-phosphate, or 2 cups of bonemeal, or a      cupful of 0-20-20 into the dug soil and return to the soil.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Sun or shade?<\/strong> Shrubs and      trees, which prefer a sunny location, fail to bloom in shade. Shade loving      plants bloom more heavily in sunny locations, but plant health may decline      afterward.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Plant spacing?<\/strong> Competition among      nearby tree and shrub roots for moisture and nutrients may discourage      blooming. Do not crowd plants.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Planting depth?<\/strong> If trees,      shrubs or perennials are planted too deeply, the roots may lack water and      oxygen.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Time of pruning?<\/strong> Pruning at the      wrong time of the year may deter flower bud initiation or remove flower      buds already formed. As a general rule, prune summer flowering trees and      shrubs in late winter and spring bloomers within 4 weeks after petals fall.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Root sucker and shoot sprout removal?<\/strong> Vigorous root sucker      and sprout growths around the plant base or densely thick on branches reduce      flower bud initiation. Prune off sucker and sprout growths anytime that      you see them.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is usually quite difficult to determine why a shrub or tree fails to bloom. Most often the problem is the plant\u2019s health, related to weather or environmental factors. Sometimes, the gardener has grown the plant poorly. Here are the seven leading causes: High much nitrogen? The nitrogen to carbohydrate ratio (C:N) is a common [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,8,9,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions\/67"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}