Would love some assistance with poorly blooming pieris japonicas-this year. Last year-spring of 2008-after a landscaping company planted 3 of these in the fall and fertilized-we fertilized in March and these bloomed wonderfully and had the most beautiful fragrance. This year 1 of them has no white flowers and the other 2 have some flowers, but no beautiful fragrance like last year. We have not fertilized yet this year. What are we doing wrong? They have new growth, but just aren't producing the amount of flowers as last year and the wonderful fragrance is gone. Thanks
I'm sure Ron is right -- these things do vary from year to year, and it's often hard to say why. To make a highly non-scientific observation, though ... I'm never surprised when a plant behaves very differently in its second year in the garden. I've always assumed that commercial growers have "pumped" the plant to perform splendidly right out of the nursery. And it seems to me in many cases this must be rather wearying, so to speak, to the plant. So during the next growth cycle the plant more or less settles into its new home, adjusting to the micro-climate and soil conditions and whatever care routine the gardener has devised, all of which are new to it. Gardening is a long-term proposition, especially with woody plants.
Small camellia plants also often confound gardeners by coming from the garden center covered in buds and then not blooming for years afterward in the final planting site. I also think this behavior is due to differences between intensive or well identified fertilization regimes/other methods that commercial growers employ - and the conditions encountered in the customer's garden.
Interesting and valuable discussion. I have bought several shrubs -- weigelas, various different types of forsythia, bridal wreath spirea, a pearlbush [Exochorda] new this year to me, etc., mind you young ones of small size, not so often used here on the West Coast -- from a couple of nurseries on Wain Road in North Saanich, where the stock seems to be more naturally prepared for market [grown there? don't know, maybe at one of them] or acquired from producers who do that... the shrubs seem less "developed" and lush when one purchases them, more realistically "young shrubs", and they come along slowly but surely in the garden patch. The new purchase at first makes the buyer think "will this do anything this year"? Maybe not until next, but the shrubs have not disappointed me which I bought 2 or 3 years ago -- coming along very nicely, including a baby Pieris "Valley Valentine" which this spring is producing a few lovely fronds of rosy-red blooms. I think the larger blooming shrubs one buys from the glossy Lexus-variety nurseries are finished under artificial conditions, and that's why in a neighbourhood where the residents want instant effects you don't see them -- but there they are, in older neighbourhoods where they have always been.
And I forgot to say that my Pieris above did nothing last year re bloom, it was bought the year before with bloom on it... still hasn't grown much, but is definitely on the up-and-up. You know what? I think we have to remember that shrubs take time, they are not instant plants.
