Smoke tree

[trytogarden]

I have a smoke tree that has never bloomed - what am I doing wrong?

[hendi_alex]

I planted two smoke trees near one another and at the same time. One has bloomed for two seasons now and the other has never bloomed. The two trees, while definitely smoke trees, look quite a bit different. The one that hasn't bloomed is undersized compared to the blooming tree. I expect that when the smaller tree catches up that it will begin to bloom. But who knows. Both have been in the ground about five or six years now.

[rainbowgardener]

How long have you had it? Do you prune it? Is it in full sun? Is it in a lawn?


Smoke trees really like a lot of sun. My church has two smoke trees planted on opposite sides of a walkway way. One of them gets a couple hours a day more sun and is twice as big and blooms more profusely.

They also like to be pruned. Once I decided to cut the big one back to match the small one. It responded so well to the pruning that it was rapidly twice as big again. But prune it right after it is finished blooming, otherwise you could be pruning next year's buds off.

Too much nitrogen fertilizer can lead to lots of growth but no blooming. That happens when they are planted in a lawn that is fertilized. Fertilizer for grass is high nitrogen, because for grass all you care about is the leafy growth.

Also the smoke trees like to be well drained, not too wet.

[trytogarden]

It is in mostly sun and in a lawn - we don't fertilize our lawn so there's no problem there.

To prune it, do you cut it right back or just cut some back? Also, on some branches there are "little twigs" growing out of the end - should these be cut off?