Plants are blooming ... without flowers :(

[kap]

Three months ago I planted three bushes of mums. They get watered every other day in addition to the sporadic rain. They are looking very good with fresh green foliage but no flowers! What am I missing?

[yeoman]

Too much water.

[kanesa]

http://landscaping.about.com/od/landscap...hemums.htm

pinching and fertilizing

[AlphaDog]

They can't be "blooming without flowers." They're just growing a lot! Have you been feeding them? If so, you might want to check the nutrient balance of what you're using, because some fertilizers encourage foliage growth through delivery of a lot of nitrogen. Too much nitrogen can cause the plant to produce too much greenery and not have enough energy to produce blooms. Also, mums don't bloom until late summer here. Are you sure they should be developing blooms yet? I honestly don't know, since I've never lived in California. I know the growing conditions are different, but I don't know just how different.

[iaJim]

In the midwest mums bloom in the fall.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

If they did not have blooms on them when you planted, many types will bloom after August. If you have a type that is supposed to bloom in the Spring, they might be busy establishing themselves and/or they were not getting enough sun during the time the blooms would have set. What is the soil pH? Do you have a nutrient analysis? I would apply a high phosphorous fertilizer along the lines of bone meal to encourage blooms if they still do not bloom in the fall.

Edit: a good short page on fertilizers.
http://www.donnan.com/fert.htm

[kap]

Filliam H. Muffman wrote:
If they did not have blooms on them when you planted, many types will bloom after August. If you have a type that is supposed to bloom in the Spring, they might be busy establishing themselves and/or they were not getting enough sun during the time the blooms would have set. What is the soil pH? Do you have a nutrient analysis? I would apply a high phosphorous fertilizer along the lines of bone meal to encourage blooms if they still do not bloom in the fall.

Edit: a good short page on fertilizers.
http://www.donnan.com/fert.htm

I am not sure what the pH is. At our old house, whatever we planted would bloom beautifully with not much care and attention as long as I regularly watered and fed them with food sticks. There, most of our plants were in the front of the house facing the eastern sun but half of the yard was in the shade ... indirectly sunlight. Here the garden is in the back facing east as well but with full sun.

Thanks for the link and suggestions, everyone.