Flowers, 2016

[just.wing.it]

@Wilson nice avatar!
I always think of that Wilson and Wilson from the many Phish songs...whenever I hear that name.

 

[defra]

@petegreg i wonder what if the plant is grown in a greenhouse and it thinks its spring ? is that possible?

also here in the netherlands the weather is acting strange lol
one week frost at night and 4 celcius at Day and past week about 10 to 15 celcius at Day and and night some folks here reported some buds shifting on trees and some prunus mume's flowers starting to emerge and magnolia's showing flower buds

 

[Wilson]

Thanks for understanding. But why did it have flowers so late?

Sorry I didn't explain fully my thought process. I plan to repot this spring, and didn't want the tree to use so much energy on flowers. This will be the first repot out of the nursery can, so I wanted the tree to be strong. I might be off base with this, as I lack experience with blooming trees. I wanted to remove the flower buds of next seasons flowers, to avoid the drain of the trees resources. Hopefully I cleared up my earlier posts. Thanks so much for your help, greatly appreciated!

 

[0soyoung]

End of season blooms on a Pieris "Mountain Fire" I also wanted to ask all of you flower fans about cutting this one back. In the photos I shared you can see the smaller leaves below the larger top leaves. Is it ok to cut back to these smaller leaves, now that we are heading into dormant season? I ask, because I am not well versed with these types of flowering trees. I read that people treat them like azaleas, but that still leaves me asking the same question.

Those 'flowers' you cut off were only flower buds. These normally appear this time of year and remain until late-winter/early-spring when they open. They last for two weeks or so and then the little flower petals fall leaving the green 'fish bone'. This is the prime time for hard pruning or pruning for back budding, just like early season azaleas. However, since you already removed all the racemes, you won't get any flowers this coming spring (don't cut off the ones that appear in the fall of 2017 and you will be able to enjoy the flowers in early 2018).

 

[Wilson]

@Wilson nice avatar!
I always think of that Wilson and Wilson from the many Phish songs...whenever I hear that name.

Gotta love the backyard philosopher from Home improvements! When I lived out west I remember the hippies mentioning Wilson in Phish songs.

 

[petegreg]

@petegreg i wonder what if the plant is grown in a greenhouse and it thinks its spring ? is that possible?

also here in the netherlands the weather is acting strange lol
one week frost at night and 4 celcius at Day and past week about 10 to 15 celcius at Day and and night some folks here reported some buds shifting on trees and some prunus mume's flowers starting to emerge and magnolia's showing flower buds

Hi, same strange weather here too, plus a week of "Rain period". Fortunately I can't see any abnormalities on my trees.

I'm sorry, not being a greenhouse grower I am not sure I can answer the Q.

 

[rodeolthr]

Great! I did just remove the flowers before taking the photos of the leaves, so it makes sense what you are saying.

In this climate, the flower buds form on pieris beginning around October and stay on the plant until it blooms in spring, often quite early here. It appears as though you actually may have pruned off next year's flowers.....which isn't necessarily bad for newly acquired plants.

 

[Mellow Mullet]

So

End of season blooms on a Pieris "Mountain Fire" I also wanted to ask all of you flower fans about cutting this one back. In the photos I shared you can see the smaller leaves below the larger top leaves. Is it ok to cut back to these smaller leaves, now that we are heading into dormant season? I ask, because I am not well versed with these types of flowering trees. I read that people treat them like azaleas, but that still leaves me asking the same question. I don't have experience with azaleas either... @Mellow Mullet any advice? I know you have great success with your azaleas!
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Sorry for not seeing this right away, working midnights this weekend and the lab has been particularly busy. I don't have any experience with this plant, but is looks like peter and osoyoung covered it pretty well. I usually prune off the unwanted growth, paying attention to flower buds, on my azaleas this time of year since it is cooler they don't respond with too much growth. If you are not interested in flowers or you have already cut them off, I would prune all the way back to the smaller leaves.

John

 

[Wilson]

So


Sorry for not seeing this right away, working midnights this weekend and the lab has been particularly busy. I don't have any experience with this plant, but is looks like peter and osoyoung covered it pretty well. I usually prune off the unwanted growth, paying attention to flower buds, on my azaleas this time of year since it is cooler they don't respond with too much growth. If you are not interested in flowers or you have already cut them off, I would prune all the way back to the smaller leaves.

John

Thanks John, yes it seems like I should be good to prune back. Since I am repotting/downsizing for the first time in spring, I didn't want the blooms.

 

[just.wing.it]